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 'U 
 
 K 
 
THE 
 
 FORTUNES OF NIGEL 
 
 BY 
 
 SIR WALTER SCOTT, Bart, 
 
V 
 
 
THE 
 
 FORTUNES OF NIGEL 
 
 BY 
 
 SIR WALTER SCOTT, Bart. 
 
 Knifegnnder. Story ? Lord bless you I I have none to tell, sir. 
 
 ^ POETKY OF THE ANTIJACOBIN. 
 
 WITH STEEL PLATES FROM DESIGNS BY 
 
 GEORGE CRUIKSHANK, DAVID ROBERTS, AND 
 OTHER ARTISTS 
 
 NEW EDITION, WITH THE AUTHOR'S NOTES 
 
 LONDON AND NEW YORK 
 
 GEORGE ROUTLEDGE & SONS 
 
 1875 
 
LONDON ; 
 DKAUBURY, AGNEW, & CO., J-KINTERS, WHITEFRIARS. 
 
THE 
 
 FORTUNES OF NIGEL 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 But why should lordlings all our praise engross ? 
 Rise, honest man, and sing the Man of Ross. 
 
 Pope. 
 
 Having, in the tale of the Heart of Mid-Lothian, succeeded in 
 some degree in awakening an interest in behalf of one devoid of 
 those accomplishments which belong to a heroine almost by right, 
 I was next tempted to choose a hero upon the same unpromising 
 plan ; and as worth of character, goodness of heart, and rectitude 
 of principle, were necessary to one who laid no claim to high birth, 
 romantic sensibility, or any of the usual accomplishments of those 
 who strut through the pages of this sort of composition, I made 
 free with the name of a person who has left the most magnificent 
 proofs of his benevolence and charity that the capital of Scotland 
 has to display. 
 
 To the Scottish reader . little more need be said than that the 
 man alluded to is George Heriot. But for those south of the 
 Tweed, it may be necessary to add, that the person so named was 
 a wealthy citizen of Edinburgh, and the King's goldsmith, who fol- 
 lowed James to the English capital, and was so successful in his 
 profession, as to die, in 1624, extremely "wealthy for that period. 
 He had no children ; and after making a full provision for such 
 relations as might have claims upon him, he left the residue of his 
 fortune to establish an hospital, in which the sons of Edinburgh 
 freemen are gratuitously brought up and educated for the station 
 to which their talents may recommend them, and are finally enabled 
 to enter life under respectable auspices. The Hospital in which 
 this charity is maintained is a noble quadrangle of the Gothic 
 order, and as ornamental to the city as a building, as the manner 
 in which the youths are provided for and educated, renders it use- 
 
6 INTRODUCTION TO 
 
 ful to the community as an institution. To the honour of those 
 who have the management, (the Magistrates and Clergy of Edin- 
 burgh,) the funds of the Hospital have increased so much under 
 their care, that it now supports and educates one hundred and 
 thirty youths annually, many of whom have done honour to their 
 country in different situations. 
 
 The founder of such a charity as this may be reasonably sup- 
 posed to have walked through life with a steady pace, and an obser- 
 vant eye, neglecting no opportunity of assisting those who were 
 not possessed of the experience necessary for their own guidance. 
 In supposing his efforts directed to the benefit of a young nobleman, 
 misguided by the aristocratic haughtiness of his own time, and the 
 prevailing tone of selfish luxury which seems more peculiar to ours, 
 as well as the seductions of pleasure which are predominant in all, 
 some amusement, or even some advantage, might, I thought, be 
 derived from the manner in which I might bring the exertions of 
 this civic Mentor to bear in his pupil's behalf. I am, I own, no 
 great believer in the moral utility to be derived from fictitious com- 
 positions ; yet, if in any case a word spoken in season may be of 
 advantage to a young person, it must surely be when it calls upon 
 him to attend to the voice of principle and self-denial, instead of 
 that of precipitate passion. I could not, indeed, hope or expect to 
 represent my prudent and benevolent citizen in a point of view so 
 interesting as that of the peasant girl, who nobly sacrificed her 
 family affections to the integrity of her moral character. Still, 
 however, something I hoped might be done not altogether unworthy 
 the fame which George Heriot has secured by the lasting benefits 
 he has bestowed on his country. 
 
 It appeared likely, that out of this simple plot I might weave 
 something attractive ; because the reign of James I., in which 
 George Heriot flourished, gave unbounded scope to invention in 
 the fable, while at the same time it afforded greater variety and 
 discrimination of character than could, with historical consistency, 
 have been introduced, if the scene had been laid a century earlier. 
 Lady Mary Wortley Montague has said, with equal truth and 
 taste, that the most romantic region of every country is that where 
 the mountains unite themselves with the plains or lowlands. For 
 similar reasons, it may be in like manner said, that the most pic- 
 turesque period of history is that when the ancient rough and wild 
 manners of a barbarous age are just becoming innovated upon, and 
 contrasted, by the illumination of increased or revived learning, 
 and the instructions of renewed or reformed rehgion. The strong 
 contrast produced by the opposition of ancient manners to those 
 which are gradually subduing them, affords the lights and shadows 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 necessary to give effect to a fictitious narrative ; and while sScli a 
 period entitles the author to introduce incidents of a marvellous 
 and improbable character, as arising out of the turbulent indepen- 
 dence and ferocity, belonging to old habits of violence, still in- 
 fluencing the manners of a people who had been so lately in a 
 barbarous state ; yet, on the other hand, the characters and senti- 
 ments of many of the actors may, with the utmost probability, be 
 described with great variety of shading and delineation, which 
 belongs to the newer and more improved period, of which the world 
 has but lately received the light. 
 
 The reign of James I. of England possessed this advantage in a 
 peculiar degree. Some beams of chivalry, although its planet had 
 been for some time set, continued to animate and gild the horizon, 
 and although probably no one acted precisely on its Quixotic dic- 
 tates, men and women still talked the chivalrous language of Sir 
 Philip Sydney's Arcadia ; and the ceremonial of the tilt-yard was 
 yet exhibited, though it now only flourished as a Place de Carrotisal. 
 Here and there a high-spirited Knight of the Bath, witness the too 
 scrupulous Lord Herbert of Cherbury, was found devoted enough 
 to the vows he had taken, to imagine himself obliged to compel, 
 by the sword's-point, a fellow-knight or squire to restore the top- 
 knot of ribbon which he had stolen from a fair damsel ;* but yet, 
 while men were taking each other's lives on such punctilios of 
 honour, the hour was already arrived when Bacon was about to 
 teach the world that they were no longer to reason from authority 
 to fact, but to establish truth by advancing from fact toYact, till 
 they fixed an indisputable authority, not from hypothesis, but from 
 experiment. 
 
 The state of society in the reign of James I. was also strangely 
 disturbed, and the license of a part of the community was per-^ 
 petually giving rise to acts of blood and violence. The bravo 'of 
 the Queen's day, of whom Shakspeare has given us so many varie- 
 ties, as Bardolph, Nym, Pistol, Peto, and the other companions of 
 Falstaff, men who had their humours, or their particular turn of 
 extravaganza, had, since the commencement of the Low Country 
 wars, given way to a race of sworders, who used the rapier and 
 dagger, instead of the far less dangerous sword and buckler ; so 
 that a historian says on this subject, " that private quarrels were 
 nourished, but especially between the Scots and English ; and duels 
 inevery street maintained ; divers sects and peculiar titles passed 
 unpunished and unregarded, as the sect of the Roaring Boys, 
 Bonaventors, Bravadors, Quarterors, and such like, being persons 
 prodigal, and of great expense, who, having run themselves into 
 debt, were constrained to run next into factions, to defend them- 
 
8 INTRODUCTION TO 
 
 selves from danger of the law. These received countenance from 
 divers of the nobility; and the citizens, through lasciviousness 
 consuming their estates, it was like that the number [of these des- 
 peradoes] would rather increase than diminish ; and under these 
 pretences they entered into many desperate enterprizes, and scarce 
 any durst walk in the street after nine at night."* 
 
 The same authority assures us farther, that " ancient gentlemen, 
 who had left their inheritance whole and well furnished with goods 
 and chattels (having thereupon kept good houses) unto their sons, 
 lived to see part consumed in riot and excess, and the rest in pos- 
 sibility to be utterly lost ; the holy state of matrimony made but a 
 May-game, by which divers families had been subverted ; brothel 
 houses much frequented, and even great persons, prostituting their 
 bodies to the intent to satisfy their lusts, consumed their substance 
 in lascivious appetites. And of all sorts, such knights and gentle- 
 men, as either through pride or prodigality had consumed their 
 substance, repairing to the city, and to the intent to consume their 
 virtue also, lived dissolute lives ; many of their ladies and daugh- 
 ters, to the intent to maintain themselves according to their dignity, 
 prostituting their bodies in shameful manner. Alehouses, dicing- 
 houses, taverns, and places of iniquity, beyond manner abounding 
 in most places." 
 
 Nor is it only in the pages of a puritanical, perhaps a satirical 
 writer, that we find so shocking and disgusting a picture of the 
 coarseness of the beginning of the seventeenth century. On the 
 contrary, in all the comedies of the age, the principal character for 
 gaiety and wit is a young heir, who has totally altered the establish- 
 ment of the father to whom he has succeeded, and, to use the old 
 simile, who resembles a fountain, which plays off in idleness and 
 extravagance the wealth which its careful parents painfully had 
 assembled in hidden reservoirs. 
 
 And yet, while that spirit of general extravagance seemed at 
 work over a whole kingdom, another and very different sort of men 
 were gradually forming the staid and resolved characters, which 
 afterwards displayed themselves during the civil wars, and power- 
 fully regulated and affected the character of the whole English 
 nation, until, rushing from one extreme to another, they sunk in a 
 gloomy fanaticism the splendid traces of the reviving fine arts. 
 
 From the quotations which I have produced, the selfish and dis- 
 gusting conduct of Lord Dalgarno will not perhaps appear over- 
 strained ; nor will the scenes in Whitefriars and places of similar 
 resort seem too highly coloured. This indeed is far from being the 
 case. It was in James I.'s reign that vice first appeared affecting 
 the better classes in its gross and undisguised depravity. The 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL.. 5 
 
 entertainments and amusements of Elizabeth's time had an air of 
 that decent restraint which became the court of a maiden sove- 
 reign ; and, in that earlier period, to use the words of Burke, vice 
 lost half its evil by being deprived of all its grossness. In James's 
 reign, on the contrary, the coarsest pleasures were publicly and 
 unlimitedly indulged, since, according to Sir John Harrington, the 
 men wallowed in beastly delights ; and even ladies abandoned their 
 society, and rolled about in intoxication. After a ludicrous account 
 of a mask, in which the actors had got drunk, and behaved them- 
 selves accordingly, he adds, " I have much marvelled at these 
 strange pageantries, and they do bring to my recollection what 
 passed of this sort in our Queen's days, in which I was sometimes 
 an assistant and partaker : but never did I see such lack of good 
 order and sobriety as I have now done. The gunpowder fright is 
 got out of all our heads, and we are going on hereabout as if the 
 devil was contriving every man should blow up himself by wild 
 riot, excess, and devastation of time and temperance. The great 
 ladies do go well masqued ; and indeed, it be the only show of 
 their modesty to conceal their countenance ; but alack, they meet 
 with such countenance to uphold their strange doings, that I marvel 
 not at aught that happens."* 
 
 Such being the state of the court, coarse sensuality brought along 
 with it its ordinary companion, a brutal degree of undisguised sel- 
 fishness, destructive alike of philanthropy and good breeding ; both 
 of which, in their several spheres, depend upon the regard paid by 
 each individual to the interest as well as the feelings of others. It 
 is in such a time that the heartless and shameless man of wealth 
 and power may, like the supposed Lord Dalgarno, brazen out the 
 shame of his villainies, and affect to triumph in their consequences, 
 so long as they were personally advantageous to his own pleasures 
 or profit. 
 
 Alsatia is elsewhere explained as a cant name for Whitefriars, 
 which, possessing certain privileges of sanctuary, became for that 
 reason a nest of those mischievous characters who were generally 
 obnoxious to the law. These privileges were derived from its having 
 been an establishment of the Carmelites, or White Friars, founded, 
 says Stow, in his Survey of London, by Sir Patrick Grey, in 1241. 
 Edward I. gave them a plot of ground in Fleet Street, to build their 
 church upon. The edifice then erected was rebuilt by Courtney, 
 Earl of Devonshire, in the reign of Edward. In the time of the 
 Reformation the place retained its immunities as a sanctuary, and 
 James I. confirmed and added to them by a charter in 1608. 
 Shadwell was the first author who made some literary use of White- 
 friars, in his play of the Squire of Alsatia, which turns upon the 
 plot of the Adelphi of Terence. 
 
10 INTRODUCTION TO THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 In this old play, two men of fortune, brothers, educate two young 
 men, (sons to the one and nephews to the other,) each under his 
 own separate system of rigour and indulgence. The elder of the 
 subjects of this experiment, who has been very rigidly brought up, 
 falls at once into all the vices of the town, is debauched by the cheats 
 and buUies of Whitefriars, and in a word, becomes the Squire of 
 Alsatia. The poet gives, as the natural and congenial inhabitants 
 of the place, such characters as the reader will find in the note.* 
 The play, as we learn from the dedication to the Earl of Dorset and 
 Middlesex, was successful above the author's expectations, "no 
 eomedy these many years having filled the theatre so long together. 
 And I had the great honour," continues Shadwell, " to find so many 
 friends that the house was never so full since it was built as upon 
 the third day of this play, and vast numbers went away that could 
 not be admitted."* From the Squire of Alsatia the author derived 
 some few hints, and learned the footing on which the bullies and 
 thieves of the Sanctuary stood with their neighbours, the fiery young 
 students of the Temple, of which some intimation is given in the 
 dramatic piece. 
 
 Such are the materials to which the author stands indebted for 
 the composition of the Fortunes of Nigel, a novel which may be 
 perhaps one of those that are more amusing on a second perusal, 
 than when read a first time for the sake of the story, the incidents 
 of which are few and meagre. 
 
 The Introductory Epistle is written, in Lucio's phrase, "according 
 to the trick," and would never have appeared had the writer 
 meditated making his avowal of the work. As it is the privilege of 
 a masque or incognito to speak in a feigned voice and assumed 
 character, the author attempted, while in disguise, some liberties of 
 the same sort ; and while he continues to plead upon the various 
 excuses which the introduction contains, the present acknowledg- 
 ment must serve as an apology for a species of " hoity toity, whisky 
 frisky " pertness of manner, which, in his avowed character, the 
 author should have considered as a departure from the rules of 
 civility and good taste. 
 
 ABBOTSFeRD, 
 isi Jtdy, 1831. 
 
INTRODUCTORY EPISTLE. 
 
 captain clutterbuck to the reverend dr. dryasdust. 
 
 Dear Sir, 
 
 I READILY accept of, and reply to the civilities with which you 
 have been pleased to honour me in your obliging letter, and entirely 
 agree with your qaotation, of" Quant bonum et qiiam juciindum !" 
 We may indeed esteem ourselves as come of the same family, or, 
 according to our country proverb, as being all one man's bairns ; 
 and there needed no apology on your part, reverend and dear sir, 
 for demanding of me any information which I may be able to supply 
 respecting the subject of your curiosity. The interview which you 
 allude to took place in the course of last winter, and is so deeply 
 imprinted on my recollection, that it requires no effort to collect all 
 its most minute details. 
 
 You are aware that the share which I had in introducing the 
 Romance, called The Monastery, to public notice, has given me 
 a sort of character in the literature of our Scottish metropolis. I 
 no longer stand in the outer shop of our bibliopolists, bargaining 
 for the objects of my curiosity with an unrespective shop-lad, hustled 
 among boys who come to buy Corderies and copy-books, and 
 servant-girls cheapening a penniworth of paper, but am cordially 
 welcomed by the bibliopolist himself, with, " Pray, walk into the 
 back-shop. Captain. Boy, get a chair for Captain Clutterbuck. 
 There is the newspaper, Captain — to-day's paper ;" or, " Here is 
 the last new work — there is a folder, make free with the leaves ;" 
 or, " Put it in your poeket and carry it home ;" or, " We will make 
 a bookseller of you, sir, you shall have it at trade price." Or, per- 
 haps, if it is the worthy trader's own publication, his liberality may 
 even extend itself to — " Never mind booking such a trifle to you, 
 sir — it is an over-copy. Pray, mention the work to your reading 
 friends." I say nothing of the snug well-selected literary party 
 arranged round a turbot, leg of five-year-old mutton, or some such 
 gear, or of the circulation of a quiet bottle of Robert Cockburn's 
 choicest black— nay, perhaps, of his best blue, to quicken our talk 
 about old books, or our plans for new ones. All these are comforts 
 reserved to such as are freemen of the corporation of letters, and I 
 have the advantage of enjoying them in perfection. 
 
12 INTRODUCTORY EPISTLE. 
 
 But all things change under the sun ; and it is with no ordinary 
 feelings of regret, that, in my annual visits to the metropolis, I now 
 miss the social and warm-hearted welcome of the quick-witted and 
 kindly friend who first introduced me to the public ; who had more 
 original wit than would have set up a dozen of professed sayers of 
 good things, and more racy humour than would have made the 
 fortune of as many more. To this great deprivation has been added, 
 I trust for a time only, the loss of another bibhopoUcal friend, whose 
 vigorous intellect, and liberal ideas, have not only rendered his 
 native country the mart of her own literature, but established there 
 a Court of Letters, which must command respect, even from those 
 most inclined to dissent from many of its canons. The effect of 
 these changes, operated in a great measure by the strong sense and 
 sagacious calculations of an individual, who knew how to avail him- 
 self, to an unhoped-for extent, of the various kinds of talent which 
 his country produced, will probably appear more clearly to the 
 generation which shall follow the present. 
 
 I entered the shop at the Cross, to enquire after the health of my 
 worthy friend, and learned with satisfaction, that his residence in 
 the south had abated the rigour of the symptoms of his disorder. 
 Availing myself, then, of the privileges to which I have alluded, I 
 strolled onward in that labyrinth of small dark rooms, or crypts, to 
 speak our own antiquarian language, which form the extensive back- 
 settlements of that celebrated publishing-house. Yet, as I proceeded 
 from one obscure recess to another, filled, some of them with old 
 volumes, some with such as, from the equality of their rank on the 
 shelves, I suspected to be the less saleable modern books of the 
 concern, I could not help feeling a holy horror creep upon me, when 
 I thouglit of the risk of intruding on some ecstatic bard giving vent 
 to his poetical fury ; or, it might be, on the yet more formidable 
 privacy of a band of critics, in the act of worrying the game which 
 they had just run down. In such a supposed case, I felt by antici- 
 pation the horrors of the Highland seers, whom their gift of 
 deuteroscopy compels to witness things unmeet for mortal eye ; and 
 who, to use the expression of Collins, 
 
 " heartless, oft, like moody madness, stare. 
 
 To see the phantom train their secret work prepare." 
 
 Still, however, the irresistible impulse of an undefined curiosity 
 drove me on through this succession of darksome chambers, till, 
 like the jeweller of Delhi in the house of the magician Bennask'ar, I 
 at length reached a vaulted room, dedicated to secrecy and silence, 
 and beheld, seated by a lamp, and employed in reading a blotted 
 
INTRODUCTORY EPISTLE. 13 
 
 revise* the person, or perhaps I should rather say the Eidolon, or 
 representative Vision, of the Author of Waverley ! You will 
 not be surprised at the filial instinct which enabled me at once to 
 acknowledge the features borne by this venerable apparition, and 
 that I at once bended the knee, with the classical salutation of, 
 Salve, magne parens.' The vision, however, cut me short, by 
 pointing to a seat, intimating at the same time, that my presence 
 was not unexpected, and that he had something to say to me. 
 
 I sat down with humble obedience, and endeavoured to note the 
 features of him with whom I now found myself so unexpectedly in 
 society. But on this point I can give your reverence no satisfaction ; 
 for, besides the obscurity of the apartment, and the fluttered state 
 of my own nerves, I seemed to myself overwhelmed by a sense of 
 filial awe, which prevented my noting and recording what it is 
 probable the personage before me might most desire to have 
 concealed. Indeed, his figure was so closely veiled and wimpled, 
 either with a mantle, morning-gown, or some such loose garb, that 
 the verses of Spenser might well have been applied — 
 
 " Yet, certes, by her face and physnomy. 
 Whether she man or woman only were, 
 That could not any creature well descry." 
 
 I must, however, go on as I have begun, to apply the masculine 
 gender; for, notwithstanding very ingenious reasons, and indeed 
 something like positive evidence, have been offered to prove the 
 Author of Waverley to be two ladies of talent, I must abide by the 
 general opinion, that he is of the rougher sex. There are in his 
 writings too many things 
 
 " Quae maribus sola tribuuntur," 
 
 to permit me to entertain any doubt on that subject. I will proceed, 
 in the manner of dialogue, to repeat as nearly as I can what passed 
 betwixt us, only observing, that in the course of the conversation, 
 my timidity imperceptibly gave way under the familiarity of his 
 address ; and that, in the concluding part of our dialogue, I perhaps 
 argued with fully as much confidence as was beseeming. 
 
 Author of Waverley. I was willing to see you. Captain Clutter- 
 buck, being the person of my family whom I have most regard for, 
 since the death of Jedediah Cleishbotham ; and I am afraid I may 
 have done you some wrong, in assigning to you The Monastery as 
 a portion of my effects. I have some thoughts of making it up 
 to you, by naming you godfather to this yet unborn babe— (he 
 
14 INTRODUCTORY EPISTLE. 
 
 indicated the proof-sheet with his finger)— But first, touching The 
 Monastery — How says the world— you are abroad and can learn? 
 Captain Cbitterbuck. Hem ! hem !— The enquiry is delicate— 
 I have not heard any complaints from the Publishers. 
 
 Author. That is the principal matter ; but yet an indifferent 
 work is sometimes towed on by those which have left harbour before 
 it, with the breeze In their poop. — What say the Critics ? 
 
 Captain. There is a general— feehng— that the White Lady is 
 no favourite. 
 
 Author. I think she is a failure myself; but rather in execution 
 than conception. Could I have evoked an esprit follet, at the same 
 time fantastic and interesting, capricious and kind ; a sort of wild- 
 fire of the elements, bound by no fixed laws, or motives of action ; 
 
 faithful and fond, yet teazing and uncertain 
 
 Captain. If you will pardon the interruption, sir I think you are 
 describing a pretty woman. 
 
 Author. On my word, I believe I am. I must invest my 
 elementary spirits with a little human flesh and blood — they are too 
 fine-drawn for the present taste of the public. 
 
 Captain. They object, too, that the object of your Nixie ought 
 to have been more uniformly noble — Her ducking the priest was no 
 Naiad-like amusement. 
 
 Author. Ah ! they ought to allow for the capriccios of what is, 
 after all, but a better sort of goblin. The bath into which Ariel, 
 the most delicate creation of Shakspeare's imagination, seduces our 
 jolly friend Trinculo, was not of amber or rose-water. But no one 
 shall find me rowing against the stream. I care not who knows it 
 —I write for general amusement ; and, though I never will aim at 
 popularity by what I think unworthy means, I will" not, on the other 
 hand, be pertinacious in the defence of my own errors against the 
 voice of the public. 
 
 Captain. You abandon, then, in the present work— (looking, in 
 my turn, towards the proof-sheet)— the mystic, and the magical, 
 and the whole system of signs, wonders, and omens ? There are 
 no dreams, or presages, or obscure allusions to future events ? ' 
 
 Author. Not a Cock-lane scratch, my son — not one bounce on 
 the drum of Tedworth— not so much as the poor tick of a soHtary 
 death-watch in the wainscot. All is clear and above board— a 
 Scots metaphysician might believe every word of it. 
 
 Captain. And the story is, I hope, natural and probable; com- 
 mencing strikingly, proceeding naturally, ending happily— like the 
 course of a famed river, which gushes from the mouth of some 
 obscure and romantic grotto— then gliding on, never pausing, never 
 precipitating its course, visiting, as it were, by natural instinct 
 
INTRODUCTORY EPISTLE. 15 
 
 whatever worthy subjects of interest are presented by the country 
 through which it passes— widening and deepening in interest as it 
 flows on ; and at length arriving at the final catastrophe as at 
 some mighty haven, where ships of all kind strike sail and 
 yard? 
 
 Arithor. Hey ! hey ! what the deuce is all this ? Why, 'tis 
 Ercles' vein, and it would require some one much more like Her- 
 cules than I, to produce a story which should gush, and glide, and 
 never pause, and visit, and widen, and deepen, and all the rest on't. 
 I should be chin-deep in the grave, man, before I had done with 
 my task ; and, in the meanwhile, all the quirks and quiddities 
 which I might have devised for my reader's amusement, would lie 
 rotting in my gizzard, like Sancho's suppressed witticisms, when he 
 was under his master's displeasure. — There never was a novel 
 written on this plan while the world stood. 
 
 Captain. Pardon me — Tom Jones. 
 
 Author. True, and perhaps Amelia also. Fielding had high 
 notions of the dignity of an art which he may be considered as 
 having founded. He challenges a comparison between the Novel 
 and the Epic. Smollett, Le Sage, and others, emancipating them- 
 selves from the strictness of the rules he has laid down, have 
 written rather a history of the miscellaneous adventures which 
 befall an individual in the course of life, than the plot of a regular 
 and connected epopeia, where every step brings us a point nearer 
 to the final catastrophe. These great masters have been satisfied 
 if they amused the reader upon the road ; though the conclusion 
 only arrived because the tale must have an end— just as the traveller 
 alights at the inn, because it is evening. 
 
 Captain. A very commodious mode of traveUing, for the 
 author at least. In short, sir, you are of opinion with Bayes — 
 "What the devil does the plot signify, except to bring in fine 
 things?" 
 
 Author. Grant that I were so, and that I should write with 
 sense and spirit a few scenes, unlaboured and loosely put together, 
 but which had sufficient interest in them to amuse in one corner 
 the pain of body ; in another, to relieve anxiety of mind ; in a 
 third place, to unwrinkle a brow bent with the furrows of daily toil ; 
 in another, to fill the place of bad thoughts, or to suggest better ; 
 in yet another, to induce an idler to study the history of his 
 country ; in all, save where the perusal interrupted the discharge 
 of serious duties, to furnish harmless amusement,— might not the 
 author of such a work, however inartificially executed, plead for 
 his errors and neghgences the excuse of the slave, who, about to 
 be punished for having spread the f^lse report of a victory, saved 
 
i6 INTRODUCTORY EPISTLE. 
 
 himself by exclaiming—" Am I to blame, O Athenians, who have 
 given you one happy day ? " 
 
 Captain. Will your goodness permit me to mention an anecdote 
 of my excellent grandmother ? 
 
 Author. I see little she can have to do with the subject. Captain 
 Clutterbuck. 
 
 Captain. It may come into our dialogue on Bayes's plan.— -The 
 sagacious old lady — rest her soul ! — was a good friend to the 
 church, and could never hear a minister maligned by evil tongues, 
 without taking his part warmly. There was one fixed point, how- 
 ever, at which she always abandoned the cause of her reverend 
 protegd— it was so soon as she learned he had preached a regular 
 sermon against slanderers and backbiters. 
 
 Author. And what is that to the purpose ? 
 
 Captain. Only that I have heard engineers say, that one may 
 betray the weak point to the enemy, by too much ostentation of 
 fortifying it. 
 
 Author. And, once more I pray, what is that to the pui-pose ? 
 
 Captain. Nay, then, without farther metaphor, I am afraid this 
 
 . new production, in which your generosity seems willing to give me 
 
 some concern, will stand much in need of apology, since you think 
 
 proper to begin your defence before the case is on trial.— The 
 
 story is hastily huddled up, I will venture a pint of claret. 
 
 Author. A pint of port, I suppose you mean ? 
 
 Captain. I say of claret— good claret of the Monastery. Ah, 
 sir, would you but take the advice of your friends, and try to 
 deserve at least one-half of the public favour you have met with, 
 we might all drink Tokay ! 
 
 Author. I care not what I drink, so the liquor be wholesome. 
 
 Captain. Care for your reputation, then,— for your fame. 
 
 Author. My fame?— I will answer you as a very ingenious, 
 able, and experienced friend, being counsel for the notorious Jem 
 MacCoul, replied to the opposite side of the bar, when they laid 
 weight on his client's refusing to answer certain queries, which 
 they said any man who had a regard for his reputation would not 
 hesitate to reply to. « My client," said he— by the way, Jem was 
 standing behind him at the time, and a rich scene it was—" is so 
 unfortunate as to have no regard for his reputation ; and I should 
 deal very uncandidly with the Court, should I say he had any that 
 was worth his attention."— I am, though from very different 
 reasons, in Jem's happy state of indifference. Let fame follow 
 those who have a substantial shape. A shadow— and an imper- 
 sonal author is nothing better— can cast no shade. 
 
 Captain. You are not now, perha s so impersonal as hereto- 
 
INTRODUCTORY EPISTLE. 17 
 
 fore. These Letters to the Member for the University of 
 Oxford 
 
 Author. Show the wit, genius, and delicacy of the author, 
 which I heartily wish to see engaged on a subject of more im- 
 portance ; and show, besides, that the preservation of my character 
 of incognito has engaged early talent in the discussion of a curious 
 question of evidence. But a cause, however ingeniously pleaded, 
 is' not therefore gained. You may remember, the neatly-wrought 
 chain of circumstantial evidence, so artificially brought forward to 
 prove Sir Philip Francis's title to the Letters of Junius, seemed at 
 first irrefragable ; yet the influence of the reasoning has passed 
 away, and Junius, in the general opinion, is as much unknown as 
 ever. But on this subject I will not be soothed or provoked into 
 saying one word more. To say who I am not, would be one 
 step towards saying who I am ; and as I desire not, any more 
 than a certain justice of peace mentioned by Shenstone, the noise 
 or report such things make in the world, I shall continue to be 
 silent on a subject, which, in my opinion, is very undeserving the 
 noise that has been made about it, and still more unworthy of 
 the serious employment ofsuch ingenuity as has been displayed by 
 the young letter-writer. 
 
 Captain. But allowing, my dear sir, that you care not for your 
 personal reputation, or for that of any literary person upon whose 
 shoulders your faults may be visited, allow me to say, that common 
 gratitude to the public, which has received you so kindly, and to the 
 critics, who have treated you so leniently, ought to induce you to 
 bestow more pains on your story. .^ 
 
 Author. I do entreat you, my son, as Dr. Johnson would have 
 said, " free your mind from cant." For the critics, they have their 
 business, and I mine ; as the nursery proverb goes — 
 
 " The children in Holland take pleasure in making 
 What the children in England take pleasure in breaking." 
 
 I am their humble jackal, too busy in providing food for them, to 
 have time for considering whether they swallow or reject it. — To 
 ■ the public, I stand pretty nearly in the relation of the postman who 
 leaves a packet at the door of an individual. If it contains pleasing 
 intelligence, a billet from a mistress, a letter frora an absent son, a 
 remmittance from a correspondent supposed to be bankrupt,— the 
 letter is acceptably welcome, and read and re-read, folded up, filed, 
 and safely deposited in the bureau. If the contents are disagree- 
 able, if it comes from a dun or from a bore, the correspondent is 
 cursed, the letter is thrown into the fire, and the expense of postage 
 
 C 
 
i8 INTRODUCTORY EPISTLE. 
 
 is heartily regretted ; whUe all the time the bearer of the dispatches 
 is, in either case, as little thought on as the snow of last Christmas. 
 The utmost extent of kindness between the author and the pubhc 
 Avhich can really exist, is, that the world are disposed to be some- 
 what indulgent to the succeeding works of an original fa,vourite, 
 were it but on account of the habit which the public mind has 
 acquired ; while the author very naturally thinks well of their taste, 
 who have so liberally applauded his productions. But I deny there 
 is any call for gratitude, properly so called, either on one side or the 
 other. 
 
 Captain. Respect to yourself, then, ought to teach caution. 
 
 Author. Ay, if caution could augment the chance of my success. 
 But, to confess to you the truth, the works and passages in which 
 I have succeeded, have uniformly been written with the greatest 
 rapidity j and when I have seen some of these placed in opposition 
 ■with others, and commended as more highly finished, I could appeal 
 to pen and standish, that the parts in which I have come feebly off, 
 were by much the more laboured. Besides, I doubt the beneficial 
 effect of too much delay, both on account of the author and the 
 public. A man should strike while the iron is hot, and hoist sail 
 while the wind is fair. If a successful author keep not the stage, 
 another instantly takes his ground. If a writer lie by for ten years 
 ere he produces a second work, he is superseded by others ; or, if 
 the age is so poor of genius that this does not happen, his own 
 reputation becomes his greatest obstacle. The public will expect 
 the new work to be ten times better than its predecessor ; the 
 author will expect it should be ten times more popular, and 'tis a 
 hundred to ten that both are disappointed. 
 
 Captain. This may justify a certain degree of rapidity in pub- 
 lication, but not that which is proverbially said to be no speed. 
 You should take time at least to arrange your story. 
 
 Author. That is a sore point with me, my son. Believe me, I 
 have not been fool enough to neglect ordinary precautions. I have 
 repeatedly laid down my future work to scale, divided it into 
 volumes and.chapters, and endeavoured to construct a story which 
 I meant should evolve itself gradually and strikingly, maintain 
 suspense, and stimulate curiosity ; and which, finally, should termi- 
 nate in a striking catastrophe. But I think there is a demon who 
 seats himself on the feather of my pen when I begin to write, and 
 leads it astray from the purpose. Characters expand under my 
 hand ; incidents are multiplied ; the story lingers, while the 
 materials increase ; my regular mansion turns out a Gothic anomaly, 
 and the work is closed long before 1 have attained the point I pro- 
 posed, 
 
INTRODUCTORY EPISTLE. 19 
 
 Captain. Resolution and determined forbearance might remedy 
 that evil. 
 
 Author. Alas ! my dear sir, you do not know the force of 
 paternal affection. When I light on such a character as Bailie 
 Jarvie, or Dalgetty, my imagination brightens, and my conception 
 becomes clearer at every step which I take in his company, 
 although it leads me many a weary mile away from the regular 
 road, and forces me to leap hedge and ditch to get back into the 
 route again. If I resist the temptation, as you advise me, my 
 thoughts become prosy, flat, and dull ; I writ%painfully to myself, 
 and under a consciousness of flagging which makes me flag still 
 more ; the sunshine with which fancy had invested the incidents, 
 departs from them, and leaves every thing dull and gloomy. I am 
 no more the same author I was in my better mood, than the dog 
 in a wheel, condemned to go round and round for hours, is like the 
 same dog merrily chasing his own tail, and gambolling in all the 
 frolic of unrestrained freedom. In short, sir, on such occasions, I 
 think I am bewitched. 
 
 Captain. Nay, sir, if you plead sorcery, there is no more to be 
 said — he must needs go whom the devil drives. And this, I sup- 
 pose, sir, is the reason why you do not make the theatrical attempt 
 to which you have been so often urged ? 
 
 Author. It may pass for one good reason for not writing a play, 
 that I cannot form a plot. But the truth is, that the idea adopted 
 by too favourable judges, of my having some aptitude for that 
 department of poetry, has been much founded on those scraps of 
 old plays, which, being taken from a source inaccessible to 
 collectors, they have hastily considered the offspring of my mother- 
 wit. Now, the manner in which I became possessed of these 
 fragments is so extraordinary, that I cannot help telling it to you. 
 
 You must know, that, some twenty years since, I went down to 
 visit an old friend in Worcestershire, who had served with me in 
 the Dragoohs. 
 
 Captain. Then you have served, sir? 
 
 Author. I have — or I have not, which signifies the same thing 
 —Captain is a good travelling name. — Lfound my friend's house 
 unexpectedly crowded with guests, and, as usual, was condemned 
 — the mansion being an old one — to the haunted apartment. I 
 have, as a great modern said, seen too many ghosts to believe in 
 them, so betook myself seriously to my repose, lulled by the wind 
 rustling among the lime-trees, the branches of which chequered the 
 moonlight which fell on the floor through the diamonded casement, 
 when, behold, a darker shadow interposed itself, and I beheld 
 
 visibly on the floor of the apartment ■ 
 
 C 3 
 
20 INTRODUCTORY EPISTLE. 
 
 Captain. The White Lady of Avenel, I suppose ?— You have 
 told the very story before. 
 
 Author. No— I beheld a female form, with mob-cap, bib, and 
 apron, sleeves tucked up to the elbow, a dredging-box in the one 
 hand, and in the other a sauce-ladle. I concluded, of course, that 
 it was my friend's cook-maid walking in her sleep ; and as I knew 
 he had a value for Sally, who could toss a pancake with any girl in 
 the country, I got up to conduct her safely to the door. But as I 
 approached her, she said,—" Hold, sir ! I am not what j^ou take 
 me for ; " — words v^ich seemed so opposite to the circumstances, 
 that I should not have much minded them, had it not been for the 
 peculiarly hollow sound in which they were uttered. — " Know, 
 then," she said, in the same unearthly accents, " that I am the 
 spirit of Betty Barnes." — "Who hanged herself for love of the 
 stage-coachman," thought I ; " this is a proper spot of work ! "■^- 
 " Of that unhappy Elizabeth or Betty Barnes, long cook-maid to 
 Mr. Warburton, the painful collector, but ah ! the too careless 
 custodier, of the largest collection of ancient plays ever known — of 
 most of which the {itles only are left to gladden the Prolegomena of 
 the Variorum Shakspeare. Yes, stranger, it was these ill-fated 
 hands that consigned to grease and conflagration the scores of 
 small quartos, which, did they now exist, would drive the whole 
 Roxburghe Club out of their senses^t was these unhappy 
 pickers and stealers that singed fat fowls and wiped dirty trenchers 
 with the lost works of Beaumont and Fletcher, Massinger, Jonson, 
 Webster — what shall 1 say ? — even of Shakspeare himself ! " 
 
 Like every dramatic antiquary, my ardent curiosity after some 
 play named in the Book of the Master of Revels, had often been 
 checked by finding the object of my research numbered amongst 
 the holocaust of victims which this unhappy woma-n had sacrificed 
 to the God of Good Cheer. It is no wonder then, that, like the 
 Hermit of Parnell, 
 
 " I broke the bands of fear, and madly cried, 
 
 ' You careless jade ! ' — But scarce the words began, 
 
 When Betty brandish'd high her saucing-pan." 
 
 " Beware," she said, " you do not, by your ill-timed anger, cut 
 oft the opportunity I yet have to indemnify the world for the errors 
 of my ignorance. In yonder coal hole, not used for many a year, 
 repose the few greasy and blackened fragments of the elder Drama 
 which were not totally destroyed. Do thou then " — Why, what do 
 you stare at, Captain? By my soul, it is true ; as my friend Major 
 Longbow says, " What should I tell you a lie for? " 
 
INTRODUCTORY EPISTLE 21 
 
 Captain. Lie, sir ! Nay, Heaven forbid I should apply the 
 word to a person so veracious. You are only inclined to chase 
 your tail a little this morning, that's all. Had you not better re- 
 serve this legend to form an introduction to " Three Recovered 
 Dramas," or so ? 
 
 Atcthor. You are quite right— habit's a strange thing, my son. 
 I had forgot whom I ^\as speaking to. Yes, Plays for the closet* 
 not for the stage 
 
 Captain. Right, and so you are sure to be acted; for the 
 managers, while thousands of volunteers are desirous of serving 
 them, are wonderfully partial to pressed men. 
 
 Author. I am a living witness, having been, like a secona 
 Laberius, made a dramatist whether I would or not. I believe my 
 muse would be TVrryfied into treading the stage, even if I should 
 write a sermon. 
 
 Captain. Truly, if you did, I am afraid folks might make a 
 farce of it ; and, therefore, should you change your style, I still 
 advise a volume of dramas like Lord Byron's. 
 
 Author. No, his lordship is a cut above me — I won't run my 
 horse against his, if I can help myself. But there is my friend 
 Allan has written just such a play as I might write myself, in a 
 very sunny day, and with one of Bramah's extra patent-pens. I 
 cannot make neat work without such appurtenances. - 
 
 Captain. Do you mean Allan Ramsay ? 
 
 Author. No, nor Barbara Allan either. I mean Allan Cunning- 
 ham, who has just published his tragedy of Sir Marmaduke 
 Maxwell, full of merry-making and murdering, kissing and cutting 
 of throats, and passages which lead to nothing, and which are very 
 pretty passages for all that. Not a glimpse of probability is there 
 about the plot, but so much animation in particular passages, and 
 such a vein of poetry through the whole, as I dearly wish I could 
 infuse into my Culinary Remains, should I ever be tempted to 
 publish them. With a popular impress, people would read and 
 admire the beauties of Allan — as it is, they may perhapsi only note 
 his defects — or, what is worse, not note him;at all. — But neyer mind 
 them, honest Allan ; -you are a credit to : Caledonia f<ir- all; that. — 
 There are some lyrical effusions of his, too, which yoa-vypuld do 
 well to read, Captain. " It's hame, and it's hame," is equal to 
 Burns. 
 
 Captain. I will take the hint. The club at Kennaquhair are 
 turned fastidious since Catalani visited the Abbey. My " Poortith 
 Cauld " has been received both poorly and coldly, and " the Banks 
 of Bonnie Doon " have been positively coughed down — Tempera 
 Mutant?ir, 
 
22 INTRODUCTORY EPISTLE. 
 
 Author. They cannot stand still, they will change with all of 
 us. What then ? 
 
 "A man's a man for a' that," 
 
 But the hour of parting approaches. 
 
 Captain. You are determined to proceed then in your own 
 system ? Are you aware that an unworthy motive may be assigned 
 for this rapid succession of publication ? You will be supposed to 
 work merely for the lucre of gain. 
 
 Author. Supposing that I did permit the great advantages 
 which must be derived from success in literature, to join with 
 other motives in inducing me to come more frequently before the 
 public, — that emolument is the voluntary tax which the public pays 
 for a certain species of literary amusement— it is extorted from no 
 one, and paid, I presume, by those only who can afford it, and who 
 receive gratification in proportion to the expense. If the capital 
 sum which these volumes have put into circulation be a very large 
 one, has it contributed to my indulgences only ? or can I not say 
 to hundreds, from honest Duncan the paper-manufacturer, to the 
 most snivelling of the printer's devils, " Didst thou not share ? 
 Hadst thou not fifteen pence?" I profess I think our Modern 
 Athens much obliged to me for having established such an exten- 
 sive manufacture ; and when universal suffrage comes in fashion, 
 I intend to stand for a seat in the House on the interest of all the 
 unwashed artificers connected with literature. 
 
 Captain. This would be called the language of a calico-manu- 
 facturer. 
 
 Author. Cant again, my dear son — there is lime in this sack, 
 too — nothing but sophistication in this world ! I do say it, in spite 
 of Adam Smith and his followers, that a successful author is a pro- 
 ductive labourer, and that his works constitute as effectual a part 
 of the public wealth, as that which is created by any other manu- 
 facture. If a new commodity, having an actually intrinsic and 
 commercial value, be the result of the operation, why are the 
 author's bales of books to be esteemed a less profitable part of 
 the public stock than the goods of any other manufacturer.' I 
 speak with reference to the diffusion of the wealth arising to the 
 public, and the degree of industry which even such a trifling work 
 as the present must stimulate and reward, before the volumes leave 
 the publisher's shop. Without me it could not exist, and to this 
 extent I am a benefactor to the country. As for my own emolu- 
 ment, it is won by my toil, and I account myself answerable to 
 Heaven only for the mode in which I expend it. The candid 
 
INTRODUCTORY EPISTLE. 23 
 
 may hope it is not all dedicated to selfish purposes ; and, with- 
 out much pretensions to merit in him who disburses it, a part may 
 " wander, heaven directed, to the poor.'' 
 
 Captain. Yet it is generally held base to write from the mere 
 motives of gain. 
 
 Author. It would be base to do so exclusively, or even to 
 make it a principal motive for literary exertion. Nay, I will venture 
 to say, that no work of imagination, proceeding from the mere 
 consideration of a certain sum of copy-money, ever did, or ever 
 wiU, succeed. So the lawyer who pleads, the soldier who fights, 
 the physician who prescribes, the clergyman — if sue]} there be — 
 who preaches, without any zeal for his profession, or without any 
 sense of its dignity, and merely on account of the fee, pay, or 
 stipend, degrade themselves to the rank of sordid mechanics. 
 Accordingly, in the case of two of the learned faculties at least, 
 their services are considered as unappreciable, and are acknow- 
 ledged, not by any exact estimate of the services rendered, but 
 by a honorarium, or voluntary acknowledgment. But let a client 
 or patient make the experiment of omitting this little ceremony 
 of the honorarium, which is censt to be a thing entirely out of 
 consideration between them, and mark how the learned gentleman 
 will look upon his case. Cant set apart, it is the same thing with 
 literary emolument. No man of sense, in any rank of life, is, or ought 
 to be, above accepting a just recompense for his time, and a reason- 
 able share of the capital which owes its very existence to his 
 exertions. When Czar Peter wrought in the trenches, he took the 
 pay of a common soldier ; and nobles, statesmen, and divines, the 
 most distinguished of their time, have not scorned to square 
 accounts with their bookseller. 
 
 Captain. {Sings.) 
 
 " O if it were a mean thing. 
 
 The gentles would not use it ; 
 And if it were ungodly. 
 
 The clergy would refuse it." 
 
 Author. You say well. But no man of honour, genius, or 
 spirit, would make the mere love of gain, the chief, far less the only, 
 purpose of his labours. For myself, I am not displeased to find 
 the game a winning one ; yet while I pleased the public, I should 
 probably continue it merely for the pleasure of playing ; for I have 
 felt as strongly as most folks that love of composition, which is 
 perhaps the strongest of all instincts, driving the author to the pen, 
 the painter to the pallet, often without either the chance of fame 
 
24 INTRODUCTORY EPISTLE. 
 
 or the prospect of reward. Perhaps I have said too much of this. 
 I might, perhaps, with as much truth as most people, exculpate my- 
 self from the charge of being either of a greedy or mercenary dis- 
 position ; but I am not, therefore, hypocrite enough to disclaim the 
 ordinary motives, on account of which the whole world around me 
 is toiling unremittingly, to the sacrifice of ease, comfort, health, and 
 life. I do not affect the disinterestedness of that ingenious associa- 
 tion of gentlemen mentioned by Goldsmith, who sold their maga- 
 zine for sixpence a-piece, merely for their own amusement. 
 
 Captain. I have but one thing more to hint. — The world say 
 you will run yourself out. 
 
 Author. The world say true : and what then ? When they 
 dance no longer, I will no longer pipe ; and I shall not want 
 flappers enough to remind me of the apoplexy. 
 
 Captain. And what will become of us then, your poor family? 
 We shall fall into contempt and oblivion. 
 
 Author. Like many a poor fellow, already overwhelmed with 
 the number of his family, I cannot help going on to increase it — 
 " 'Tis my vocation, Hal." — Such of you as deserve oblivion — per- 
 haps the whole of you — may be consigned to it. At any rate, 
 you have been read in your day, which is more than can be said of 
 some of your contemporaries, of less fortune and more merit. They 
 cannot say but that you had the crown. It is always something to 
 have engaged the public attention for seven years. Had I only 
 written Waverley, I should have long since been, according to the 
 established phrase, " the ingenious author of a novel much admired 
 at the time." I believe, on my soul, that the reputation of Waverley 
 is sustained very much by the praises of those, who may be in- 
 clined to prefer that tale to its successors. 
 
 Captain. You are willing, then, to barter future reputation for 
 present popularity ? 
 
 Author. Meliora spero. Horace himself expected not to sur- 
 vive in all his works — I may hope to live in some of mine ; nan 
 omnis moriar. It is some consolation to reflect, that the best 
 authorsvin all countries have been the most voluminous ; and it has 
 often happened, that those who have been best received in their 
 own time, have also continued to be acceptable to posterity. I do 
 not think so. ill of the present generation, as to suppose that its 
 present favour necessarily infers future condemnation. 
 
 Captain. Were all to act on such principles, the public would . 
 bs inundated. 
 
 Author. Once more, my dear son, beware of cant. You speak 
 as if the public were obliged to read books merely because they 
 are printed— your friends the booksellers would thank you to make 
 
INTRODUCTORY EPISTLE. zj 
 
 the proposition good. The most serious grievance attending such 
 inundations as you talk of, is, that they make rags dear. The mul- 
 tipHcity of pubhcations does the present age no harm, and may 
 greatly advantage that which is to succeed us. 
 
 Captain. I do not see how that is to happen. 
 
 Author. The complaints in the time of Elizabeth and James, 
 of the alarming fertility of the press, were as loud as they are at 
 present — yet look at the shore over which the inundation of that 
 age flowed, and it resembles now the Rich Strand of the Faery 
 Oueen — 
 
 -" Bestrew'd all with rich array, 
 
 Of pearl and precious stones of great assay ; 
 And all the gravel mix'd with golden ore." 
 
 Believe me, that even in the most neglected works of the present 
 age, the next may discover treasures. 
 
 Captain. Some books will defy all alchymy. 
 
 Author. They will be but few in number ; since, as for writers, 
 who are possessed of no merit at all, unless indeed they publish 
 their works at their own expense, like Sir Richard Blackmore, their 
 power of annoying the public will be soon limited by the difficulty 
 of finding undertaking booksellers. 
 
 Captain. You are incorrigible. Are there no bounds to your 
 audacity ? 
 
 Author. There are the sacred and eternal boundaries of honour 
 and virtue. My course is like the enchanted chamber of Brito- 
 mart — 
 
 " Where as she look'd about, she did behold 
 How over that same door was likewise writ. 
 Be Bold — Be Bold, and everywhere Be Bold. 
 Whereat she mused, and could not construe it 
 At last she spied at that room's upper end ' 
 Another iron door, on which was writ — 
 Be not too Bold." 
 
 Captain. Well, you must take the risk of proceeding on your 
 own principles. 
 
 Author. Do you act on yours, and take care you do not stay 
 idling here till the dinner hour is over. — I will add this work to your 
 patrimony, valeat qua7itum. 
 
 Here our dialogue terminated ; for a little sooty-faced Apollyon 
 from the Canongate came to demand the proof-sheet on the part 
 of Mr, M'Corkindale ; and I heard Mr. 0. rebuking Mr. F. in 
 
aS INTRODUCTORY EPISTLE. 
 
 another compartment of the same labyrinth I have described, for 
 suffering any one to penetrate so far into the penetralia of their 
 temple. 
 
 I leave it to you to form your own opinion concerning the import 
 of this dialogue, and I cannot but believe I shall meet the wishes 
 of our common parent in prefixing this letter to the work which it 
 concerns. 
 
 I am, reverend and dear Sir, 
 
 Very sincerely and affectionately 
 Yours, &c. &c. 
 
 CUTHBERT ClUTTERBUCK. 
 
 Kennaquhair, 
 
 1st April, 1822. 
 
THE 
 
 FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Now Scot and English are agreed, 
 
 And Saunders hastes to cross the Tweed, 
 
 Where, such the splendours that attend him, 
 
 His very mother scarce had kend him. 
 
 His metamorphosis behold. 
 
 From Glasgow frieze to cloth of gold ; 
 
 His back-sword, with the iron hilt. 
 
 To rapier, fairly hatch'd and gilt ; 
 
 Was ever seen a gallant braver 1 
 
 His very bonnet's grown a beaver. 
 
 The Reformation. 
 
 The long-continued hostilities which had for centuries separated 
 the south and the north divisions of the Island of Britain, had been 
 happily terminated by the succession of the pacific James I. to the 
 English Crown. But although the united crown of England and 
 Scotland was worn by the same individual, it required a long lapse 
 of time, and the succession of more than one generation, ere the 
 inveterate national prejudices which had so long existed betwixt 
 the sister kingdoms were removed, and the subjects of either side 
 of the Tweed brought to regard those upon the opposite bank as 
 friends and as brethren. 
 
 These prejudices were, of course, most inveterate during the 
 reign of King James. The English subjects accused him of par- 
 tiality to those of his ancient kingdom ; while the Scots, with equal 
 injustice, charged him with having forgotten the land of his nati- 
 vity, and with neglecting those early friends to whose allegiance he 
 had been so much indebted. 
 
 The temper of the King, peaceable even to timidity, inclined him 
 perpetually to interfere as mediator between the contending factions, 
 whose brawls disturbed the court. But, notwithstanding all his 
 precautions, historians have recorded many instances, where the 
 mutual hatred of two nations, who, after being enemies for a thou- 
 sand years, had been so very recently united, broke forth with a 
 
s8 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 fury which menaced a general convulsion ; and, spreading from 
 the highest to the lowest classes, as it occasioned debates in 
 council and parliament, factions in the court, and duels among the 
 gentry, was no less productive of riots and brawls amongst the 
 lower orders. 
 
 While these heart-burnings were at the highest, there flourished 
 in the City of London an ingenious, but whimsical and self-opi- 
 nioned mechanic, much devoted to abstract studies, David Ramsay 
 by name, who, whether recommended by his great skill in his pro- 
 fession, as the courtiers alleged, or, as was murmured among his 
 neighbours, by his birthplace, in the good town -of Dalkeith, near 
 Edinburgh, held in James's household the post of maker of watches 
 and horologes to his Majesty. He scorned not, however, to keep 
 open shop within Temple-Bar, a few yards to the eastward of Saint 
 Dunstan's Church. 
 
 The shop of a London tradesman at that time, as it may be sup- 
 posed, was something very different from those we now see in the 
 same locality. The goods were exposed to sale in cases, only de- 
 fended from the weather by a covering of canvas, and the whole 
 resembled the stalls and booths now erected for the temporary 
 accommodation of dealers at a country fair, rather than the esta- 
 blished emporium of a respectable citizen. But most of the shop- 
 keepers of note, and David Ramsay amongst others, had their 
 booth connected with a small apartment which opened backward 
 from it, and bore the same resemblance to the front shop that 
 Robinson Crusoe's cavern did to the tent which he erected before it. 
 To this Master Ramsay was often accustomed to retreat to the 
 labour of his abstruse calculations ; for he aimed at improvement 
 and discoveries in his own art, and sometimes pushed his researches, 
 like Napier, and other mathematicians of the period, into abstract 
 science. When thus engaged, he left the outer posts of his com- 
 mercial establishment to be maintained by two stout-bodied and 
 strong-voiced apprentices, who kept up the cry of, "What d'ye 
 lack ? what d'ye lack? " accompanied with the appropriate recom- 
 mendations of the articles in which they dealt. This direct and 
 personal application for custom to those who chance to pass by, 
 is now, we believe, limited to Monmouth Street, (if it still exists 
 even in that repository of ancient garments,) under the guardian- 
 ship of the scattered remnant of Israel. But at the time we are 
 speaking of, it was practised alike by Jew and Gentile, and served, 
 instead of all our present newspaper puffs and advertisements, to 
 solicit the attention of the public in general, and of friends in parti- 
 cular, to the unrivalled excellence of the goods, which they offered 
 to sale upon such easy terms, that it might fairly appear that the 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 29 
 
 venders had rather a view to the general service of the pubhc, than 
 to their own particular advantage. 
 
 The verbal proclaimers of the excellence of their commodities 
 had this advantage over those who, in the present day, use the 
 public papers for the same purpose, that they could in many cases 
 adapt their address to the peculiar appearance and apparent taste 
 of the passengers. [This, as we have said, was also the case in 
 Monmouth Street in our remembrance. We have ourselves been 
 reminded of the deficiencies of our femoral habiliments, and ex- 
 horted upon that score to fit ourselves more beseemingly ; but this 
 is a digression.] This direct and personal mode of invitation to 
 customers became, however, a dangerous temptation to the young 
 wags who were employed in the task of solicitation during the 
 absence of the principal person interested in the traffic ; and, con- 
 fiding in their numbers and civic union, the 'prentices of London 
 were often seduced into taking liberties with the passengers, and 
 exercising their wit at the expense of those whom they had no 
 hopes of converting into customers by their eloquence. If this 
 were resented by any act of violence, the inmates of each shop were 
 ready to pour forth in succour ; and, in the words of an old sonp- 
 which Dr. Johnson was used to hum, — 
 
 " Up then rose the 'prentices all, 
 Living in London, both proper an tall."- 
 
 Desperate riots often arose on such occasions, especially when 
 the Templars, or other youths connected with the aristocracy, were 
 insulted, or conceived themselves to be so. Upon such occasions, 
 bare steel was frequently opposed to the clubs of the citizens, and 
 death sometimes ensued on both sides. The tardy and inefficient 
 police of the time had no other resource than by the Alderman of 
 the ward calling out the householders, and putting a stop to the 
 strife by overpowering numbers, as the Capulets and Montagues 
 are separated upon the stage. 
 
 At the period when such was the universal custom of the most 
 respectable, as well as the most inconsiderable, shopkeepers in 
 London, David Ramsay, on the evening to which we solicit the 
 attention of the reader, retiring to more abstruse and private 
 labours, left the administration of his outer shop, or booth, to the 
 aforesaid sharp-witted, active, able-bodied, and well- voiced appren- 
 tices, namely, Jenkin Vincent and Frank Tunstall. 
 
 Vincent had been educated at the excellent foundation of Christ's 
 Church Hospital, and was bred, therefore, as well as born, a Lon- 
 doner, with all the acuteness, addi-ess, and audacity, which belong 
 
30 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 peculiarly to the youth of a metropolis. He was now about twenty 
 years old, short in stature, but remarkably strong made, eminent 
 for his feats upon holidays at foot-ball, and other gymnastic exer- 
 cises ; scarce rivalled in the broad-sword play, though hitherto only 
 exercised in the form of single-stick. He knew every lane, blind 
 alley, and sequestered court of the ward, better than his Catechism ; 
 was alike active in his master's affairs, and in his own adventures of 
 fun and mischief; and so managed matters, that the credit he 
 acquired by the former bore him out, or at least served for his apo- 
 logy, when the latter propensity led him into scrapes, of which, 
 however, it is but fair to state, that they had hitherto inferred 
 nothing mean or discreditable. Some aberrations there were, 
 which David Ramsay, his master, endeavoured to reduce to regular 
 order when he discovered them, and others which he winked at — 
 supposing them to answer the purpose of the escapement of a 
 watch, which disposes of a certain quantity of the extra power of 
 that mechanical impulse which puts the whole in motion. 
 
 The physiognomy of Jin Vin — by which abbreviation he was 
 familiarly known through the ward — corresponded with the sketch 
 we have given of his character. His head, upon which his 'pren- 
 tice's flat cap was generally flung in a careless and oblique fashion, 
 was closely covered with thick hair of raven black, which curled 
 naturally and closely, and would have grown to great length, but 
 for the modest custom enjoined by his state of life, and strictly 
 enforced by his master, which compelled him to keep it short- 
 cropped, — not unreluctantly, as he looked with envy on the flowing 
 ringlets, in which the gourtiers, and aristocratic students of the 
 neighbouring Temple, began to indulge themselves, as marks of 
 superiority and of gentility. Vincent's eyes were deep set in his 
 head, of a strong vivid black, full of fire, roguery, and intelligence, 
 and conveying a humorous expression, even while he was uttering 
 the usual small-talk of his trade, as if he ridiculed those who were 
 disposed to give any weight to his commonplaces. He had address 
 enough, however, to add little touches of his own, which gave a 
 turn of drollery even to this ordinary routine of the booth ; and 
 the alacrity of his manner — his ready and obvious wish to oblige — 
 his intelligence and civility, when he thought civility necessary, 
 made him a universal favourite with his master's customers. His 
 features were far from regular, for his nose was flattish, his mouth 
 tending to the larger size, and his complexion inclining to be more 
 dark than was then thought consistent with masculine beauty. But, 
 in despite of his having always breathed the air of a crowded city, 
 his complexion had the ruddy and manly expression of redundant 
 health J his turned-up nose gave an air of spirit and raillery tc 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 31 
 
 what he said, and seconded the laugh of his eyes ; and his wide 
 mouth was garnished with a pair of well-formed and well-coloured 
 lips, which, when he laughed, disclosed a range of teeth strong 
 and well set, and as white as the very pearl. Such was the 
 elder apprentice of David Ramsay, Memory's Monitor, watch- 
 maker, and constructor of horologes, to his Most Sacred Majesty 
 James I. 
 
 Jenkin's companion was the younger apprentice, though, perhaps, 
 he might be the elder of the two in years. At any rate, he was of 
 a much more staid and composed temper. Francis Tunstall was 
 of that ancient and proud descent who claimed the style of the 
 " unstained ; " because, amid the various chances of the long and 
 bloody wars of the Roses, they had, with undeviating faith, followed 
 the House of Lancaster, to which they had originally attached 
 themselves. The meanest sprig of such a tree attached importance 
 to the root from which it derived itself ; and Tunstall was supposed 
 to nourish in secret a proportion of that family pride, which had 
 extorted tears from his widowed and almost indigent mother, when 
 she saw herself obliged to consign him to a line of life inferior, as 
 her prejudices suggested, to the course held by his progenitors. 
 Yet, with all this aristocratic prejudice, his master found the well- 
 born youth more docile, regular, and strictly attentive to his duty, 
 than his far more active and alert comrade. Tunstall also gratified 
 his master by the particular attention which he seemed disposed to 
 bestow on the abstract principles of science connected with the 
 trade which he was bound to study, the limits of which were daily 
 enlarged with the increase of mathematical science. 
 
 Vincent beat his companion beyond the distance-post, in every 
 thing like the practical adaptation of thorough practice, in the 
 dexterity of hand necessary to execute the mechanical branches of 
 the art, and double-distanced him in all respecting the commercial 
 affairs of the shop. Still David Ramsay was wont to say, that if 
 Vincent knew how to do a thing the better of the two, Tunstall 
 was much better acquainted with the principles on which it ought 
 to be done ; and he sometimes objected to the latter, that he 
 knew critical excellence too well ever to be satisfied with practical 
 mediocrity. 
 
 The disposition of Tunstall was shy, as well as studious ; and, 
 though perfectly civil and obliging, he never seemed to feel himself 
 in his place while he went through the duties of the shop. He was 
 tall and handsome, with fair hair, and well-formed limbs, good 
 features, well opened light blue eyes, a straight Grecian nose, and a 
 countenance which expressed both good-humour and intelligence, 
 but qualified by a gravity imsuitable to his years, and which almost 
 
32 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 amounted to dejection. He lived on the best terms with his com- 
 panion, and readily stood by him whenever he was engaged in any 
 of the frequent skirmishes, which, as we have already observed, 
 often disturbed the City of London about this period. But though 
 Tunstall was allowed to understand quarter-staff (the weapon of 
 the North country) in a superior degree, and though he was naturally 
 both strong and active, his interference in such affrays seemed 
 always matter of necessity ; and, as he never voluntarily joined 
 either their brawls or their sports, he held a far lower place in the 
 opinion of the youth of the ward than his hearty and active friend 
 Jin Vin. Nay, had it not been for the interest made for his com- 
 rade, by the intercession of Vincent, Tunstall would have stood 
 some chance of being altogether excluded from the society of his 
 contemporaries of the same condition, who called him, in scorn, the 
 Cavaliero Cuddy, and the Gentle Tunstall. On the other hand, 
 the lad himself, deprived of the fresh air in which he had been 
 brought up, and foregoing the exercise to which he had been formerly 
 accustomed, while the inhabitant of his native mansion, lost gra- 
 dually the freshness of his complexion, and, without showing any 
 formal symptoms of disease, grew more thin and pale as he grew 
 older, and at length exhibited the appearance of indifferent health, 
 without any thing of the habits and complaints of an invalid, 
 excepting a disposition to avoid society, and to spend his leisure 
 time in private study, rather than mingle in the sports of his com- 
 panions, or even resort to the theatres, then the general rendezvous 
 of his class ; where, according to high authority, they fought for 
 half-bitten apples, cracked nuts, and filled the upper gallery with 
 their clamours. 
 
 Such were the two youths who called David Ramsay master ; 
 and with both of whom he used to fret from morning till night, as 
 their peculiarities interfered with his own, or with the quiet and 
 beneficial course of his traffic. 
 
 Upon the whole, however, the youths were attached to their 
 master, and he, a good-natured, though an absent and whimsical 
 man, was scarce less so to them ; and, when a little warmed with 
 wine at an occasional junketing, he used to boast, in his northern 
 dialect, of his " twa bonny lads, and the looks that the court ladies 
 threw at them, when visiting his shop in their caroches, when on a 
 frohc into the city." But David Ramsay never failed, at the same 
 time, to draw up his own tall, thin, lathy skeleton, extend his lean 
 jaws into an alarming grin, and indicate, by a nod of his yard-long 
 visage, and a twinkle of his little grey eye, that there might be more 
 faces in Fleet-Street worth looking at than those of Frank and 
 Jenkin. His old neighbour, Widow Simmons, the sempstress, who 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 33 
 
 had served, in her day, the very tip-top revellers of the Temple, 
 with ruffs, cuffs, and bands, distinguished more deeply the sort of 
 attention paid by the females of quality, who so regularly visited 
 David Ramsay's shop, to its inmates. " The boy Frank," she 
 admitted, " used to attract the attention of the young ladies, as 
 having something gentle and downcast in his looks ; but then he 
 could not better himself, for the poor youth had not a word to throw 
 at a dog. Now Jin Vin was so full of his gibes and his jeers, and 
 so willing, and so ready, and so serviceable, and so mannerly all 
 the while, with a step that sprung like a buck's in Epping Forest, 
 and his eye that twinkled as black as a gipsy's, that no woman who 
 knew the world would make a comparison betwixt the lads. As for 
 poor neighbour Ramsay himself, the man," she said, " was a civil 
 neighbour, and a learned man, doubtless, and might be a rich man 
 if he had common sense to back his learning ; and doubtless, for a 
 Scot, neighbour Ramsay was nothing of a bad man, but he was so 
 constantly grimed with smoke, gilded with brass filings, and smeared 
 with lamp-black and oil, that Dame Simmons judged it would 
 require his whole shopful of watches to induce any feasible woman 
 to touch the said neighbour Ramsay with any thing save a pair of 
 tongs." 
 
 A still higher authority, Dame Ursula, wife to Benjamin Suddle 
 chop, the barber, was of exactly the same opinion. 
 
 Such were, in natural qualities and public estimation, the two 
 youths, who, in a fine April day, having first rendered their dutiful 
 service and attendance on the table of their master and his daughter, 
 at their dinner at one o'clock, — Such, O ye lads of London, was the 
 severe discipline undergone by your predecessors ! — and having 
 regaled themselves upon the fragments, in company with two female 
 domestics, one a cook, and maid of all work, the other called 
 Mistress Margaret's maid, now relieved their master in the duty of 
 the outward shop ; and agreeably to the established custom, were 
 soliciting, by their entreaties and recommendations of their master's 
 manufacture, the attention and encouragement of the passengers. 
 
 In this species of service it may be easily supposed that Jenkin 
 Vincent left his more reserved and bashful comrade far in the back- 
 ground. The latter could only articulate with difficulty, and as an 
 act of duty which he was rather ashamed of discharging, the 
 established words of form— " What d'ye lack? — What d'ye lack? — 
 Clocks — watches — barnacles ? — What d'ye lack?— Watches— clocks 
 —barnacles ?— What d'ye lack, sir ? What d'ye lack, madam ?— 
 Barnacles — watches — clocks ? " 
 
 ' But this dull and dry iteration, however varied by diversity of 
 verbal arrangement, sounded flat when mingled with the rich and 
 
 D 
 
34 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 recommendatory oratory of the bold-faced, deep-mouthed, and 
 ready-witted Jenkin Vincent.—" What d'ye lack, noble sir ?— What 
 d'ye lack, beauteous madam?" he said, in a tone at once bold and 
 soothing, which often was so applied as both to gratify the persons 
 addressed, and to excite a smile from other hearers.—" God bless 
 your reverence," to a beneficed clergyman ; " the Greek and Hebrew 
 have harmed your reverence's eyes— Buy a pair of David Ramsay's 
 barnacles. The King— God bless his Sacred Majesty !— never 
 reads Hebrew or Greek without them." 
 
 " Are you well avised of that.? " said a fat parson from the Vale 
 of Evesham. " Nay, if the Head of the Church wears them, — God 
 bless his Sacred Majesty ! — I will try what they can do for me ; for 
 I have not been able to distinguish one Hebrew letter from another, 
 sinee — I cannot remember the time — when I had a bad fever. 
 Choose me a pair of his most Sacred Majesty's own wearing, my 
 good youth." 
 
 " This is a pair, and please your reverence," said Jenkins, pro- 
 ducing a pair of spectacles which he touched with an air of great 
 deference and respect, " which his most blessed Majesty placed this 
 day three weeks on his own blessed nose; and would have kept 
 them for his own sacred use, but that the setting being, as your 
 reverence sees, of the purest jet, was, as his Sacred Majesty was 
 pleased to say, fitter for a bishop, than for a secular prince." 
 
 " His Sacred Majesty the King," said the worthy divine, " was 
 ever a very Daniel in his judgment. Give me the barnacles, my 
 good youth, and who can say what nose they may bestride in two 
 years hence ? — our reverend brother of Gloucester waxes in years." 
 He then pulled out his purse, paid for the spectacles, and 'left the 
 shop with even a more important step than that which had paused 
 to enter it. 
 
 " For shame," said Tunstall to his companion ; " these glasses 
 will never suit one of his years." 
 
 " You are a fool, Frank," said Vincent, in reply ; " had the good 
 doctor wished glasses to read with, he would have tried them before 
 buying. He does not want to look through them himself, and these 
 will serve the purpose of being looked at by other folks, as well as 
 the best magnifiers in the shop. — What d'ye lack?" he cried, 
 resuming his solicitations. " Mirrors for your toilette, my pretty 
 madam ; your head-gear is something awry — pity, since it is so well 
 fancied." The woman stopped and bought a mirror. — "What d'ye 
 lack ?— a watch. Master Sergeant — a watch that will go as long as 
 a lawsuit, as steady and true as your own eloquence ? " 
 
 " Hold your peace, sir," answered the Knight of the Coif, who was 
 disturbed by Vin's address whilst in deep consultation with an 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 35 
 
 eminent attorney ; "hold your peace ! You are the loudest-tongued 
 varlet betwixt the Devil's Tavern and Guildhall." 
 
 "A watch," reiterated the undaunted Jenkin, "that shall not lose 
 thirteen minutes in a thirteen years' lawsuit. — He's out of hearing — 
 A watch with four wheels and a bar-movement— a watch that shall 
 tell you, Master Poet, how long the patience of the audience will 
 endure your next piece at the Black Bull." The bard laughed, and 
 fumbled in the pocket of his slops till he chased into a corner, and 
 fairly caught, a small piece of coin. 
 
 " Here is a tester to cherish thy wit, good boy," he said. 
 
 " Gramercy," said Vin ; " at the next play of yours I will bring 
 down a set of roaring boys that shall make all the critics in the pit, 
 and the gallants on the stage, civil, or else the curtain shall smoke 
 for it." 
 
 " Now, that I call mean," said Tunstall, " to take the poor 
 rhymer's money, who has so little left behind." 
 
 " You are act owl, once again," said Vincent ; " if he has nothing 
 left to buy cheese and radishes, he will only dine a day the sooner 
 with some patron or some player, for that is his fate five days out 
 of the seven. It is unnatural that a poet should pay for his own 
 pot of beer ; I will drink his tester for him, to save him from such 
 shame ; and when his third night comes round, he shall have penni- 
 worths for his coin, I promise you. — But here comes aiiother-guess 
 customer. Look at that strange fellow — see how he gapes at every 
 shop, as if he would swallow the wares. — O ! Saint Dunstan has 
 caught his eye ; pray God he swallow not the images. See how 
 he stands astonished, as old Adam and Eve ply.their ding-dong ! 
 Come, Frank, thou art a scholar ; construe me that same fellow, 
 with his blue cap with a cock's feather in it, to show he's of gentle 
 blood, God wot — his grey eyes, his yellow hair, his sword with a ton 
 of iron in the handle — his grey threadbare cloak— his step hke a 
 Frenchman — his look like a Spaniard — a book at his girdle, and a 
 broad dudgeon-dagger on the other side, to show him half-pedant, 
 half-bully. How call you that pageant, Frank ? " 
 
 " A raw Scotsman," said Tunstall ; "just come up, I suppose, to 
 help the rest of his countrymen to gnaw old England's bones ; a 
 palmerworm, I reckon, to devour what the locust .has spared." 
 
 " Even so, Frank," answered Vincent ; " just as the poet sings 
 sweetly, — 
 
 ' In Scotland he was born and bred. 
 And, though a beggar, must be fed.' " 
 
 " Hush ! " said Tunstall, " remember our master." 
 
 " Pshaw ! " answered his mercurial companion ; " he knows on 
 
 D 2 
 
36 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 which side his bread is buttered, and I warrant you has not lived 
 so long among Englishmen, and by Englishmen, to quarrel with us 
 for bearing an English mind. But see, our Soot has done gazing 
 at Saint Dunstan's, and comes our way. By this light, a proper 
 lad and a sturdy, in spite of freckles and sun-burning.— He comes 
 nearer still, I will have at him." 
 
 "And, if you do," said his comrade, "you may get a broken head 
 — he looks not as if he would carry coals." 
 
 " A fig for your threat," said Vincent, and instantly addressed the 
 stranger. " Buy a watch, most noble northern Thane— buy a 
 watch, to count the hours of plenty since the blessed moment you 
 left Berwick behind you. — Buy barnacles, to see the English gold 
 lies ready for your gripe. — Buy what you will, you shall have credit 
 for three days ; for, were your pockets as bare as Father Fergus's, 
 you are a Scot in London, and you will be stocked in that time." 
 The stranger looked sternly at the waggish apprentice, and seemed 
 to grasp his cudgel in rather a menacing fashion. " Buy physic," 
 said the undaunted Vincent, " if you will buy neither time nor light 
 — physic for a proud stomach, sir ; — there is a 'pothecary's shop on 
 the other side of the way." 
 
 Here the probationary disciple of Galen, who stood at his 
 master's door in his flat cap and canvass sleeves, with a large wooden 
 pestle in his hand, took up the ball which was flung to him by 
 Jenkin, with, "What d'ye lack, sir? — Buy a choice Caledonian 
 salve, Flos sulphvr. cum butyro quant, suff." 
 
 " To be taken after a gentle rubbing-down with an English oaken 
 towel," said Vincent. 
 
 The bonny Scot had given full scope to the play of this small 
 artillery of city wit, by halting his stately pace, and viewing grirnly, 
 first the one assailant, and then the other, as if menacing either 
 repartee or more violent revenge. But phlegm or prudence got the 
 better of his indignation, and, tossing his head as one who valued 
 not the raillery to which he had been exposed, he walked down 
 Fleet Street, pursued by the horse-laugh of his tormentors. 
 
 " The Scot will not fight till he see his own blood," said Tunstall, 
 whom his north of England extraction had made familiar with all 
 manner of proverbs against those who lay yet farther north than 
 himself. 
 
 " Faith, I know not," said Jenkin ; " he looks dangerous, that 
 fellow — he will hit some one over the noddle before he goes far. 
 Hark !— hark ! — they are rising." 
 
 Accordingly, the well-known cry of, " 'Prentices— 'prentices- 
 Clubs— clubs !" now rang along Fleet Street; and Jenkin, snatch- 
 ing up his weapon, which lay beneath the counter ready at the 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 37 
 
 slightest notice, and calling to Tunstall to take his bat and follow, 
 leaped over the hatch-door which protected the outer-shop, and ran 
 as fast as he could towards the affray, echoing the cry as he ran, 
 and elbowing, or shoving aside, whoever stood in his way. His 
 comrade, first calling to his master to give an eye to the shop, 
 followed Jenkin's example, and ran after him as fast as he could, 
 but with more attention to the safety and convenience of others ; 
 while old David Ramsay,* with hands and eyes uplifted, a green 
 apron before him, and a glass which he had been pohshing thrust 
 into his bosom, came forth to look after the safety of his goods and 
 chattels, knowing, by old experience, that, when the cry of " Clubs" 
 once arose, he would have little aid on the part of his apprentices. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 This, sir, is one among the Seignory, 
 Has wealth at will, and will to use his wealth, 
 And wit to increase it. Marry, his worst folly 
 Lies in a thriftless sort of charity, 
 That goes a-gadding sometimes after objects. 
 Which wise men will not see when thrust upon them. 
 
 The Old Couple. 
 
 The ancient gentleman bustled about his shop, in pettish dis- 
 pleasure at being summoned hither so hastily, to the interruption 
 of his more abstract studies ; and, unwilling to renounce the train 
 of calculation which he had put in progress, he mingled whimsically 
 with the fragments of the arithmetical operation, his oratory to the 
 passengers, and angry reflections on his idle apprentices. " What 
 d'ye lack, sir ? Madam, what d'ye lack — clocks for hall or table — 
 night-watches — day-watches .'' — Locking wheel being 48 — the power 
 of retort 8 — the striking pins are 48 — What d'ye lack, honoured 
 sir? — The quotient — the multiplicand — That the knaves should 
 have gone out at this blessed minute ! — the acceleration being at 
 the rate of 5 minutes, 55 seconds, 53 thirds, 59 fourths — I will 
 switch them both when they come back — I will, by the bones of the 
 immortal Napier ! " 
 
 Here the vexed philosopher was interrupted by the entrance of a 
 grave citizen of a most respectable appearance, who, saluting him 
 familiarly by the name of " Davie, my old acquaintance," demanded 
 what had put him so much out of sorts, and gave him at the same 
 time a cordial grasp of his hand. 
 
33 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 The stranger's dress was, though grave, rather richer than usual. 
 His paned hose were of black velvet, lined with purple silk, which 
 garniture appeared at the slashes. His doublet was of purple cloth, 
 and his short cloak of black velvet to correspond with his hose ; 
 and both were adorned with a great number of small silver buttons 
 richly wrought in filigree. A triple chain of gold hung round his 
 neck ; and, in place of a sword or dagger, he wore at his belt an 
 ordinary knife for the purpose of the table, with a small silver case, 
 which appeared to contain writing materials. He might have 
 seemed some secretary or clerk engaged in the service of the 
 public, only that his low, flat, and unadorned cap, and his well- 
 blacked, shining shoes, indicated that he belonged to the city. He 
 was a well-made man, about the middle size, and seemed firm in 
 health, though advanced in years. His looks expressed sagacity 
 and good humour ; and the air of respectability which his dress 
 announced, was well supported by his clear eye, ruddy cheek, and 
 grey hair. He used the Scottish idiom in his first address, but in 
 such a manner that it could hardly be distinguished whether he 
 was passing upon his friend a sort of jocose mockery, or whether it 
 was his own native dialect, for his ordinary discourse had little 
 provincialism. 
 
 In answer to the queries of his respectable friend, Ramsay 
 groaned heavily, answering by echoing back the question, " What 
 ails me. Master George ? Why, everything ails me ! I profess to 
 you that a man may as well live in Fairyland as in the Ward of 
 Farringdon- Without. My apprentices are turned into mere goblins 
 — they appear and disappear like spunkies, and have no more 
 regularity in them than a watch without a scapement. If there is a 
 ball to be tossed up, or a bullock to be driven mad, or a quean to be 
 ducked for scolding, or a head to be broken, Jenkin is sure to be 
 at the one end or the other of it, and then away skips Francis 
 Tunstall for company. I think the prize-fighters, bear-leaders, and 
 mountebanks," are in a league against me, my dear friend, and that 
 they pass my house ten times for any other in the city. Here's an 
 Italian fellow come over, too, that they call Punchinello ; and,, 
 altogether " 
 
 " Well," interrupted Master George, " but what is all this to the 
 present case .'' " 
 
 " Why," replied Ramsay, " here has been a cry of thieves or 
 murder, (I hope that will prove the least of it amongst these English 
 pock-pudding swine !) and I have been interrupted in the deepest 
 calculation ever mortal man plunged into. Master George." 
 
 " What, man ! " replied Master George, " you must take patience 
 —You are a man that deals in time, and can make it go fast and 
 
THE FORtUNES OF NIGEL. 39 
 
 slow at pleasure ; you, of all the world, have least reason to com- 
 plain, if a little of it be lost now and then. — But here come your 
 boys, and bringing in a slain man betwixt them, I think— here has 
 been serious mischief, I am afraid." 
 
 "The more mischief the better sport," said the crabbed old 
 watchmaker. " I am bhthe, though, that it's neither of the twa 
 loons themselves. — What are ye bringing a corpse here for, ye 
 fause villains ? " he added, addressing the two apprentices, who, at 
 the head of a considerable mob of their own class, some of whom 
 bore evident marks of a recent fray, were carrying the body betwixt 
 them. 
 
 " He is not dead yet, sir," answered Tunstall. 
 
 " Carry him into the apothecary's, then," replied his master. 
 " D'ye think I can set a man's life in motion again, as if he were a 
 clock or a time-piece ? " 
 
 " For godsake, old friend," said his acquaintance, " let us have 
 him here at the nearest — he seems only in a swoon." 
 
 "A swoon ?" said Ramsay, "and what business had he to swoon 
 in the streets ? Only, if it will obhge my friend. Master George, I 
 would take in all the dead men in St. Dunstan's parish. Call Sam 
 Porter to look after the shop." 
 
 So saying, the stunned man, being the identical Scotsman who 
 had passed a short time before amidst the jeers of the apprentices, 
 was carried into the back shop of the artist, and there placed in an 
 armed chair till the apothecary from over the way came to his 
 assistance. This gentleman, as sometimes happens to those of 
 the learned professions, had rather more lore than knowledge, 
 and began to talk of the sinciput and occiput, and cerebrum and 
 cerebellum, until he exhausted David Ramsay's brief stock of 
 patience. 
 
 " Bell-um ! bell-ell-um ! " he repeated, with great indignation ; 
 " What signify all the bells in London, if you do not put a plaster 
 on the chield's crown ? " 
 
 Master George, with better directed zeal, asked the apothecary 
 whether bleeding might not be useful ; when, after humming and 
 hawing for a moment, and being unable, upon the spur of the 
 occasion, to suggest anything else, the man of pharmacy observed, 
 that it would, at all events, relieve the brain or cerebrum, in case 
 there was a tendency to the depositation of any extravasated blood 
 to operate as a pressure upon that delicate organ. Fortunately he 
 was adequate to performing this operation ; and, being powerfully 
 aided by Jenkin Vincent (who was learned in all cases of broken 
 heads) with plenty of cold water, and a little vinegar, applied 
 according to the scientific method practised by the bottle-holders 
 
40 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL; 
 
 in a modern ring, the man began to raise himself on his chair, draw 
 his cloak tightly around him, and look about like one who struggles 
 to recover sense and recollection. 
 
 " He had better lie down on the bed in the little back closet," 
 said Mr. Ramsay's visitor, who seemed perfectly familiar with the 
 accommodations which the house afforded. 
 
 " He is welcome to my share of the truckle," said Jenkin,— for in 
 the said back closet were the two apprentices accommodated in 
 one truckle-bed, — " I can sleep under the counter." 
 
 " So can I." said Tunstall, " and the poor fellow can have the bed 
 all night." 
 
 " Sleep," said the apothecary, " is, in the opinion of Galen, a 
 restorative and febrifuge, and is most naturally taken in a truckle- 
 bed." 
 
 " Where a better cannot be come by,"— said Master George ; 
 " but these are two honest lads, to give up their beds so willingly. 
 Come, off with his cloak, and let us bear him to his couch— I will 
 send for Dr. Irving the king's chirurgeon — he does not live far off, 
 and that shall be my share of the Samaritan's duty, neighbour 
 Ramsay." 
 
 " Well, sir,'' said the apothecary, " it is at your pleasure to send 
 for other advice, and I shall not object to consult with Dr. Irving 
 or any other medical person of skill, neither to continue to furnish 
 such drugs as may be needful from my pharmacopoeia. However, 
 whatever Dr. Irving, who, I think, hath had his degrees in Edin- 
 burgh, or Dr. Any-one-beside, be he Scottish or English, may say to 
 the contrary, sleep, taken timeously, is a febrifuge, or sedative, and 
 also a restorative." 
 
 He muttered a few more learned words, and concluded by 
 informing Ramsay's friend in English far more intelligible than his 
 Latin, that he would look to him as his paymaster, for medicines, 
 care, and attendance, furnished, or to be furnished, to this party 
 unknown. 
 
 Master George only replied by desiring him to send his bill 
 for what he had already to charge, and to give himself no farther 
 trouble unless he heard from him. The pharmacopolist, who, from 
 discoveries made by the cloak falling a little aside, had no great 
 opinion of the faculty of this chance patient to make reimbursement, 
 had no sooner seen his case espoused by a substantial citizen, than 
 he showed some reluctance to quit possession of it, and it needed a 
 short and stern hint from Master George, which, with all his good- 
 humour, he was capable of expressing when occasion required, to 
 send to his own dwelling this Esculapius of Temple-Bar. 
 
 When they were rid of Mr. Raredrench, the charitable efforts of 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 41 
 
 Jenkin and Francis, to divest the patient of his long grey-cloak, 
 were firmly resisted on his own part.—" My life suner— my hfe 
 simer," he muttered in indistinct murmurs. In these efforts to 
 retain his upper garment, which was too tender to resist much 
 handling, it gave way at length with a loud rent, which almost 
 threw the patient into a second syncope, and he sat before them in 
 his under garments, the looped and repaired wretchedness of which 
 moved at once pity and laughter, and had certainly been the cause 
 of his unwillingness to resign the mantle, which, like the virtue of 
 charity, served to cover so many imperfections. 
 
 The man himself cast his eyes on his poverty-struck garb, ana 
 seemed so much ashamed of the disclosure, that, muttering between 
 his teeth, that he would be too late for an appointment, he made an 
 effort to rise and leave the shop, which was easily prevented by 
 Jenkin Vincent and his comrade, who, at the nod of Master George, 
 laid hold of and detained him in his chair. The patient next looked 
 round him for a moment, and then said faintly, in his broad northern 
 language — " What sort of usage ca' ye this, gentlemen, to a stranger 
 a sojourner in your town .' Ye hae broken my head — ye hae riven 
 my cloak, and now ye are for restraining my personal liberty ! 
 They were wiser than me," he said, after a moment's pause, " that 
 counselled me to wear my warst claithing in the streets of London ; 
 and, if I could have got ony things warse than these mean gar- 
 ments," — (" which would have been very difficult," said Jin Vin, in 
 a whisper to his companion,) — " they would have been e'en ower 
 gude for the grips o' men sae little acquented with the laws of 
 honest civility." 
 
 " To say the truth," said Jenkin, unable to forbear any longer, 
 although the discipline of the times prescribed to those in his 
 situation a degree of respectful distance and humility in the 
 presence of parents, masters, or seniors, of which the present age 
 has no idea — " to say the truth, the good gentleman's clothes look 
 as if they would not brook much handling." 
 
 " Hold your peace, young man," said Master George, with a tone 
 of authority ; " never mock the stranger or the poor — the black ox 
 has not trod on your foot yet — you know not what lands you may 
 travel in, or what clothes you may wear, before you die." 
 
 Vincent held down his head and stood rebuked, but the stranger 
 did not accept the apology which was made for him. 
 
 " I am a stranger, sir," said he, " that is certain ; though me- 
 thinks, that, being such, I have been Somewhat familiarly treated 
 in this town of yours ;— but, as for my being poor, I think I 
 need not be charged with poverty, till I seek siller of some- 
 bodv." 
 
42 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 "The dear country all over," said Master George, in a whisper, 
 to David Ramsay, " pride and poverty." 
 
 But David had taken out his tablets and silver pen, and, deeply 
 immersed in calculations, in which he rambled over all the terms 
 of arithmetic, from the simple unit to millions, billions, and trillions, 
 neither heard nor answered the observation of his friend, who, see- 
 ing his abstraction, turned again to the Scot. 
 
 " I fancy now, Jockey, if a stranger were to offer you a noble, you 
 would chuck it back at his head." 
 
 a Not if I could do him honest service for it, sir,'' said the Scot ; 
 " I am wiUing to do what I may to be useful, though I come of an 
 honourable house, and may be said to be in a sort indifferently weel 
 provided for." 
 
 " Ay ! " said the interrogator, " and what house may claim the 
 honour of your descent ? " 
 
 " An ancient coat belongs to it, as the play says," whispered 
 Vincent to his companion. 
 
 " Come, Jockey, out with it," continued Master George, observing 
 that the Scot, as usual with his countrymen, when asked a blunt, 
 straightforward question, took a little time before answering it. 
 
 " I am no more Jockey, sir, than you are John," said the stranger, 
 as if offended at being addressed by a name, which at that time was 
 used, as Sawney now is, for a general appellative of the Scottish 
 nation. " My name, if you must know it, is Richie Moniplies ; 
 and I come of the old and honourable house of Castle Collop, weel 
 kend at the West-Port of Edinburgh." 
 
 " What is that you call the West-Port ? " proceeded the interro- 
 gator. 
 
 " Why, an it like your honour," said Richie, who now, having 
 recovered his senses sufficiently to observe the respectable exterior 
 of Master George, threw more civility into his manner than at first, 
 " the West-Port is a gate of our city, as yonder brick arches at 
 Whitehall form the entrance of the King's palace here, only that 
 the West-Port is of stonern work, and mair decorated with archi- 
 tecture and the policy of bigging." 
 
 " Nouns, man, the Whitehall gateways were planned by the great 
 Holbein," answered Master George ; " I suspect your accident has 
 jumbled your brains, my good friend. I suppose you will tell me 
 next, you have at Edinburgh as fine a navigable river as the Thames, 
 with all its shipping ? " 
 
 " The Thames ! " exclaimed Richie, in a tone of ineffable con- 
 tempt—" God bless your honour's judgment, we have at EdinT 
 burgh the Water-of-Leith and the Nor-loch ! " 
 
 " And the Pow-bum, and the Quarry-holes, and the Gusedub, 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 43 
 
 fause loon ! " answered Master George, speaking Scotch with a 
 strong and natural emphasis ; " it is such landloupers as you, that, 
 with your falset and fair fashions, bring reproach on our whole 
 country." 
 
 " God forgie me, sir," said Richie, much surprised at finding the 
 supposed Southron converted into a native Scot, " I took your 
 honour for an Englisher ! But I hope there was naething wrang 
 in standing up for ane's ain country's credit in a strange land, where 
 all men cry her down." 
 
 " Do you call it for your country's credit, to show that she has a 
 lying, puffing rascal, for one of her children ? " said Master George. 
 " But come, man, never look grave on it, — as you have found a 
 countryman, so you have found a friend, if you deserve one — and 
 specially if you answer me truly." 
 
 " I see nae gude it wad do me to speak ought else but truth," 
 said the worthy North Briton. 
 
 " Well, then — to begin," said Master George, " I suspect you are 
 a son of old Mungo Moniplies, the flesher, at the West-Port." 
 
 " Your honour is a witch, I think," said Richie, grinning. 
 
 " And how dared you, sir, to uphold him for a noble ? " 
 
 " I dinna ken, sir," said Richie, scratching his head ; " I hear 
 muckle of an Earl of Warwick in these southern parts, — Guy, I 
 think his name was,— and he has great reputation here for slaying 
 dun cows, and boars, and such like ; and I am sure my father has 
 killed more cows and boars, not to mention bulls, calves, sheep, 
 ewes, lambs, and pigs, than the haill Baronage of England." 
 
 '' Go to ! you are a shrewd knave," said Master George ; " charm 
 your tongue, and take care of saucy answers. Your father was an 
 honest burgher, and the deacon of his craft : I am sorry to see his 
 son in so poor a coat." 
 
 " Indifferent, sir," said Richie Moniplies, looking down on his 
 gannents — " very indifferent ; but it is the wonted livery of poor 
 burghers' sons in our country — one of Luckie Want's bestowing 
 upon us — rest us patient ! The King's leaving Scotland has taken 
 all custom frae Edinburgh ; and there is hay made at the Cross, 
 and a dainty crop of fouats in the Grass-market. There is as much 
 grass grows where my father's stall stood, as might have been a 
 good bite for the beasts he was used to kill." 
 
 " It is even too true," said Master George ; " and while we make 
 fortunes here, our old neighbours and their families are starving at 
 home. This should be thought upon oftener. — And how came you 
 by that broken head, Richie ? — tell me honestly." 
 
 " Troth, sir, I'se no lee about the matter," answered Moniplies. 
 " I was coming along the street here, and ilk ane was at me with 
 
44, THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 their jests and roguery. So I thought to mysell, ye are ower mony 
 for me to mell with ; but let me catch ye in Barford's Park, or at 
 the fit of the Vennel, I could gar some of ye sing another sang. 
 Sae ae auld hirpling deeviJ of a potter behoved just to step in my 
 way and offer me a pig, as he said, just to put my Scotch ointment 
 in, and I gave him a push, as but natural, and the tottering devil 
 couped ower amang his ain pigs, and damaged a score of them. 
 And then the reird raise, and hadna these twa gentlemen helped me 
 out of it, murdered I suld hae been, without remeid. And as it was, 
 just when they got haud of my arm to have me out of the fray, 
 I got the lick that donnerit me from a left-handed lighterman." 
 
 Master George looked to the apprentices as if to demand the 
 truth of this story. 
 
 " It is just as he says, sir," replied Jenkin ; " only I heard nothing 
 about pigs. — The people said he had broke some crockery, and that 
 — I beg pardon, sir — nobody could thrive within the kenning of a 
 Scot." 
 
 "Well, no matter what they said, you were an honest fellow to 
 help the weaker side — And you, sirrah," continued Master George, 
 addressing his countryman, "will call at my house to-morrow 
 morning, agreeable to this direction." 
 
 " I will wait upon your honour," said the Scot, bowing very low ; 
 " that is, if my honourable master will permit me." 
 
 "Thy master?" said George, — "Hast thou any other master 
 save Want, whose liveiy you say you wear ? " 
 
 " Troth, in one sense, if it please your honour, I serve twa 
 masters," said Richie ; " for both my master and me are slaves to 
 that same beldam, whom we thought to show our heels to by 
 coming off from Scotland. So that you see, sir, I hold in a sort of 
 black ward tenure, as we call it in our country, being the servant of 
 a servant." 
 
 " And what is your master's name ? " said George ; and observ- 
 ing that Richie hesitated, he added, " Nay, do not tell me, if it is a 
 secret." 
 
 " A secret that there is little use in keeping,'' said Richie ; '' only 
 ye ken that our northern stomachs are ower proud to call in 
 witnesses to our distress. No that my master is in mair than pre- 
 sent pinch, sir," he added, looking towards the two English 
 apprentices, " having a large sum in the Royal Treasury — that is," 
 he continued, in a whisper to Master George, — " the King is owing 
 him a lot of siller ; but it's ill getting at it, it's like. — My master is 
 the young Lord Glenvarloch." 
 
 Master George testified surprise at the name. — " You one of the 
 young Lord Glenvarloch's followers, and in such a condition ? " 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 45 
 
 " Troth, and I am all the followers he has, for the present that 
 is ; and blithe wad I be if he were muckle better aff than I am, 
 though I were to bide as I am." 
 
 " I have seen his father with four gentlemen and ten lackeys at 
 his heels," said Master George, " rustling in their laces and velvets. 
 Well, this is a changeful world, but there is a better beyond it. — 
 The good old house of Glenvarloch, that stood by king and country 
 five hundred years ! " 
 
 " Your honour may say a thousand," said the follower. 
 
 " I will say what I know to be true, friend," said the citizen, " and 
 not a word more. — You seem<.well recovered now— can you 
 walk?" 
 
 "Bravely, sir," said Richie; "it was but ajjit dover. I was 
 bred at the West-Port, and my cantle will stand a clour wad bring 
 a stot down." 
 
 " Where does your master lodge ? " 
 
 " We pit up, an it like your honour,'' replied the Scot, " in a sma' 
 house at the fit of ane of the wynds that gang down to the water 
 side, with a decent man, John Christie, a ship-chandler, as they ca't. 
 His father came from Dundee. I wotna the name of the wynd, 
 but it's right anent the mickle kirk yonder ; and your honour will 
 mind, that we pass only by our family-name of simple Mr. Nigel 
 Olifaunt, as keeping ourselves retired for the present, though in 
 Scotland we be called the Lord Nigel." 
 
 " It is wisely done of your master," said the citizen. " I will find 
 out your lodgings, though your direction be none of the clearest." 
 So saying, and slipping a piece of money at the same time into 
 Richie Moniplies's hand, he bade him hasten home, and get intone 
 more affrays. 
 
 " I will take care of that now, sir," said Richie, with a look of 
 importance, " having a charge alDout me. And so, wussing ye a' 
 weel, with special thanks to these twa young gentlemen " 
 
 " I am no gentleman," said Jenkin, flinging his cap on his head ; 
 " I am a tight London 'prentice, and hope to be a freeman one 
 day. Frank may write himself gentleman, if he will." 
 
 " I was a gentleman once," said Tunstall, " and I hope I have 
 done nothing to lose the name of one." 
 
 " Weel, weel, as ye list," said Richie Moniplies ; " but I am 
 mickle beholden to ye baith — and I am not a hair the less like to 
 bear it in mind that I say but little about it just now.— Gude-night 
 to you, my kind countryman." So saying, he thrust out of the 
 sleeve of his ragged doublet a long bony hand and arm, on which 
 the muscles rose like whip-cord. Master George shook it heartily, 
 while Jenkin and Frank exchanged sly looks with each other. 
 
46 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 Richie Moniplies would next have addressed his thanks to the 
 master of the shop, but seeing him, as he afterwards said, 
 " scribbhng on his bit bookie, as if he were demented," he con- 
 tented his poHteness with " giving him a hat," touching, that is, 
 his bonnet, in token of salutation, and so left the shop. 
 
 " Now, there goes Scotch Jockey, with all his bad and good 
 about him," said Master George to Master David, who suspended, 
 though unwillingly, the calculations with which he was engaged, and 
 keeping his pen within an inch of the tablets, gazed on his friend 
 with great lack-lustre eyes, which expressed any thing rather than 
 intelligence or interest in the discourse addressed to him. — " That 
 fellow," proceeded Master George, without heeding his friend's 
 state of abstraction, " shows, with great liveliness of colouring, how 
 our Scotch pride and poverty make liars and braggarts of us ; and 
 yet the knave, whose every third word to an Englishman is a 
 boastful lie, will, I warrant you, be a true and tender friend and 
 follower to his master, and has perhaps parted with his mantle 
 to him in the cold blast, although he himself walked in cuerpo, as 
 the Don says. — Strange ! that courage and fidelity — for I will 
 warrant that the knave is stout — should have no better companion 
 than this swaggering braggadocio humour. — But you mark me not, 
 friend Davie." 
 
 " I do — I do, most heedfuUy," said Davie. — " For, as the sun 
 goeth round the dial-plate in twenty-four hours, add, for the moon, 
 fifty minutes and a half" 
 
 " You are in the seventh heavens, man," said his companion. 
 
 " I crave your pardon," replied Davie. — " Let the wheel A go 
 round in twenty-four hours — I have it — and the wheel B in twenty- 
 four hours, fifty minutes and a half— fifty-seven being to fifty-four, 
 as fifty-nine to twenty-four hours, fifty minutes and a half, or very 
 nearly,— I crave your forgiveness, Master George, and heartily 
 wish you good-even." 
 
 " Good-even ! " said Master George ; " why, you have not wished 
 me good-day yet. Come, old friend, lay by these tablets, or you 
 will crack the inner machinery of your skull, as our friend yonder 
 has got the outer-case of his damaged. — Good-night, quotha ! I 
 mean not to part with you so easily. I came to get my four-hours' 
 nunchion from you, man, besides a tune on the lute from my god- 
 daughter, Mrs. Marget." 
 
 Good faith ! I was abstracted. Master George — ^but you know 
 me. Whenever I get amongst the wheels," said Mr. Ramsay, 
 « why, 'tis " 
 
 " Lucky that you deal in small ones," said his friend ; as, 
 awakened from his reveries and calculations, Ramsay led the way 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 47 
 
 up a little back-stair to the first story, occupied by his daughter, 
 and his little household. 
 
 The apprentices resumed their places in the front-shop, and 
 relieved Sam Porter ; when Jenkin said to Tunstall — " Didst see, 
 Frank, how the old goldsmith cottoned in with his beggarly 
 countryman .' When would one of his wealth have shaken hands 
 so courteously with a poor Englishman ? — Well, I'll say that for 
 the best of the Scots, that they will go over head and ears to serve 
 a countryman, when they will not wet a nail of their finger to save 
 a Southron, as they call us, from drowning. And yet Master 
 George is but half-bred Scot neither in that respect ; for I have 
 known him do many a kind thing to the English too." 
 
 " But hark ye, Jenkin," said Tunstall, " I think you are but half- 
 bred English yourself. How came you to strike on the Scotsman's 
 side after all?" 
 
 " Why, you did so, too,'' answered Vincent. 
 
 " Ay, because I saw you begin ; and, besides, it is no Cumber- 
 land fashion to fall fifty upon one," replied Tunstall. 
 
 " And no Christ-Church fashion neither," said Jenkin. " Fair 
 play and Old England for ever ! — Besides, to tell you a secret, 
 his voice had a twang in it — in the dialect I mean — reminded me 
 of a little tongue, which I think sweeter — sweeter than the last 
 toll of St. Dunstan's will sound, on the day that I am shot of my 
 indentures. — Ha ! — you guess who I mean, Frank ? " 
 
 " Not I, indeed," answered Tunstall. — "Scotch Janet, I suppose, 
 the laundress." 
 
 " Off with Janet in her own bucking-basket ! — no, no, no ! — You 
 blind buzzard, — do you not know I mean pretty Mrs. Marget ? " 
 
 " Umph ! " answered Tunstall, dryly. 
 
 A flash of anger, not unmingled with suspicion, shot from Jenkin's 
 keen black eyes. 
 
 " Umph ! — and what signifies umph ? I am not the first 
 'prentice has married his master's daughter, I think ? " 
 
 " They kept their own secret, I fancy," said " Tunstall, at least till 
 they were out of their time." 
 
 " I tell you what it is, Frank," answered Jenkin, sharply, " that 
 may be the fashion of you gentlefolks, tliat are taught from your 
 biggin to carry two faces under the same hood, but it shall never 
 be mine." 
 
 " There are the stairs, then," said Tunstall, coolly ; " go up and 
 ask Mrs. Marget of our master just now, and see what sort of a 
 face he will wear under his hood." 
 
 " No, I wonnot," answered Jenkin ; " I am not such a fool as 
 that neither. But I will take my own time ; and all the Counts in 
 
48 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 Cumberland shall not cut my comb, and this is that which you may 
 depend upon." 
 
 Francis made no reply ; and they resumed their usual attention 
 to the business of the shop, and their usual solicitations to the 
 passengers.* 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Bobadil. I pray you, possess no gallant of your acquaintance 
 with a knowledge of my lodging. 
 Master Matthew. Who, I, sir ? — Lord, sir ! 
 
 Ben Jonson. 
 
 The next morning found Nigel Olifaunt, the young Lord of 
 Glenvarloch, seated, sad and solitary, in his little apartment, in 
 the mansion of John Christie, the ship-chandler ; which that honest 
 tradesman, in gratitude perhaps to the profession from which he 
 derived his chief support, appeared to have constructed as nearly 
 as possible upon the plan of a ship's cabin. 
 
 It was situated near to Paul's Wharf7 at the end of one of those 
 intricate and narrow lanes, which, until that part of the city was 
 swept away by the great fire in 1666, constituted an extraordinary 
 labyrinth of small, dark, damp, and unwholesome streets and alleys, 
 in one corner or other of which the plague was then as surely 
 found lurking, as in tlie obscure corners of Constantinople in our 
 own time. But Jolin Christie's house looked out upon the river, 
 and had the advantage, therefore, of free air, impregnated, however, 
 with the odoriferous fumes of the articles in which the ship-chandler 
 dealt, with the odour of pitch, and the natural scent of the ooze 
 and sludge left by the reflux of the tide. 
 
 Upon the whole, except that his dwelling did not float with 
 the flood-tide, and become stranded with the ebb, the young lord 
 was nearly as comfortably accommodated as he was while on 
 board the little trading brig from the long town of Kirkaldy, in 
 Fife, by which he had come a passenger to London. He received, 
 however, every attention which could be paid him by his honest 
 landlord, John Christie ; for Richie Moniphes had not thought it 
 necessary to preserve his master's incognito so completely, but 
 that the honest ship-chandler could form a guess that his guest's 
 quality was superior to his appearance. As for Dame Nelly, his 
 wife, a round, buxom, laughter-loving dame, with black eyes, a 
 
THE FORTUNES OP NIGEL. 49 
 
 tight well-taced bodice, a green apron, and a red petticoat edged 
 with a slight silver lace, and judiciously shortened so as to show 
 that a short heel, and a tight clean ankle, rested upon her well- 
 'burnished shoe, — she, of course, felt interest in a young man, who, 
 besides being very handsome, good-humoured, and easily satisfied 
 with the accommodations her house afforded, was evidently of a 
 rank, as well as manners, highly superior to the skippers (or 
 Captains, as they called themselves) of merchant vessels, who were 
 the usual tenants of the apartments which she let to hire ; and 
 at whose departure she was sure to find her well-scrubbed floor 
 soiled with the relics of tobacco, (which, spite of King James's 
 Counterblast, was then forcing itself into use,) and her best cur- 
 tains impregnated with the odour of Geneva and strong waters, 
 to Dame Nelly's great indignation ; for, as she truly said, the smell 
 of the shop and warehouse was bad enough without these additions. 
 
 But all Mr. Olifaunt's habits were regular and cleanly, and his 
 address, though frank and simple, showed so much of the courtier 
 and gentleman, as formed a strong contrast with the loud halloo, 
 coarse jests, and boisterous impatience, of her maritime inmates. 
 Dame Nelly saw that her guest was melancholy also, notwith- 
 standing his efforts to seem contented and cheerful ; and, in 
 short, she took that sort of interest in him, without being herself 
 aware of its extent, which an unscrupulous gallant might have 
 been tempted to improve to the prejudice of honest John, who 
 was at least a score of years older than his helpmate. Olifaunt, 
 however, had not only other matters to think of, but would have 
 regarded such an intrigue, had the idea ever occurred to him, as 
 an abominable and ungrateful encroachment upon the laws of 
 hospitality, his religion having been by his late father formed 
 upon the strict principles of the national faith, and his morality 
 upon those of the nicest honour. He had not escaped the pre- 
 dominant weakness of his country, an overweening sense of the 
 pride of birth, and a disposition to value the worth and con- 
 sequence of others according to the number and the fame of 
 their deceased ancestors ; but this pride of family was well sub- 
 dued, and in general almost entirely concealed, by his good sense 
 and general courtesy. 
 
 Such as we have described him, Nigel Olifaunt, or rather the 
 young Lord Glenvarloch, was, when our narrative takes him up, 
 under great perplexity respecting the fate of his trusty and only 
 follower, Richard Moniplies, who had been dispatched by his 
 young master, early the preceding morning, as far as the court at 
 Westminster, but had not yet returned. His evening adventures 
 the reader is already acquainted with, and so far knows 
 
so THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 more of Richie than did his master, who had not heard of 
 him for twenty-four hours. Dame Nelly Christie, in the mean- 
 time, regarded her guest with some anxiety, and a great desire 
 to comfort him if possible. She placed on the breakfast-table a 
 noble piece of cold powdered beef, with its usual guards of turnip 
 and carrot, recommended her mustard as coming direct from her 
 cousin at Tewkesbury, and spiced the toast with her own hands— 
 and with her own hands, also, drew a jug of stout and nappy ale, 
 all of which were elements of the substantial breakfast of the 
 period. 
 
 When sne saw that her guest's anxiety prevented him from doing 
 justice to the good cheer which she set before him, she commenced 
 her career of verbal consolation with the usual volubility of those 
 women in her station, who, conscious of good looks, good inten- 
 tions, and good lungs, entertain no fear either of wearying them- 
 selves or of fatiguing their auditors. 
 
 " Now, what the good year ! are we to send you down to Scot- 
 land as thin as you came up ? — I am sure it would be contrary to 
 the course of nature. There was my goodman's father, old Saridie 
 Christie, I have heard he was an atomy when he came "up from the 
 North, and I am sure he died. Saint BarnabyVas ten years, at 
 twenty stone weight. I was a bare-headed girl at the time, and 
 lived in the neighbourhood, though I had little thought of marrying 
 John then, who had a score of years the better of me — but he is 
 a thriving man and a kind husband — and his father, as I was say- 
 ing, died as fat as a churchwarden. Well, sir, but I hope I have 
 not offended you for my little joke — and I hope the ale is to your 
 honour's liking, — and the beef— and the mustard ? " 
 
 " All excellent — all too good," answered Olifaunt ; " you have 
 every thing so clean and tidy, dame, that I shall not know how 
 lo live when I go back to my own country — if ever 1 go baclc 
 there." 
 
 This was added as it seemed involuntarily, and with a deep sigh. 
 
 " I warrant your honour go back again if you like it," said the 
 dame ; " unless you think rather of taking a pretty, well-dowered 
 English lady, as some of your countryfolk have done. I assure 
 you, some of the best of the city have married Scotsmen. There 
 was Lady Trebleplumb, Sir Thomas Trebleplumb the great Turkey 
 merchant's widow, married Sir Awley Macauley, whom your honour 
 knows, doubtless ; and pretty Mistress Doublefee, old Sergeant 
 Doublefee's daughter, jumped out of window, and was married at 
 May-fair to a Scotsman with a hard name ; and old Pitchpost the 
 timber- merchant's daughters did little better, for they married two 
 Inshmei, ; and when folks jeer me about having a Scotsman for 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 51 
 
 lodger, meaning your honour, I tell them they are afraid of their 
 daughters and their mistresses ; and sure I have a right to stand 
 up for the Scots, since John Christie is half a Scotsman, and a 
 thriving man, and a good husband, though there is a score of years 
 between us ; and so I would have your honour cast care away, and 
 mend your breakfast with a morsel and a draught." 
 
 " At a word, my kind hostess, I cannot," said Olifaunt ; " I am 
 anxious about this knave of mine, who has been so long absent in 
 this dangerous town of yours." 
 
 It may be noticed in passing, that Dame Nelly's ordinary mode 
 ' of consolation was to disprove the existence of any cause for dis- 
 tress ; and she is said to have carried this so far as to comfort a 
 neighbour, who had lost her husband, with the assurance that the 
 dear defunct would be better to-morrow, which perhaps might not 
 have proved an appropriate, even if it had been a possible, mode 
 of relief. On this occasion she denied stoutly that Richie had 
 been absent altogether twenty hours ; and as for people being 
 killed in the streets of London, to be sure two men had been found 
 in Tower-ditch last week, but that was far to the east, and the 
 other poor man that had his throat cut in the fields, had met his 
 mishap near by Islington ; and he that was stabbed by the young 
 Templar in a drunken frolic, by Saint Clement's in the Strand, 
 was an Irishman. All which evidence she produced to show 
 that none of these casualties had occurred in a case exactly 
 parallel with that of Richie, a Scotsman, and on his return from 
 Westminster. 
 
 " My better comfort is, my good dame,'' answered Olifaunt, 
 " that the lad is no brawler or quarreller, unless strongly urged, 
 and that he has nothing valuable about him to any one but me." 
 
 "Your honour speaks very well," retorted the inexhaustible 
 hostess, who protracted her task of taking away, and putting to 
 rights, in order that she might prolong her gossip. " I'll uphold 
 Master Moniplies to be neither reveller nor brawler, for if he liked 
 such things he might be visiting and junketing with the young folks 
 about here in the neighbourhood, and he never dreams of it ; and 
 when I asked the young man to go as far as my gossip's. Dame 
 Drinkwater, to taste a glass of aniseed, and a bit of the groaning 
 cheese, — for Dame Drinkwater has had twins, as I told your honour, 
 sir,— and I meant it quite civilly to the young man, but he chose to 
 sit and keep house with John Christie ; and I dare say there is a 
 score of years between them, for your honour's servant looks 
 scarce much older than I am. I wonder what they could have 
 to say to each other. I asked John Christie^ but he bid me go to 
 sleep." 
 
 £ 2 
 
52 THE FORTUNES OF KIGEL. 
 
 " If he comes not soon," said his master, " I will thank you to 
 tell me what magistrate I can address myself to ; for besides my 
 anxiety for the poor fellow's safety, he has papers of importance 
 about him." 
 
 " O ! your honour may be assured he will be back in a quarter 
 of an hour," said Dame Nelly; "he is not the lad to stay out 
 twenty-four hours at a stretch. And for the papers, I am sure your 
 honour will pardon him for just giving me a peep at the corner, as 
 I was giving him a small cup, not so large as my thimble, of dis- 
 tilled waters, to fortify his stomach against the damps, and it was 
 directed to the King's Most Excellent Majesty ; and so doubtless 
 his Majesty has kept Richie out of civility to consider of your 
 honour's letter, and send back a fitting reply." 
 
 Dame Nelly here hit by chance on a more available topic of con- 
 solation than those she had hitherto touched upon ; for the youth- 
 ful lord had himself some vague hopes that his messenger might 
 have been delayed at Court until a fitting and favourable answer 
 should be dispatched back to him. Inexperienced, however, in 
 public affairs as he certainly was, it required only a moment's con- 
 sideration to convince him of the improbability of an expectation 
 so contrary to all he had heard of etiquette, as well as the dilatory 
 proceedings in a court suit, and he answered the good-natured hostess 
 with a sigh, that he doubted whether the King would even look on 
 the paper addressed to him, far less take it into his immediate con- 
 sideration. 
 
 " Now, out upon you for a faint-hearted gentleman ! " said the 
 good dame ; " and why should he not do as much for us as our 
 gracious Queen Elizabeth ? Many people say this and that about 
 a queen and a king, but I think a king comes more natural to us 
 E^nglish folks ; and this good gentleman goes as often down by 
 water to Greenwich, and employs as many of the barge-men and 
 watermen of all kinds ; and maintains, in his royal grace, John 
 Taylor the water poet, who keeps both a sculler and a pair of oars. 
 And he has made a comely Court at Whitehall, just by the river ; 
 and since the King is so good a friend to the Thames, I cannot 
 see, if it please your honour, why all his subjects, and your honour 
 in specialty, should not have satisfaction by his hands." 
 
 " True, dame— true,— let us hope for the best ; but I must take 
 my cloak and rapier, and pray your husband in courtesy to teach 
 me the way to a magistrate." 
 
 " Sure, sir," said the prompt dame, " I can do that as well as he, 
 who has been a slow man of his tongue all his life, though I will 
 give him his due for being a loving husband, and a man as well to 
 pass in the world as any betwixt us and the top of the lane. And 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 53 
 
 SO there is the sitting alderman, that is always at the Guildhall, 
 which is close by Paul's, and so I warrant you he puts all to rights 
 in the city that wisdom can mend ; and for the rest there is no 
 help but patience. But I wish I were as sure of forty pounds, as I 
 am that the young man will come back safe and sound." 
 
 Olifaunt, in great and anxious doubt of what the good dame so 
 strongly' averred, flung his cloak on one shoulder, and was about 
 to belt on his rapier, when first the voice of Richie Moniplies on 
 the stair, and then that faithful emissary's appearance in the cham- 
 ber, put the matter beyond question. Dame Nelly, after congratu- 
 lating Moniplies on his return, and paying several compliments to 
 her own sagacity for having foretold it, was at length pleased to 
 leave the apartment. The truth was, that, besides some instinctive 
 feelings of good-breeding which combated her curiosity, she saw 
 there was no chance of Richie's proceeding in his narrative while 
 she was in the room, and she therefore retreated, trusting that her 
 own address would get the secret out of one or other of the young 
 men, when she should have either by himself. 
 
 " Now, in Heaven's name, what is the matter ? " said Nigel Oli- 
 faunt. — " Where have you been, or what have you been about ? 
 You look as pale as death. There is blood on ) our hand, and your 
 clothes are torn. What barns-breaking have you been at ? You 
 have been drunk, Richard, and fighting." 
 
 " Fighting I have been," said Richard, " in a small way ; but for 
 being drunk, that's a job ill to manage in this town, without money 
 to come by liquor ; and as for barns-breaking, the deil a thing's 
 broken but my head. It's not made of iron, I wot, nor my claithes 
 of chenzie-mail ; so a club smashed the tane, and a claught 
 damaged the tither. Some misleard rascals abused my country, 
 but I think I cleared the causey of them. However, the haill hive 
 was ower mony for me at last, and I got this eclipse on the crown, 
 and then I was carried, beyond my kenning, to a sma' booth at the 
 Temple-Port, whare they sell the whirlygigs and mony-go-rounds 
 that measure out time as a man wad measure a tartan web j and 
 then they bled me, wold I nold I, and were reasonably civil, espe- 
 cially an auld countryman of ours, of whom more hereafter." 
 
 " And at what o'clock might this be 1 " said Nigel. 
 
 " The twa iron carles yonder, at the kirk beside the Port, were 
 just banging cut sax o' the clock." 
 
 " And why came you not home as soon as you recovered ? " said 
 Nigel. 
 
 " In troth, my lord, every why has its wherefore, and this has a 
 gude ane," answered his follower. " To come hame, I behoved to 
 ken whare hame was ; now, I had clean tint the name of the wynd. 
 
54 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 and the mair I asked, the mair the folk leugh, and the farther they 
 sent me wrang ; sae I gave it up till God should send daylight to 
 help me ; and as I saw mysell near a kirk at the lang run. I e'en 
 crap in to take up my night's quarters in the kirkyard." 
 
 " In the churchyard ? " said Nigel—" But I need not ask what 
 drove you to such a pinch." 
 
 " It wasna sae much the want o' siller, my Lord I^Jigel," said 
 Richie, with an air of mysterious importance, " for I was no sae 
 absolute without means, of whilk mair anon ; but I thought I wad 
 never ware a saxpence sterling on ane of their saucy chamberlains 
 at a hostelry, sae lang as I could sleep fresh and fine in a fair, dry, 
 spring night. Mony a time, when I hae come hame ower late, and 
 faund the West-Port steekit, and the waiter ill-willy, I have garr'd 
 the Sexton of Saint Cuthbert's calf-ward serve me for my quarters. 
 But then there are dainty green graffs in Saint Cuthbert's kirkyard, 
 whare ane may sleep as if they were in a down-lsed, till they hear 
 the lavrock singing up in the air as high as the Castle ; whereas, 
 and behold, these London kirkyards are causeyed with through- 
 stanes, panged hard and fast thegither ; and my cloak being some- 
 thing threadbare, made but a thin mattress, so I was fain to give up 
 my bed before every limb about me was crippled. Dead folks may 
 sleep yonder sound enow, but deil haet else." 
 
 " And what became of you next ?" said his master. 
 
 " I just took to a canny bulk-head, as they ca' them here ; that 
 is, the boards on the tap of their bits of outshots of stalls and 
 booths, and there I sleepit as sound as if I was in a castle. Not 
 but I was disturbed with some of the night-walking queans and 
 swaggering billies, but when they found there was nothing to be 
 got by me but a slash of my Andrew Ferrara, they bid me good- 
 night for a beggarly Scot ; and I was e'en weel pleased to be sae 
 cheap rid of them. And in the morning, I ca.Ti daikering here, 
 but sad wark I had to find the way, for 1 had been east as far 
 as the place they ca' Mile-End, though it is mair like sax-mile- 
 end." 
 
 " Well, Richie,'' answered Nigel, " I am glad all this has ended so 
 well— go get something to eat. I am sure you need it." 
 
 " In troth do I, sir," replied Moniplies ; "but, with your lordship's 
 leave " 
 
 " Forget the lordship for the present, Richie, as I have often told 
 you before." 
 
 " Faith," replied Richie, " I could weel forget that your honour 
 was a lord, but then I behoved to forget that I am a lord's man, 
 and that's not so easy. But however," he added, assisting his de- 
 scription with the thumb and the two forefingers of his right hand, 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 55 
 
 thrust out after the fashion of a bird's claw, while the little finger 
 and ring-finger were closed upon the palm, " to the Court I went, 
 and my friend that promised me a sight of his Majesty's most gra- 
 cious presence, was as gude as his word, and carried me into the 
 back offices, where I got the best breakfast I have had since we 
 came here, and it did me gude for the rest of the day ; for as to 
 what I have eaten in this accursed town, it is aye sauced with the 
 disquieting thought that it maun be paid for. After a', there was 
 but beef banes and fat brose ; but king's cauff, your honour kens, 
 is better than ither folk's corn ; at ony rate, it was a' in free awmous. 
 — But, I see," he added, stopping short, " that your honour waxes 
 impatient." 
 
 " By no means, Richie," said the young nobleman, with an air of 
 resignation, for he well knew his domestic would not mend his pace 
 for goading ; " you have suffered enough in the embassy to have 
 a right to tell the story in your own way. Only let me pray for the 
 name of the friend who was to introduce you into the King's pre- 
 sence. You were very mysterious on the subject, when you under- 
 took, through his means, to have the Supplication put into his 
 Majesty's own hands, since those sent heretofore, I have every 
 reason to think, went no farther than his secretary's." 
 
 " Weal, my lord," said Richie, " I did not tell you his name and 
 quality at first, because I thought you would be affronted at the 
 like of him having to do in your Lordship's affairs. But mony a 
 man climbs up in Court by waur help. It was just Laurie Link- 
 later, one of the yeomen of the kitchen, that was my father's 
 apprentice lang syne." 
 
 " A yeoman of the kitchen — a scullion ! " exclaimed Lord Nigel, 
 pacing the room in displeasure. 
 
 " But consider. Sir," said Richie, composedly, " that a' your 
 great friends hung back, and shunned to own you, or to advocate 
 your petition ; and then, though I am sure I wish Laurie a higher 
 office, for your lordship's sake and for mine, and specially for his 
 ain sake, being a friendly lad, yet your lordship must consider, 
 that a scullion, if a yeoman of the King's most royal kitchen may 
 be called a scullion, may weal rank with a master-cook elsewhere ; 
 being that king's cauff, as I said before, is better than " 
 
 " You are right, and I was wrong," said the young nobleman. 
 " I have no choice of means of making my case known, so that 
 they be honest." 
 
 " Laurie is as honest a lad as ever lifted a ladle," said Richie ; 
 " not but what I dare to say he can lick his fingers like other folk, 
 and reason good. But, in fine, for I see your honour is waxing 
 impatient, he brought me to the palace, where a' was astir for the 
 
S6 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 King going out to hunt or hawk on Blackheath, I think they ca'd 
 it. And there was a horse stood with all the quarries about it, a 
 bonny grey as ever was foaled ; and the saddle and the stirrups, 
 and the curb and bit, o' burning gowd, or silver gilded at least ; 
 and down, sir, came the King, with all his nobles, dressed out in 
 his hunting- suit of green, doubly laced, and laid down with gowd, 
 I minded the very face o' him, though it was lang since I saw him. 
 But my certie, lad, thought I, times are changed since ye came 
 fleeing down the backstairs of auld Holyrood-House, in grit fear, 
 having your breeks in your hand without time to put them on, and 
 Frank Stewart, the wild Earl of Bothwell, hard at your haunches ; 
 and if auld Lord Glenvarloch hadna cast his mantle about his arm, 
 and taken bluidy wounds mair than ane in your behalf, you wald 
 not have craw'd sae crouse this day ; and so saying, I could not 
 but think your lordship's Sifflication could not be less than most 
 acceptable ; and so I banged in among the crowd of lords. Laurie 
 thought me mad, and held me by the cloak-lap till the cloth rave 
 in his hand ; and so I banged in right before the King just as he 
 mounted, and crammed the Sifflication into his hand, and he 
 opened it like in amaze ; and just as he saw the first line, I was 
 minded to make a reverence, and I had the ill luck to hit his jaud 
 o' a beast on the nose with my hat, and scaur the creature, and she 
 swarved aside, and the King, that sits na mickle better than a draff- 
 pock on the saddle, was like to have gotten a clean coup, and that 
 might have cost my craig a raxing — and he flung down the paper 
 amang the beast's feet, and cried. Away wi' the fause loon that 
 brought it ! And they grippit me, and cried Treason ; and I 
 thought of the Ruthvens that were dirked in their ain house, for, it 
 may be, as small a forfeit. However, they spak only of scourging 
 me, and had me away to the porter's lodge to try the tawse on my 
 back, and I was crying mercy as loud as I could ; and the King, 
 when he had righted himsell on the saddle, and gathered his 
 breath, cried to do me nae harm ; for said he, he is ane of our ain 
 Norland stots, I ken by the rowt of him, — and they a' laughed and 
 rowted loud eneugh. And then he said, Gie him a copy of the 
 Proclamation, and let him go down to the North by the next light 
 collier, before waur come o't. So they let me go, and rode out, a' 
 sniggering, laughing, and rounding in ilk ither's lugs. A sair life I 
 had wi' Laurie Linklater ; for he said it wad be the ruin of him. 
 And then, when I told him it was in your matter, he said if he had 
 known before he would have risked a scauding for you, because he 
 minded the brave old Lord, your father. And then he showed how 
 I suld have done,— and that I suld have held up my hand to my 
 brow, as if the grandeur of the King and his horse-graith thegither 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. S7 
 
 had casten the glaiks in my een, and mair jackanape tricks I suld 
 hae played, instead of offering the Sifflication, he said, as if I had 
 been bringing guts to a bear.* ' For,' said he, ' Richie, the King 
 is a weel-natured and just man of his ain kindly nature, but he has 
 a wheen maggots that maun be cannily guided ; and then, Richie,' 
 says he, in a very laigh tone, ' I would tell it to nane but a wise 
 man like yoursell, but the King has them about him wad corrupt 
 an angel from heaven ; but I could have gi'en you avisement how 
 to have guided him, but now it's like after meat mustard.' — 'Aweel, 
 aweel, Laurie,' said I, ' it may be as you say ; but since I am clear 
 of the tawse and the porter's lodge, sifflicate wha like, deil hae 
 Richie Moniplies if he come sifflicatinghere again.' — And so away 
 I came, and I wasna far by the Temple Port, or Bar, or whatever 
 they ca' it, when I met with the misadventure that I tauld you of 
 before." 
 
 " Well, my honest Richie," said Lord Nigel, " your attempt was 
 well meant, and not so ill conducted, I think, as to have deserved 
 so bad an issue ; but go to your beef and mustard, and we'll talk 
 of the rest afterwards." 
 
 " There is nae mair to be spoken, sir,'' said his follower, " except 
 that I met ane very honest, fair-spoken, weel-put-on gentleman, or 
 rather burgher, as I think, that was in the whigmaleery man's 
 back-shop ; and when he learned wha I was, behold he was a 
 kindly Scot himsell, and, what is more, a town's-bairn o' the gude 
 town, and he behoved to compel me to take this Portugal piece, to 
 drink, forsooth — my certie, thought I, we ken better, for we will eat 
 it — and he spoke of paying your lordship a visit." 
 
 " You did not tell him where I lived, you knave?" said the Lord 
 Nigel, angrily. "'Sdeath! I shall have every clownish burgher 
 from Edinburgh come to gaze on my distress, and pay a shilling 
 for having seen the Motion* of the Poor Noble ! " 
 
 " Tell him where you lived ? " [said Richie, evading the question ; 
 " How could I tell him what I kendna mysell ? If I had minded 
 the name of the wynd, I need not have slept in the kirkyard 
 yestreen." 
 
 " See, then, that you give no one notice of our lodging," said the 
 young nobleman ; " those with whom I have business I can meet 
 at Paul's, or in the Court of Requests." 
 
 " This is steeking the stable-door when the steed is stolen," 
 thought Richie to himself ; " but I must "ut him on another 
 pin." 
 
 So thinking, he asked the young lord what was in the Proclama- 
 tion which he still held folded in his hand ; " for, having little time 
 to spell at it," said he, " your lordship well knows I ken nought 
 
S8 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 about it but the grand, blazon at the tap- -the lion has gotten a 
 claught of our auld Scottish shield now, but It was as weel upheld 
 when it had a unicorn on ilk side of it." 
 
 Lord Nigel read the Proclamation, and he coloured deep with 
 shame and indignation as he read ; for the purport was, to his 
 injured feelings, like the pouring of ardent spirits upon a recent 
 wound. 
 
 " What deil's in the paper, my lord ? " said Richie, unable to 
 suppress his curiosity as he observed his master change colour ; 
 " I wadna ask such a thing, only the Proclamation is not a private 
 thing, but is meant for a' men's hearing." 
 
 " It is indeed meant for all men's hearing," replied Lord Nigel, 
 " and it proclaims the shame of our country, and the ingratitude of 
 our Prince." 
 
 " Now the Lord preserve us ! and to ublish it in London, too !" 
 ejaculated Moniplies. 
 
 "Hark ye, Richard," said Nigel Olifaunt, "in this paper the 
 Lords of the Council set forth, that, * in consideration of the resort 
 of idle persons of low condition forth from his Majesty's kingdom 
 of Scotland to his English Court— filling the same with their suits 
 and supplications, and dishonouring the royal presence with their 
 base, poor, and beggarly persons^ to the disgiace of their country 
 in the estimation of the English ; these are to prohibit the skippers, 
 masters of vessels and others, in every part of Scotland, from 
 bringing such miserable creatures up to Court, under pain of fine 
 and imprisonment.' " 
 
 " I marie the skipper took us on board," said Richie. 
 
 " Then you need not marvel how you are to get back again," 
 said Lord Nigel, "for here is a clause which says, that such idle 
 suitors are to be transported back to Scotland at his Majesty's 
 expense, and punished for their audacity with stripes, stocking, or 
 incarceration, according to their demerits — that is to say, I sup- 
 pose, according to the degree of their overty, for I see no other 
 demerit specified." 
 
 "This will scarcely," said Richie, "square with our old pro- 
 verb — 
 
 ' A King's face 
 Should give grace' — 
 
 But what says the paper farther, my lord ?" 
 
 " O, only a small clause which especially concerns us, making 
 some still heavier denunciations against those suitors who shall be 
 so bold as to approach the Court, under pretext of seeking payment 
 of old debts due to them by the King, which, the paper states, is 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 59 
 
 of all species of importunity, that which is most odious to his 
 Majesty." * 
 
 " The King has neighbours in that matter," said Richie ; " but it 
 is not every one that can shift off that sort of cattle so easily as he 
 does." 
 
 Their conversation was here interrupted by a knocking at the 
 door. Olifaunt looked out at the window, and saw an elderly 
 respectable person whom he knew not. Richie also peeped, and 
 recognised, but, recognising, chose not to acknowledge, his friend 
 of the preceding evening. Afraid that his share in the visit might 
 be detected, he made his escape out of the apartment under pretext 
 of going to his breakfast ; and left their landlady the task of usher- 
 ing Master George into Lord Nigel's apartment^ which she per- 
 formed with much courtesy. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Ay, sir, the clouted shoe hath ofttimes craft in't. 
 As says the rustic proverb ; and your citizen, 
 In's grogram suit, gold chain, and well-black'd shoes. 
 Bears under his flat cap ofttimes a brain 
 Wiser than burns beneath the cap and feather. 
 Or seethes within the statesman's velvet nightcap. 
 
 Read me my Riddle. 
 
 The young Scottish nobleman received the citizen with distant 
 politeness, expressing that sort of reserve by which those of the 
 higher ranks are sometimes willing to make a plebeian sensible 
 that he is an intruder. But Master George seemed neither dis- 
 pleased nor disconcerted. He assumed the chair, which, in defe- 
 rence to his respectable appearance. Lord Nigel offered to him, 
 and said, after a moment's pause, during which he had looked 
 attentively at the young man, with respect not unmingled with 
 emotion — " You will forgive me for this rudeness, my lord ; but I 
 was endeavouring to trace in your youthful countenance the features 
 of my good old lord, your excellent father." 
 
 There was a moment's pause ere young Glenvarloch replied, 
 still with a reserved manner, — " I have been reckoned like my 
 father, sir, — and am happy to see any one that respects his memory. 
 But the business which calls me to this city is of a hasty as well as 
 a private nature, and" 
 
 " I understand the hint, my lord," said Master George, " and 
 
6o THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 would not be guilty of long detaining you from business, or more 
 agreeable conversation. My errand is almost done when I have 
 said that my name is George Heriof, warmly befriended,, and 
 introduced into the employment of the Royal Family of Scotland, 
 more than twenty years since, by your excellent father ; and that, 
 learning from a follower of yours that your lordship was in this 
 city in prosecution of some business of importance, it is my duty — 
 it is my pleasure— to wait on the son of my respected patron : and, 
 as I am somewhat known both at the court and in the city, to offer 
 him such aid in the furthering of his affairs, as my credit and 
 experience may be able to afford." 
 
 " I have no doubt of either. Master Heriot," said Lord Nigel, 
 " and I thank you heartily for the good-will with which you have 
 placed them at a stranger's disposal ; but my business at court is 
 done and ended, and I intend to leave London, and, indeed, the 
 island, for foreign travel and military service. I may add, that the 
 suddenness of my departure occasions my having little time at my 
 disposal." 
 
 Master Heriot did not take the hint, but sat fast, with an embar- 
 rassed countenance, however, like one who had something to say 
 that he knew not exactly how to make effectual. At length he 
 said, with a dubious smile, " You are fortunate, my lord, in having 
 so soon dispatched your business at court. Your talking landlady 
 informs me you have been but a fortnight in this city. It is usually 
 months and vears ere the Court and a suitor shake hands and 
 Dart." 
 
 " My business," said Lord Nigel, with a brevity which was in- 
 tended to stop farther discussion, " was summarily dispatched." 
 
 Still Master Heriot remained seated, and there was a cordial 
 good-humour added to the reverence of his appearance, which 
 rendered it impossible for Lord Nigel to be more explicit in re- 
 questing his absence. 
 
 " Your lordship has not yet had time," said the citizen, still at- 
 tempting to sustain the conversation, " to visit the places of amuse- 
 ment, — the playhouses, and other places to which youth resort. 
 But I see in your lordship's hand one of the new-invented plots of 
 the piece.* which they hand about of late— May I ask what 
 play?" 
 
 " Oh ! a well-known piece," said Lord Nigel, impatiently throw- 
 ing down the Proclamation, which he had hitherto been twisting to 
 and fro in his hand, — "an excellent and well-approved piece — 
 A New Way to Pay Old Debts." 
 
 Master Heriot stooped down, saying, "Ah! my old ac- 
 quaintance, Philip Massinger ; " but, having opened the -aoer and 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 6i 
 
 seen the purport, he looked at Lord Nigel Olifaunt with surprise, 
 saying, " I trust your lordship does not think this prohibition can 
 extend either io yotir person or your claims ? " 
 
 " I should scarce have thought so myself," said the young noble- 
 man J " but so it proves. His Majesty, to close this discourse at 
 once, has been pleased to send me this Proclamation, in answer to 
 a respectful Supplication for the repayment of large loans advanced 
 by my father for the service of the state, in the King's utmost 
 emergencies." 
 
 " It is impossible ! " said the citizen — "it is absolutely impossi ■ 
 ble ! — If the King could forget what was due to your father's 
 memory, still he would not have wished— would not, I may say, 
 have dared — to be so flagrantly unjust to the memory of such a 
 man as your father, who, dead in the body, will long live in the 
 memory of the Scottish people." 
 
 " I should have been of your opmion," answered Lord Nigel, in 
 the same tone as before ; " but there is no fighting with facts." 
 
 " What was the tenor of this Supplication?" said Heriot ; "or 
 by whom was it presented ? Something strange there must have 
 been in the contents, or " 
 
 ""You may see my original draught," said the young lord, taking 
 it out of a small travelling strong-box ; " the technical part is by 
 my lawyer in Scotland, a skilful and sensible man ; the rest is mv 
 own, drawn, I hope, with due deference and modesty." 
 
 Marster Heriot hastily cast his eye over the draught. " Nothing," 
 he said, " can be more well- tempered and respectful. Is it possible 
 the King can have treated this petition with contempt ? " 
 
 " He threw it down on the pavement," said the Lord of Glenvar- 
 loch, " and sent me for answer that Proclamation, in which he 
 classes me with the paupers and mendicants from Scotland, who 
 disgrace his court in the eyes of the proud English — that is all. 
 Had not my father stood by him with heart, sword, and fortune, 
 he might never have seen the Court of England himself." 
 
 " But by whom was this supplication presented, my lord ? " said 
 Heriot ; " for the distaste -taken at the messenger will sometimes 
 extend itself to the message." 
 
 " By my servant," said the Lord Nigel ; " by the man you saw, 
 and, I think, were kind to." 
 
 " By your servant, my lord 'i " said the citizen ; he seems a 
 shrewd fellow, and doubtless a faithful ; but surely " 
 
 " You would say," said Lord Nigel, " he is no fit messenger to a 
 King's presence ? — Surely he is not ; but what could I do ? Every 
 attempt I had made to lay my case before the King had miscarried, 
 and my petitions got no farther than the budgets of clerks and 
 
62 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 secretaries ; this fellow pretended he had a friend in the nousenold 
 
 that would bring him to the King's presence,— and so" 
 
 " I understand," said Heriot ; " but, my lord, why should you 
 not, in right of your rank and birth, have appeared at court, and 
 required an audience, which could not have been denied to 
 
 you 
 
 ?» 
 
 The young lord blushea a little, and looked at his dress, which 
 was very plain ; and though in perfect good order, had the ap- 
 pearance of having seen service. 
 
 " I know not why I should be ashamed of speaking the truth," he 
 said, after a moqjentary hesitation, — " I had no dress suitable for 
 appearing at court. I am determined to incur no expenses which 
 I cannot discharge ; and I think you, sir, would not advise me to 
 stand at the palace-door, in person, and deliver my petition, along 
 with those who are in very deed pleading their necessity, and beg- 
 ging an alms." 
 
 " That had been, indeed, unseemly," said the citizen ; " but yet, 
 my lord, my mind runs strangely that there must be some mistake. 
 — Can I speak with your domestic ? " 
 
 " I see little good it can do," answered the young lord, " but the 
 interest you take in my misfortunes seems sincere, and there- 
 fore " He stamped on the floor, and in a few seconds after- 
 wards Moniplies appeared, wiping from his beard and mustaches 
 the crumbs of bread, and the froth of the ale-pot, which plainly 
 showed how he had been employed. — " Will your lordship grant 
 permission," said Heriot, "that I ask your groom a few ques- 
 tions ? " 
 
 " His lordship's page. Master George," answered Moniplies, with 
 a nod of acknowledgment, >' if you are minded to speak according 
 to the letter." 
 
 " Hold your, saucy tongue," said his master, " ana reply distinctly 
 to the questions you are to be asked." 
 
 " And truly, if it like your pageship," said the citizen, " for you 
 may remember I have a gift to discover falset." 
 
 " Weel, weel, weel," rephed the domestic, somewhat embarrassed, 
 in spite of his effrontery — " though I think that the sort of truth 
 that serves my master, may weel serve ony ane else." 
 
 " Pages lie to their masters by right of custom," said the citizen ; 
 " and you write yourself in that band, though I think you be among 
 the oldest of such springalds ; but to me you must speak truth, if 
 you would not have it end in the whipping-post." 
 
 " And that's e'en a bad resting-place," said the well-grown page ; 
 " so come away with your questions. Master George." 
 
 "Well, then," demanded the citizen, " I am given to understana 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 63 
 
 that you yesterday presented to his Majesty's hand a supplication, 
 or petition, from this honourable lord, your master," 
 
 "Troth, there's nae gainsaying that, sir," replied Moniplies; 
 " there were enow to see it besides me." 
 
 " And you pretend that his Majesty flung it from him with con- 
 tempt ? " said the citizen. " Take heed, for I have means of know- 
 ing the truth ; and you were better up to the neck in the Nor- Loch, 
 which you like so well, than tell a leasing where his Majesty's name 
 is concerned." 
 
 " There is nae occasion for leasing-making about the matter," 
 answered Moniplies, firmly ; " his Majesty e'en flung it frae him as 
 if it had dirtied his fingers." 
 
 " You hear, sir," said Olifaunt, addressing Heriot. 
 
 " Hush ! " said the sagacious citizen ; " this fellow is not ill-named 
 — he has more plies than one in his cloak. — Stay, fellow," for 
 Moniplies, muttering somewhat about finishing his breakfast, was 
 beginning to shamble towards the door, " answer me this farther 
 question— When you gave your master's petition to his Majesty, 
 gave you nothing with it ? " 
 
 " Ou, what should I give wi' it, ye ken. Master George ? " 
 
 " That is what I desire and insist to know," replied his interro- 
 gator. 
 
 " Weel, then — I am not free to say, that maybe I might not just 
 slip into the King's hand a wee bit sifflication of mine ain, along 
 with my lord's—just to save his Majesty trouble— and that he 
 might consider them baith at ance." 
 
 " A supplication of your own, you varlet ! " said his master. 
 
 " Ou dear, ay, my lord," said Richie — " puir bodies hae their bits 
 of sififlications as weel as their betters." 
 
 " And pray, what might your worshipful petition import ? " said 
 Master Heriot. — " Nay, for Heaven's , sake, my lord, keep your 
 patience, or we shall never ,learn the truth of this strange matter. — 
 Speak out, sirrah, and I will stand your friend with my lord." 
 
 " It's a lang story to tell — but the upshot is, that it's a scrape of 
 an auld accompt due to my father's yestate by her Majesty the 
 King's maist gracious mother, when she lived in the Castle, and had 
 sundry providings and furnishings forth of our booth, whilk nae 
 doubt was an honour to my father to supply, and whilk, doubtless, 
 it will be a credit to his Majesty to satisfy, as it will be grit con- 
 venience to me to receive the saam." 
 
 " What string of impertinence is this ? " said his master. 
 
 " Every word as true as e'er John Knox spoke," said Richie ; 
 " here's the bit double of the sifflication." 
 
 Master George took a crumpled paper from the fellow's hand, 
 
64 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 and said, muttering betwixt his teeth—" ' Humbly showeth— um— 
 um— his Majesty's maist gracious mother— um—um— justly ad- 
 debted and owing the sum of fifteen merks— the compt whereof 
 
 foUoweth Twelve nowte's feet for jillies— ane lamb, being 
 
 Christmas— ane roasted capin in grease for the privy chalmer, 
 when my Lord of Bothwell suppit with her Grace.'— I think, my 
 lord, you can hardly be surprised that the King gave this petition a 
 brisk reception ; and I conclude. Master Page, that you took care 
 to present your own supplication before your master's ? " 
 
 " Troth did I not," answered Moniplies, " I thought to have given 
 my lord's first, as was reason gude ; and iDesides that, it wad have 
 redd the gate for my ain little bill. But what wi' the dirdum an' 
 confusion, an' the loupin here and there of the skeigh brute of a 
 horse, I believe I crammed them baith into his hand cheek-by- 
 jowl, and maybe my ain was bunemost ; and say there was aught 
 wrang, I am sure I had a' the fright and a' the risk " 
 
 "And shall have all the beating, you rascal knave," said Nigel ; 
 " am I to be insulted and dishonoured by your pragmatical inso- 
 lence, in blending your base concerns with mine ? " 
 
 " N ay, nay, nay, my lord," said the good-humoured citizen, inter- 
 posing, " I have been the means of bringing the fellow's blunder to 
 light — allow me interest enough with your lordship to be bail for his 
 bones. You have cause to be angry, but still I think the knave 
 mistook more out of conceit than of purpose ; and I judge you will 
 have the better service of him another time, if you overlook this 
 fault — Get you gone, sirrah — I'll make your peace." 
 
 " Na, na^ " said Moniplies, keeping his ground firmly, " if he likes 
 to strike a lad that has followed him for pure love, for I think there 
 has been little servant's fee between us, a' the way frae Scotland, 
 just let my lord be doing, and see the credit he will get by it — and 
 I would rather (mony thanks to you though, Master George) stand 
 by a lick of his baton, than it suld e'er be said a stranger came 
 between us." 
 
 " Go, then," said his master, " and get out of my sight." 
 
 " Aweel I wot that is sune done," said Moniplies, retiring slowly; 
 " I did not come without I had been ca'd for — and I wad have been 
 away half an hour since with my gude will, only Maister George 
 keepit mc to answer his interrogation, forsooth, and that has made 
 a' this stir." 
 
 And so he made his grumbling exit, with the tone much rather 
 of one who has sustained an injury, than who has done wrong. 
 
 " There never was a man so plagued as I am with a malapert 
 knave !— The fellow is shrewd, and I have found him faithful— I 
 believe he loves me, too, and he has,given proofs of it — but then he 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. .65 
 
 is so uplifted in his own conceit, so self-willed, and so self- 
 opinioned, that he seems to become the.master and I the man ; and 
 whatever blunder he commits, he is sure to make as loud com- 
 plaints, as if the whole error lay with me, and in no degree with 
 himself." 
 
 " Cherish him, and maintain him, nevertheless," said the citizen ; 
 " for believe my grey hairs, that affection and fidelity are now rarer 
 qualities in a servitor, than when the world was younger. Yet, 
 trust him, my good lord, with no commission above his birth or 
 breeding, for you see yourself how it may chance to fall." 
 
 " It is but too evident, Master Heriot," said the young nobleman ; 
 " and I am sorry I have done injustice to my sovereign, and your 
 master. But I am, like a true Scotsman, wise behind hand — 
 the mistake has happened — my Supplication has been refused, 
 and my only resource is to employ the rest of my means to carry 
 Moniplies and myself to some counterscarp, and die in the battle- 
 front like my ancestors." 
 
 " It were better to live and serve your country like your noble 
 father, my lord," replied Master George. " Nay, nay, never look 
 down or shake your head — the King has not refused your Sup- 
 plication, for he has not seen it — you ask but justice, and that 
 his place obliges him to give to his subjects — ay, my l(3rd, and I 
 will say that his natural temper doth in this hold bias with his 
 duty." 
 
 " I were well pleased to think so, and yet " said Nigel Oli- 
 
 faunt, — " I speak not of my own wrongs, but my country hath 
 many that are unredressed." 
 
 " My lord," said Master Heriot, " I speak of my royal master, 
 not only with the respect due from a subject — the gratitude to 
 be paid by a favoured servant, but also with the frankness of a free 
 and loyal Scotsman. The King is himself well disposed to hold 
 the scales of justice even ; but there are those around him who 
 can throw without detection their own selfish wishes and base 
 interests into the scale. You are already a sufferer by this, and 
 without your knowing it." «• 
 
 " I am surprised. Master Heriot," said the young lord, " to hear 
 you, upon so short an acquaintance, talk as if you were familiarly 
 acquainted with my affairs." 
 
 " My lord," replied the goldsmith, " the nature of my employ- 
 ment affords me direct access to the interior of the palace ; I am 
 well known to be no meddler in intrigues or party affairs, so that 
 no favourite has as yet endeavoured to shut against me the door of 
 the royal closet; on the contrary, I have stood well with each 
 while he was in power, and I have not shared the fall of any. But 
 
 F 
 
66 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 I cannot be thus connected with the Court, without hearing, even 
 against my will, what wheels are in motion, and how they are 
 checked or forwarded. Of course, when I choose to seek such in- 
 telligence, I know the sources in which it is to be traced. I have 
 told you why I was interested in your lordship's fortunes. It was 
 last night only that I knew you were in this city, yet I have been 
 able, in coming hither this morning, to gain for you some informa^' 
 tion respecting the impediments to your suit. 
 
 " Sir, I am obliged by your zeal, however little it may be merited," 
 answered Nigel, still with some reserve ; " yet I hardly know how I 
 have deserved this interest." 
 
 " First let me satisfy you that it is real," said the citizen ; " I 
 blame you not for being unwilling to credit the fair professions of a 
 stranger in my inferior class of society, when you have met so little 
 friendship from relations, and those of your own rank, boundtohave 
 assisted you by so many ties. But mark the cause. There is a 
 mortgage over your father's extensive estate, to the amount of 
 40,000 merks, due ostensibly to Peregrine Peterson, the Conservator 
 of Scottish Privileges at Campvere." 
 
 " I know nothing of a mortgage," said the young lord ; " but 
 there is a wadset for such a sum, which, if unredeemed, will occasion 
 the forfeiture of my whole paternal estate, for a sum not above a 
 fourth of its value — and it is for that very reason that I press the 
 King's government for a settlement of the debts due to my father, 
 that I may be able to redeem my land from this rapacious 
 creditor." 
 
 " A wadset in Scotland," said Heriot, " is the same with a mort- 
 gage on this side of the Tweed ; but you are not acquainted with 
 your real creditor. The Conservator Peterson only lends his name 
 to shroud no less a man than the Lord Chancellor of Scotland, who 
 hopes, under cover of this debt, to gain possession of the estate 
 himself, or perhaps to gratify a yet more powerful third party. He 
 will probably suffer his creature Peterson to take possession, and 
 when the odium of the transaction shall be forgotten, the property 
 and lordship of Glenvarloch will be conveyed to the great man by 
 his obsequious instrument, under cover of a sale, or some similar 
 device." 
 
 " Can this -e possible ? " said Lord Nigel ; " the Chancellor wept 
 when I took leave of him — called me his cousin — even his son — 
 furnished me with letters, and, though I asked him for no pecuniary 
 assistance, excused himself unnecessarily for not pressing it on me, 
 alleging the expenses of his rank and his large family. No, I 
 cannot believe a nobleman would carry deceit so far." 
 
 " I am not, it is tru^ of noble blood," said the citizen ^ " but once 
 
THE FORTUNKS OF NIGEL. 67 
 
 more I bid you look on my grey hairs, and think what can te my 
 interest in dishonouring them with falsehood in affairs in which I 
 have no interest, save as they regard the son of my benefactor. 
 Reflect also, have you had any advantage from the Lord Chan- 
 cellor's letters ? " 
 
 " None," said Nigel Olifaunt, " except cold deeds and fair words. 
 I have thought for some time, their only object was to get rid 
 of me — one yesterday pressed money on me when I talked of 
 going abroad, in order that I might not want the means of exiling 
 myself." 
 
 " Right," said Heriot ; " rather than you fled not, they would 
 themselves furnish wings for you to fly withal." 
 
 " I will to him this instant," said the incensed youth, " and tell 
 him my mind of his baseness." 
 
 " Under your favour," said Heriot, detaining him, " you shall not 
 do so. By a quarrel you would become the ruin of me your in- 
 former ; and though I would venture half my shop to do your lord- 
 ship a service, I think you would hardly wish me to come by 
 damage, when it can be of no service to you." 
 
 " The word shop sounded harshly in the ear of the young noble- 
 man, who replied hastily — " Damage, sir ? — so far am I from wish- 
 ing you to incur damage, that I would to Heaven you would cease 
 your fruitless offers of serving one whom there is no chance of 
 ultimately assisting ! " 
 
 " Leave me alone for that," said the citizen ; " you have now 
 erred as far on the bow-hand. Permit me to take this Supplication — 
 I will have it suitably engrossed, and take my own time (and it 
 shall be an early one) for placing it, with more prudence, I trust, 
 than that used by your follower, in the King's hand — I will almost 
 answer for his taking up the matter as you would have him — but 
 should he fail to do so, even then I will not give up the good 
 cause." 
 
 " Sir," said the young nobleman, " your speech is so friendly, and 
 my own state so helpless, that I know not how to refuse your kind 
 proffer, even while I blush to accept it at the hands of a stranger." 
 
 " We are, I trust, no longer such," said the goldsmith ; " and for 
 my guerdon, when my mediation proves successful, and your 
 fortunes are re-established, you shall order your first cupboard of 
 plate from George Heriot." 
 
 " You would have a bad paymaster, Master Heriot," said Lord 
 Nigel. 
 
 " I do not fear that," replied the goldsmith ; " and I am glad to 
 see you smile, my lord — methinks it makes you look still more like 
 the good old lord your father ; and it emboldens me, besides, to 
 
 F 2 
 
63 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 bring out a small request— that you would take a homely dinner 
 with me to-morrow. I lodge hard by, in Lombard-street. For the 
 cheer, my lord, a mess of white broth, a fat capon well larded, a 
 dish of beef collops for auld Scotland's sake, and it may be a cup of 
 right old wine, that was barrelled before Scotland and England were 
 one nation — Then for company, one or two of our own loving 
 countrymen — and maybe my housewife may find out a bonny Scots 
 lass or so." 
 
 " I would accept your courtesy. Master Heriot,"said Nigel, "but 
 I hear the city ladies of London hke to see a man gallant — I would 
 not like to let down a Scottish nobleman in their ideas, as doubtless 
 you have said the best of our poor country, and I rather lack the 
 means of bravery for the present." 
 
 " My lord, your frankness leads me a step farther," said Master 
 George. " I — I owed your father some monies ; and — nay, if your 
 lordship looks at me so fixedly, I shall never tell my story — and, to 
 speak plainly, for I never could carry a lie well through in my life- 
 it is most fitting, that, to solicit this matter properly, your lordship 
 should go to Court in a manner beseeming your quality. I am a 
 goldsmith, and live by lending money as well as by selling plate. 
 I am ambitious to put an hundred pounds to be at interest in your 
 hands, till your affairs are settled." 
 
 " And if they are never favourably settled ? " said Nigel. 
 
 " Then, my lord," returned the citizen, " the miscarriage of such 
 a sum will be of little consequence to me, compared with other 
 subjects of regret." 
 
 ' Master Heriot," said the Lord Nigel, " your favour is generously 
 offered, and shall be frankly accepted. I must presume that 
 you see your way through this business, though I hardly do ; 
 .for I think you would be grieved to add any fresh burden to me, 
 by persuading me to incur debts which I am not likely to discharge. 
 I will therefore take your money, under the hope and trust that you 
 will enable me to repay you punctually." 
 
 " I will convince you, my lord," said the goldsmith, " that I mean 
 to deal with you as a creditor from whom I expect payment ; and 
 therefore, you shall, with your own good pleasure, sign an acknow- 
 ledgment for these monies, and an obligation to content and repay 
 me." 
 
 He then took from his girdle his writing materials, and, writing a 
 few lines to the purport he expressed, pulled out a small bag of gold 
 from a side pouch under his cloak, and, observing that it should 
 contain an hundred pounds, proceeded to tell out the contents very 
 methodically upon the table. Nigel Olifaunt could not help in- 
 timating that this was an unnecessary ceremonial, and that he would 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 69 
 
 take the bag of gold on the word of his obliging creditor ; but this 
 was repugnant to the old man's forms of transacting business. 
 
 " Bear with me," he said, " my good lord, — we citizens are a wary 
 and thrifty generation ; and I should lose my good name for ever 
 within the toll of Paul's, were I to grant quittance, or take acknow- 
 ledgment, without bringing the money to actual tale. I think it be 
 right now — and, body of me," he said, looking out at the window, 
 " yonder come my boys with my mule ; for I must Westward Hoe. 
 Put your monies aside, my lord ; it is not well to be seen with such 
 goldfinches chirping about one in the lodgings of London. I think 
 the lock of your casket be indifferent good ; if not, I can serve you 
 at an easy rate with one that has held thousands ; — ^it was the good 
 old Sir Faithful Frugal's ; — ^his spendthrift son sold the shell when 
 he had eaten the kernel — and there is the end of a city-fortune." 
 
 " I hope yours will make a better termination. Master Heriot," 
 said the Lord Nigel. 
 
 " I hope it will, my lord," said the old man, with a smile ; " but," 
 to use honest John Bunyan's phrase — ' therewithal the water stood 
 in his eyes,' " it has pleased God to try me with the loss of two 
 children ; and for one adopted child who lives — ah ! woe is me ! 
 and weU-a-day ! — But I am patient and thankful ; and for the 
 wealth God has sent me, it shall not want inheritors while there 
 are orphan lads in Auld Reekie.— I wish you good-morrow, my 
 lord." 
 
 " One orphan has cause to thank you already," said Nigel, as he 
 attended him to the door of his chamber, where, resisting further 
 escort, the old citizen made his escape. 
 
 As, in going down stairs, he passed the shop where dame Christie 
 stood becking,* he made civil enquiries after her husband. The 
 dame of course regretted his absence ; but he was down, she said, 
 at Deptford, to settle with a Dutch ship-master. 
 
 " Our way 01 business, sir," she said, " takes him much from 
 home, and my husband must be the slave of every tarry jacket that 
 wants but a pound of oakum." 
 
 "All business must be minded, dame," said the goldsmith. 
 " Make my remembrances — George Heriot of Lombard-street's 
 remembrances — to your goodman. I have dealt with him — he is 
 just and punctual — true to time and engagements ; — be kind to 
 your noble guest, and see he wants nothing. Though it be his 
 pleasure at present to lie private and retired, there be those that 
 care for him, and I have a charge to see him suppUed ; so that you 
 may let me know by your husband, my good dame, how my lord 
 is, and whether he wants aught." 
 
 "And so he is a real lord after all ? " said the good dame. " I 
 
70 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 am sure I always thought he looked like one. But why does he not 
 go to Parliament, then ? " 
 
 " He will, dame," answered Heriot, " to the Parliament of Scot- 
 land, which is his own country." 
 
 " Oh ! he is but a Scots lord, then," said the good dame ; " and 
 that's the thing makes him ashamed to take the title, as they say." 
 
 " Let him not \iS3X you say so, dame," rephed the citizen. 
 
 " Who, I, sir 1" answered she ; " no such matter in my thought, 
 sir. Scot or English, he is at any rate a likely man, and a civil 
 man ; and rather than he should want anything, I would wait upon 
 him myself, and come as far as Lombard-street to wait upon your 
 worship too." 
 
 " Let your husband come to me, good dame," said the goldsmith, 
 who, with all his experience and worth, was somewhat of a formalist 
 and disciplinarian. " The proverb says, ' House goes mad when 
 women gad ; ' and let his lordship's own man wait upon his master 
 in his chamber — it is more seemly. God give ye good-morrow." 
 
 " Good morrow to your worship," said the dame, somewhat 
 coldly ; and, so soon as the adviser was out of hearing, was un- 
 gracious enough to mutter, in contempt of his counsel, " Marry quep 
 of your advice, for an old Scotch tinsmith, as you are ! My husband 
 is as wise, and very near as old, as yourself ; and if I please him, 
 it is well enough ; and though he is not just so rich just now as 
 some folks, yet I hope to see him ride upon his moyle, with a foot- 
 cloth,- and have his two blue-coats after him, as well as they do." 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Wherefore come ye not to court ? 
 Certain 'tis the rarest sport ; 
 There are silks and jewels glistening. 
 Prattling fools and wise men listening. 
 Bullies among brave men justling, 
 Beggars amongst nobles bustling ; 
 Low-breath'd talkers, minion lispers, 
 Cutting hciiest throats by whispers ; 
 Wherefore come ye not to court ? 
 Skelton swears 'tis glorious sport. 
 
 Skelton Skeltonizeth. 
 
 It was not entirely out of parade that the benevolent citizen was 
 mounted and attended in that manner, which, as the reader has 
 been informed, excited a gentle degree of spleen on the part of 
 Dame Christie, which, to do her justice, vanished in the little 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 7t 
 
 soliloquy which we have recorded. The good man, besides the 
 natural desire to maintain the exterior of a man of worship, was at 
 present bound to Whitehall in order to exhibit a piece of valuable 
 workmanship to King James, which he deemed his Majesty might 
 be pleased to view, or even to purchase. He himself was therefore 
 mounted upon his caparisoned mule, that he might the better make 
 his way through the narrow, dirty, and crowded streets ; and while 
 one of his attendants carried under his arm the piece of plate, 
 wrapped up in red baize, the other two gave an eye to its safety ; 
 for such was the state of the police of the metropolis, that men 
 were often assaulted in the public street for the sake of revenge or 
 of plunder ; and those who apprehended being beset, usually endea- 
 voured, if their estate admitted such expense, to secure themselves 
 by the attendance of armed followers. And this custom, which was 
 at first limited to the nobility and gentry, extended by degrees to 
 those citizens of consideration, who, being understood to travel with 
 a charge, as it was called, might otherwise have been selected as 
 safe subjects of plunder by the street-robber. 
 
 As Master George Heriot paced forth westward with this gallant 
 attendance, he paused at the shop-door of his countryman and 
 friend, the ancient horologer, and having caused Tunstall, who was 
 in attendance, to adjust his watch by the real time, he desired to 
 speak with his master ; in consequence of which summons, the old 
 Time-meter came forth from his den, his face like a bronze bust, 
 darkened with dust, and glistening here and there with copper 
 filings, and his senses so bemused in the intensity of calculation, 
 that he gazed on his friend the goldsmith for a minute before he 
 seemed perfectly to comprehend who he was, and heard him express 
 his invitation to David Ramsay, and pretty Mistress Margaret, his 
 daughter, to dine with him next day at noon, to meet with a noble 
 young countryman, without returning any answer. 
 
 " I'll make thee speak, with a murrain to thee," muttered Heriot 
 to himself ; and suddenly changing his tone, he said aloud, — " I 
 pray you, neighbour David, when are you and I to have a settlement 
 for the bullion wherewith I supplied you to mount yonder hall-clock 
 at Theobald's, and that other whirligig that you made for the Duke 
 of Buckingham ? I have had the Spanish house to satisfy for the 
 ingots, and I must needs put you in mind that y©u have been eight 
 months behind-hand." 
 
 There is something so sharp and aigre in the demand of a 
 peremptory dun, that no human tympanum, however inaccessible 
 to other tones, can resist the application. David Ramsay stEurted 
 at once from his reverie,, and answered in a pettish tone, "Wow, 
 George, man, what needs aw this din about sax score o' pounds ? 
 
ya THE FORTUNES OP NIGEL. 
 
 Aw the world kens I can answer aw claims on me, and you proffered 
 yourself fair time, till his maist gracious Majesty and the noble 
 Duke suld make settled accompts wi' me ; and ye may ken, by your 
 ain experience, that I canna gang rowting like an unmannered 
 Highland stot to their doors, as ye come to mine." 
 
 Heriot laughed, and replied, "Well, David, I see a demand of 
 money is like a bucket of water about your ears, and makes you a 
 man of the world at once. And now, friend, will you tell me, like 
 a Christian man, if you will dine with me to-morrow at noon, and 
 bring pretty Mistress Margaret, my god-daughter, with you, to meet 
 with our noble young countryman, the Lord of Glenvarloch ? " 
 
 " The young Lord of Glenvarloch ! " said the old mechanist ; 
 " wi' aw my heart, and blithe I will be to see him again. We have 
 not met these forty years — ^he was twa years before me at the 
 humanity classes — he is a sweet youth." 
 
 " That was his father — his father — ^his father ! — you old dotard 
 Dot-and-carry-one that you are," answered the goldsmith. "A 
 sweet youth he would have been by this time, had he lived, worthy 
 nobleman ! This is his son, the Lord Nigel." 
 
 " His son ! " said Ramsay ; " Maybe he will want something of 
 a chronometer, or watch — few gallants care to be without them 
 now-a-days." 
 
 " He may buy half your stock-in-trade, if ever he comes to his 
 own, for what I know," said his friend ; " but, Davie, remember 
 your bond, and use me not as you did when my housewife had the 
 sheep's-head and the cock-a-leeky boiling for you as late as two of 
 the clock afternoon." 
 
 " She had the more credit by her cookery," answered David, now 
 fully awake ; "a, sheep's-head, over-boiled, were poison, according 
 to our saying." 
 
 " Well," answered Master George, " but as there will be no 
 sheep's-head to-morrow, it may chance you to spoil a dinner which 
 a proverb cannot mend. It may be you may forgather with your 
 friend, Sir Mungo Malagrowther, for I purpose to ask his worship ; 
 so, be sure and bide tryste, Davie." 
 
 "That will I — I wJJl be true as a chronometer," said Ramsay. 
 
 " I will not trust you, though," replied Heriot. — " Hear you, 
 Jenkin boy, tell Scots Janet to tell pretty Mistress Margaret, my 
 god-child, she must put her father in remembrance to put on his 
 best doublet to-morrow, and to bring him to Lombard-street at noon. 
 Tell her they are to meet a brave young Scots lord." 
 
 Jenkin coughed that sort of dry short cough uttered by those 
 who are either charged with errands which they do not hke, or 
 hear opinions to which they must not enter a dissent. 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 73 
 
 " Umph ! " repeated Master George— who, as we have aheady 
 noticed, was something of a martinet in domestic discipline— "what 
 does umph mean ? Will you do mine errand, or not, sirrah ! " 
 
 " Sure, Master George Heriot," said the apprentice, touching his 
 cap, "I only meant, that Mistress Margaret was not likely to forget 
 such an invitation." 
 
 " Why, no," said Master George ; " she is a dutiful girl to her 
 godfather, though I sometimes call her a jill-flirt. — And, hark ye, 
 Jenkin, you and your comrade had best come with your clubs, to 
 see your master and her safely home ; but first shut shop, and 
 loose the bull-dog, and let the porter stay in the fore-shop till your 
 return. I will send two of my knaves with you ; for I hear these 
 wild youngsters of the Temple are broken out worse and lighter 
 than ever." 
 
 " We can keep their steel in order with good handbats," said 
 Jenkin ; " and never trouble your servants for the matter." 
 
 " Or, if need be," said Tunstall, " we have swords as well as the 
 Templars." 
 
 " Fie upon it — fie upon it, young man," said the citizen ; — " An 
 apprentice with a sword ! — Marry, heaven forefend ! I would as 
 soon see him in a hat and feather." 
 
 " Well, sir," said Jenkin — " we will find arms fitting to our station, 
 and will defend our master and his daughter, if we should tear up 
 the very stones of the pavement." 
 
 " There spoke a London 'prentice bold," said the citizen ; " and, 
 for your comfort, my lads, you shall crush a cup of wine to the 
 health of the Fathers of the City. I have my eye on both of you — 
 you are thriving lads, each in his own way. — God be wi' you, Davie. 
 Forget not to-morrow at noon." And, so saying, he again turned 
 his mule's head westward, and crossed Temple-Bar, at that slow 
 and decent amble, which at once became his rank and civic 
 importance, and put his pedestrian followers to no inconvenience 
 to keep up with him. 
 
 At the Temple gate he again paused, dismounted, and sought 
 his way into one of the small booths occupied by scriveners in the 
 neighbourhood. A young man, with lank smooth hair combed 
 straight to his ears, and then cropped short, rose, with a cringing 
 reverence, pulled off a slouched hat, which he would upon no signal 
 replace on his head, and answered, with much demonstration ot 
 reverence, to the goldsmith's question of, " How goes business, 
 Andrew ? " — " Aw the better for your worship's kind countenance 
 and maintenance." 
 
 " Get a large sheet of paper, man, and make a new pen, with a 
 sharp neb, and fine hair-stroke. Do not slit the quiU up too high, 
 
n THE FORTUNES OP NIGEL. 
 
 it's a wastrife course in your trade, Andrew— they that do not mind 
 corn-pickles, never -come to forpits. I have known a learned man 
 write a thousand pages with one quill." * 
 
 "Ah ! sir," said the lad, who listened to the goldsmith, though 
 instructing him in his own trade, with an air of veneration and 
 acquiescence, " how sune ony puir creature like mysell may rise in 
 the world, wi' the instruction of such a man as your worship ! " 
 
 " My -instructions are few, Andrew, soon told, and not hard to 
 practise. Be honest— be industrious — be frugal — and you will soon 
 win wealth and worship. — Here, copy me this Supplication in your 
 best and most formal hand. I will wait by you till it is done." 
 
 The youth lifted not his eye from the paper, and laid not the pen 
 from his hand, until the task was finished to his employer's satisfac- 
 tion. The citizen then gave the young scrivener an angel ; and 
 bidding him, on his life, be secret in all business intrusted to him, 
 again mounted his mule, and rode on westward along the 
 Strand. 
 
 It may be worth while to remind our readers, that the Temple- 
 Bar which Heriot passed, was not the arched screen, or gateway, of 
 the present day ; but an open railing, or palisade, which, at night, 
 and in times of alarm, was closed with a barricade of posts and 
 chains. The Strand also, along which he rode, was not, as now, a 
 continued street, although it was beginning already to assume that 
 character. It still might be considered as an open road, along the 
 south side of which stood various houses and hotels belonging to 
 the nobility, having gardens behind them down to the water-side, 
 with stairs to the river, for the convenience of taking boat ; which 
 mansions have bequeathed the names of their lordly owners to many 
 of the streets leading from the Strand to the Thames. The north 
 side of the Strand was also a long line of houses, behind which, as 
 in Saint Martin's Lane, and other points, buildings were rapidly 
 arising ; but Covent-Garden was still a garden, in the literal sense 
 of the word, or at least but beginning to be studded with irregular 
 buildings. All that was passing around, however, marked the rapid 
 increase of a capital which had long enjoyed peace, wealth, and a 
 regular government. Houses were rising in every direction ; and 
 the shrewd eye of our citizen already saw the period not distant, 
 which should convert the nearly open highway on which he travelle 1, 
 into a connected and regular street, uniting the court and the town 
 with the city of London. 
 
 He next passed Charing-Cross, which was no longer the pleasant 
 solitary village at which the judges were wont to breakfast on their 
 way to Westminster Hall, but began to resemble the artery through 
 which, to use Johnson's expression, " pours the full tide of London 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 75 
 
 population." The buildings were rapidly increasing, yet Scarcely 
 gave even a faint idea of its present appearance. 
 
 At last Whitehall received our traveller, who passed under one 
 of the beautiful gates designed by Holbein, and composed of tes- 
 selated brick-work, being the same to which Moniplies had profanely 
 likened the West-Port of Edinburgh, and entered the ample precincts 
 of the palace of Whitehall, now full of all the confusion attending 
 improvement. 
 
 It was just at the time when James, little suspecting that he was 
 employed in constructing a palace, from the window of which his 
 only son was to pass in order that he might die upon a scaffold 
 before it, — was busied in removing the ancient and ruinous buildings 
 of De Burgh, Henry VIII., and Queen Elizabeth, to make way for 
 the superb architecture on which Inigo Jones exerted all his genius. 
 The King, ignorant of futurity, was now ■engaged in pressing on his 
 work ; and, for that purpose, still maintained his royal apartments 
 at Whitehall, amidst the rubbish of old buildings, and the various 
 confusion attending the erection of the new pile, which formed at 
 present a labyrinth not easily traversed. 
 
 The goldsmith to the Royal Household, and who, if fame spoke 
 true, oftentimes acted as their banker, — for these professions were 
 not as yet separated from each other, — was a person of too much 
 importance to receive the slightest interruption from sentinel or 
 porter ; and, leaving his mule and two of his followers in the outer- 
 court, he gently knocked at a postern-gate of the building, and was 
 presently admitted, while the most trusty of his attendants followed 
 him closely, with the piece of plate under his arm. This man also 
 he left behind him in an ante-room,— where three or four pages in 
 the royal livery, but untrussed, unbuttoned, and dressed more care- 
 lessly than the place, and nearness to a King's person, seemed to 
 admit, were playing at dice and draughts, or stretched upon benches, 
 and slumbering with half-shut eyes. A corresponding gallery, 
 which opened from the ante-room, was occupied by two gentlemen- 
 ushers of the chamber, who gave each a smile of recognition as the 
 wealthy goldsmith entered. 
 
 No word was spoken on either side ; but one of the ushers looked 
 first to Heriot, and then to a little door half-covered by the tapestry, 
 which seemed to say, as plain as a look could, " Lies your business 
 that way ? " The citizen nodded ; and the court-attendant, moving 
 on tiptoe, and with as much caution as if the floor had been paved 
 with eggs, advanced to the door, opened it gently, and spoke a few 
 words in a low tone. The broad Scottish accent of King James 
 was heard in reply, — " Admit him instanter, Maxwell. Have you 
 hairboured sae lang at the Court, and not learned, that gold and 
 silver are ever welcome ?" 
 
76 THE FORTUNES OF '"(IGEL. 
 
 The usher signed to Heriot to advance, and the honest citizen 
 was presently introduced into the cabinet of the Sovereign. 
 
 The scene of confusion amid which he found the King seated, was 
 no bad picture of the state and quality of James's own mind. There 
 was much that was rich and costly in cabinet pictures and valuable 
 ornaments ; but they were arranged in a slovenly nianner, covered 
 with dust, and lost half their value, or at least their eifect, from the 
 manner in which they were presented to the eye. The table was 
 loaded with huge foUos, amongst which lay light books of jest and 
 ribaldry ; and, amongst notes of unmercifully long orations, and 
 essays on king-craft, were mingled miserable roundels and ballads 
 by the Royal 'Prentice, as he styled himself, in the art of poetry, 
 and schemes for the general pacification of Europe, with a list of the 
 names of the King's hounds, and remedies against canine madness. 
 
 The King's dress was of green velvet, quilted so full as to be 
 dagger-proof — which gave him the appearance of clumsy and 
 ungainly protuberance ; while its being buttoned awry, communi- 
 cated to his figure an air of distortion. Over his green doublet he 
 wore a sad-coloured night-gown, out of the pocket of which peeped 
 his hunting-horn. His high-crowned grey hat lay on the floor, 
 covered with dust, but encircled by a carcanet of large balas rubies ; 
 and he wore a blue velvet nightcap, in the front of which was 
 placed the plume of a heron, which had been struck down by a 
 favourite hawk in some critical moment of the flight, in remem- 
 brance of which the King wore this highly-honoured feather. 
 
 But such inconsistencies in dress and appointments were mere 
 outward types of those which existed in the royal character ; ren- 
 dering it a subject of doubt amongst his contemporaries, and 
 bequeathing it as a problem to future historians. He was deeply 
 learned, without possessing useful knowledge ; sagacious in many 
 individual cases, without having real wisdom ; fond of his power, 
 and desirous to maintain and augment it, yet willing to resign the 
 direction of that, and of himself, to the most unworthy favourites ; 
 a big and bold assertor of his rights in words, yet one who tamely 
 saw them trampled on in deeds ; a lover of negotiations, in which 
 he always outwitted ; and one who feared war, where conquest 
 might have been easy. He was fond of his dignity, while he was 
 perpetually degrading it by undue familiarity ; capable of much 
 public labour, yet often neglecting it for the meanest amusement ; 
 a wit, though a pedant ; and a scholar, though fond of the conver- 
 sation of the ignorant and uneducated. Even his timidity of 
 temper was not uniform ; and there were moments of his life, and 
 those critical, in which he showed the spirit of his ancestors. He 
 was laborious in trifles, and a trifler where serious labour was 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 77 
 
 required ; devout in his sentiments, and yet too often profane in his 
 language ; just and beneficent by nature, he yet gave way to the 
 iniquities and oppression of others. He was penurious respecting 
 money which he had to give from his own hand, yet inconsiderately 
 and unboundedly profuse of that which he did not see. In a word, 
 those good qualities which displayed themselves in particular cases 
 and occasions, were not of a nature sufficiently firm and compre- 
 hensive to regulate his general conduct ; and, showing themselves as 
 they occasionally did, only entitled James to the character bestowed 
 on him by Sully — that he was the wisest fool in Christendom. 
 
 That the fortunes of this monarch might be as little of a piece as 
 his character, he, certainly the least able of the Stewarts, succeeded 
 peaceably to that kingdom, against the power of which his prede- 
 cessors had, with so much difficulty, defended his native throne ; 
 and, lastly, although his reign appeared calculated to ensure to 
 Great Britain that lasting tranquillity and internal peace which so 
 much suited the King's disposition, yet, during that very reign, 
 were sown those seeds of dissension, which, like the teeth of the 
 fabulous dragon, had their harvest in a bloody and universal civil 
 war.* 
 
 Such was the monarch, who, saluting Heriot by the name of 
 Jingling Geordie, (for it was his well-known custom to give nick- 
 names to all those with whom he was in terms of familiarity,) 
 enquired what new clatter-traps he had brought with him, to cheat 
 his lawful and native Prince out of his siller. 
 
 " God forbid, my liege," said the citizen, " that I should have 
 any such disloyal purpose. I did but bring a piece of plate to 
 show to your most gracious Majesty, which, both for the subject 
 and for the workmanship, I were loath to put into the hands of any 
 subject until I knew your Majesty's pleasure anent it." 
 
 " Body o' me, man, let's see it, Heriot ; though, by my saul, 
 Steenie's service o' plate was sae dear a bargain, I had 'maist 
 pawned my word as a Royal King, to keep my ain gold and silver 
 in future, and let you, Geordie, keep yours." 
 
 " Respecting the Duke of Buckingham's plate," said the gold- 
 smith, " your Majesty was pleased to direct that no expense should 
 be spared, and " 
 
 " What signifies what I desired, man ? when a wise man is with 
 fules and bairns, he maun e'en play at the chucks. But you should 
 have had mair sense and consideration than to gie Babie Charles 
 and Steenie their ain gate ; they wad hae floored the very rooms 
 wi' silver, and I wonder they didna." 
 
 George Heriot bowed, and said no more. He knew his master 
 too well to vindicate himself otherwise than by a distant allusion 
 
78 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 to his order ; and James, with whom, economy was only a transient 
 and momentary twinge of conscience, became immediately after- 
 wards desirous to see the piece of plate which the goldsmith 
 proposed to exhibit, and dispatched Maxwell to bring it to his 
 presence. In the meantime he demanded of the citizen whence he 
 had procured it. 
 
 " From Italy, may it please your Majesty," replied Heriot. 
 
 " It has naething in it tending to papestrie ? " said the King, 
 looking graver than his wont. 
 
 " Surely not, please your Majesty," said Heriot ; " I were not 
 wise to bring anything to your presence that had the mark of the 
 beast." 
 
 " You would be the mair beast yourself to do so," said the King; 
 " it is weel kend that I wrestled wi' Dagon in my youth, and smote 
 him on the ground-sill of his own temple ; a gude evidence that I 
 should be in time called, however unworthy, the Defender of the 
 Faith. — But here comes Maxwell, bending under his burden, like 
 the Golden Ass of Apuleius." 
 
 Heriot hastened to relieve the usher, and to place the embossed 
 salver, for such it was, and of extraordinary dimensions, in a light 
 favourable for his Majesty's viewing the sculpture. 
 
 " Saul of my body, man," said the King, " it is a curious piece, 
 and, as I think, fit for a King's chalmer ; and the subject, as you 
 say, Master George, vera adequate and beseeming — being, as I see, 
 the judgment of Solomon — a prince in whose paths it weel becomes 
 a' leeving monarchs to walk with emulation." 
 
 " But whose footsteps," said Maxwell, " only one of them — if a 
 subject may say so much — hath ever overtaken." 
 
 " Haud your tongue for a fause fleeching loon ! " said the King, 
 but with a smile on his face that showed the flattery had done its 
 part. " Look at the bonny piece of workmanship, and haud your 
 clavering tongue.— And whase handiwork may it be, Geordie.?" 
 
 "It was wrought, sir," replied the goldsmith, "by the famous 
 Florentine, Benvenuto Cellini, and designed for Francis the First 
 of France ; but I hope it will find a fitter master." 
 
 "Francis of France ! " said the King ; "send Solomon, King of 
 the Jews, to Francis of France !— Body of me, man, it would have 
 kythed CeUini mad, had he never done ony thing else out of the 
 gate. Francis !— why, he was a fighting fule, man,— a mere fight- 
 ing fule,— got himsell ta'en at Pavia, like our ain David at 
 Durham lang syne ;— if they could hae sent him Solomon's wit, and 
 love of peace, and godliness, they wad hae dune him a better turn. 
 But Solomon should sit in other gate company than Francis of 
 France." 
 
THE FORTUNES OK NIGEL. 79 
 
 " I tnist that such will he his good fortune," said Heriot. 
 
 " It is a curious and vera artificial sculpture," said the King, in 
 continuation ; " but yet, methinks, the carnifex, or executioner 
 there, is brandishing his gulley ower near the King's face, seeing 
 he is within reach of his weapon. I think less wisdom than 
 Solomon's wad have taught him that there was danger in edge- 
 tools, and that he wad have bidden the smaik either sheath his 
 shabble, or stand farther back." 
 
 George Heriot endeavoured to alleviate, this objection, by assur- 
 ing the King that the vicinity betwixt Solomon and the executioner 
 was nearer in appearance than in reality, and that the perspective 
 should be allowed for. 
 
 " Gang to the deil wi' your prospective, man," said the King ; 
 " there canna be a waur prospective for a lawfu' king, wha wishes 
 to reign in luve, and die in peace and honour, than to have naked 
 swords flashing in his een. I am accounted as brave as maist 
 folks ; and yet I profess to ye I could never look on a bare blade 
 without blinking and winking. But a'thegither it is a brave piece ; 
 — and what is the price of it, man ? " 
 
 The goldsmith replied by observing, that it was not his own pro- 
 perty, but that of a distressed countryman. 
 
 " Whilk you mean to mak your excuse for asking the double of 
 its worth, I warrant .■' " answered the King. " I ken the tricks of 
 you burrows-town merchants, man." 
 
 " I have no hopes of baffling your Majesty's sagacity," said 
 'Heriot ; " the piece is really what I say, and the price a hundred 
 and fifty pounds sterling, if it pleases your Majesty to make present 
 payment." 
 
 " A hundred and fifty punds, man ! and as mony witches and 
 warlocks to raise them ! " said the irritated Monarch. " My saul, 
 Jingling Geordie, ye are minded that your purse shall jingle to a 
 bonny tune ! — How am I to tell you down a hundred and fifty punds 
 for what will not weigh as many merks ? and ye ken that my very 
 household servitors, and the officers of my mouth, are sax months 
 in arrear ! " 
 
 The goldsmith stood his ground against all this objurgation, 
 being what he was well accustomed to, and only answered, that, if 
 bis Majesty liked the piece, and desired to possess it, the price 
 could be easily settled. It was true that the party required the 
 money, but he, George Heriot, would advance it on his Majesty's 
 account, if such were his pleasure, and wait his royal conveniency 
 for payment, for that and other matters ; the money, meanwhile, 
 lying at the ordinary usage. 
 
 " By my honour," said James, " and that is speaking like an 
 
8o THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 honest and reasonable tradesman. We maun get another subsidy 
 frae the Commons, and that will make ae compting of it. Awa wi' 
 it, Maxwell— awa wi' it, and let it be set where Steenie and Babie 
 Charles shall see it as they return from Richmond.— And now that 
 we are secret, my good auld friend Geordie, I do truly opine, 
 that speaking of Solomon and ourselves, the haill wisdom in the 
 country left Scotland, when we took our travels to the Southland 
 here." 
 
 George Heriot was courtier enough to say, that " the wise natur- 
 ally follow the wisest, as stags follow their leader." 
 
 " Troth, I think there is something in what thou sayest," said 
 James ; " for we ourselves, and those of our court and household, 
 as thou thyself, for example, are allowed by the English, for as 
 self-opinioned as they are, to pass for reasonable good wits ; but 
 the brains of those we have left behind are all astir, and run clean 
 hirdie-girdie, like sae mony warlocks and witches on the Devil's 
 Sabbath-e'en." 
 
 " I am sorry to hear this, my liege," said Heriot. " May it please 
 your Grace to say what our countrymen have done to deserve such 
 a character ? " 
 
 " They are become frantic, man— clean brain-crazed," answered 
 the King. " I cannot keep them out of the Court by all the pro- 
 clamations that the heralds roar themselves hoarse with. Yester- 
 day, nae farther gane, just as we were mounted, and about to ride 
 forth, in rushed a thorough Edinburgh gutterblood— a ragged 
 rascal, every dud upon whose back was bidding good-day to the 
 oth'er, with a coat and hat that would have served a pease-bogle, 
 and, without havings or reverence, thrusts into our hands, like a 
 sturdy beggar, some Supplication about debts owing by our 
 gracious mother, and siclike trash ; whereat the horse spangs on 
 end, and, but for our admirable sitting, wherein we have been 
 thought to excel maist sovereign princes, as well 'as subjects, in 
 Europe, I promise you we would have been laid endlang on the 
 causeway." 
 
 " Your Majesty," said Heriot, " is their common father, and 
 therefore they are the bolder to press into your gracious presence." 
 
 " I ken I am pater fatrice well enough," said James ; " but one 
 would think they had a mind to squeeze my puddings out, that they 
 may divide the inheritance. Ud's death, Geordie, there is not a 
 loon among them can deliver a Supplication, as it suld be done in 
 the face of majesty." 
 
 " I would I knew the most fitting and beseeming mode to do 
 so," said Heriot, " were it but to instruct our poor countrymen in 
 better fashions." 
 
TME fortunes of NIGEL. 8i 
 
 " By my halidome," said the King, " ye are a ceevileezed fellow 
 Geordie, and I carena if I fling awa as much time as may teach 
 ye. And, first, see you, sir — ye shall approach the presence of 
 majesty thus, — shadowing your eyes with your hand, to testify that 
 you are in the presence of the Vicegerent of Heaven. — Vera weel, 
 George, that is done in a comely manner. — Then, sir, ye sail kneel, 
 and make as if ye would kiss the hem of our garment, the latch of 
 our shoe, or such like. — Vera weel enacted — whilk we, as being 
 willing to be debonair and pleasi^ng towards our lieges, prevent 
 thus, — and motion to you to rise j — whilk, having a boon to ask, as 
 yet you obey not, but, gliding your hand into your pouch, bring 
 forth your Supplication, and place it reverentially in our open 
 palm." The goldsmith, who had complied with great accuracy 
 with all the prescribed points of the ceremonial, here completed it, 
 to James's no small astonishment, by placing in his hand the 
 petition of the Lord of Glenvarloch. " What means this, ye fause 
 loon?" said he, reddening and .sputtering ; " hae I been teaching 
 you the manual exercise, that ye suld present your piece at our ain 
 royal body ? — Now, by this light, I had as lief that ye had bended 
 a real pistolet against me, and yet this hae ye done in my very 
 cabinet, where nought suld enter but at my ain pleasure." 
 
 " I trust, your Majesty," said Heriot, as he continued to kneel, 
 " will forgive my exercising the lesson you condescended to give me 
 in the behalf of a friend ? " 
 
 " Of a friend ! " said the King ; " so much the waur — so much the 
 waur, I tell you. If it had been something to do yoursell good 
 there would have been some sense in it, and some chance that you 
 wad not have come back on me in a hurry ; but a man may have 
 a hundred friends, and petitions for every ane of them, ilk ane after 
 other." 
 
 "Your Majesty, I trust," said Heriot, " will judge me by former 
 experience, and will not suspect me of such presumption." 
 
 " I kenna," said the placable monarch; "the world goes daft, I 
 think — sed semel insanivimiis omnes — thou art my old and faithful 
 servant, that is the truth ; and, were't any thing for thy own be- 
 hoof, man, thou shouldst not ask twice. But, troth, Steenie loves 
 me so dearly, that he cares not that any one should ask favours of 
 me but himself. — Maxwell, (for the usher had re-entered after 
 having carried off the plate,) get into the ante-chamber wi' your 
 lang lugs_ — In conscience, Geordie, I think as that thou hast been 
 mine ain auld fiduciary, and wert my goldsmith when I might say 
 with the Ethnic poet — Non ined renidit in domo lacunar— iot, faith, 
 they had pillaged my mither's auld house sae, that beechen bickers, 
 and treen trenchers, and latten platters, were whiles the best at our 
 
 G 
 
32 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 board, and glad we were of something to put on them, without 
 quarrelling with the metal of the dishes. D'ye mind, for thou 
 wert in maist of our complots, how we were fain to send sax of the 
 Blue-banders to harry the Lady of Loganhouse's dowcot and 
 poultry-yard, and what an awfu' plaint the poor dame made against 
 Jock of Milch, and the thieves of Annandale, wha were as sackless 
 of the deed as I am of the sin of murder I " 
 
 " It was the better for Jock," said Heriot ; " for, if I remember 
 weel, it saved him from a strapping up at Dumfries, which he had 
 weal deserved for other misdeeds." 
 
 " Ay, man, mind ye that ? " said the King ; " but he had other 
 virtues, for he was a tight huntsman, moreover, that Jock of Milch, 
 and could holloa to a hound till all the woods rang again. But he 
 came to Annandale end at the last, for Lord Torthorwald run his 
 lance out through him. — Cocksnails, man, when I think of these 
 wild passages, in my conscience, I am not sure that we lived 
 merrier in auld Holyrood in these shifting days, than now when we 
 are dwelhng at heck and manger, Cantabit vacuus — we had but 
 little to care for." 
 
 " And if your Majesty please to remember," said the goldsmith, 
 " the awful task we had to gather silver-vessail and gold-work 
 enough to make some show before the Spanish Ambassador." 
 
 " Vera true," said the King, now in a fuU tide of gossip, " and I 
 mind not the name of the right leal lord that helped us with every 
 unce he had in his house, that his native Prince might have some 
 credit in the eyes of them that had the Indies at their beck." 
 
 " I think, if your Majesty," said the citizen, " will cast your eye 
 on the paper in your hand, you will recollect his name." 
 
 " Ay ! " said the King, " say ye sae, man .' — Lord Glenvarloch, 
 that was his name indeed — Justus et tenax propositi — A just man, 
 but as obstinate as a baited bull. He stood whiles against us, that 
 Lord Randal Olifaunt of Glenvarloch, but he was a loving and a leal 
 subject in the main. But this supplicator maun be his son- 
 Randal has been long gone where king and lord must go, Geordie,! 
 as weel as the like of you — and what does his son want with 
 us?" 
 
 " The settlement," answered the citizen, " of a large debt due by 
 your Majesty's treasury, for money advanced to your Majesty 
 hi great state emergency, about the time of the Raid of Ruthven." 
 
 " I mind the thing weel," said King James—" Od's death, man, 
 I was just out of the clutches of the Master of Glamis and his 
 complices, and there was never siller mair welcome to a born 
 Prince, — the mair the shame and pity that crowned King should 
 need sic a petty sum. But what need he dun us for it, man, like 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. S3 
 
 a baxter at the breaking ? We aught him the siller, and will pay 
 him wi' our convenience, or make it otherwise up to him, whilk is 
 enow between prince and subject — We are not in meditatione fugce, 
 man, to be arrested thus peremptorily." 
 
 " Alas ! an it please your Majesty," said the goldsmith, shaking 
 his head, "it is the poor young nobleman's extreme necessity, 
 and not his will, that makes him importunate ; for he must have 
 money, and that briefly, to discharge a debt due to Peregrine 
 Peterson, Conservator of the Privileges at Campvere, or his haill 
 hereditary barony and estate of Glenvarloch will be evicted in virtue 
 of an unredeemed wadset." 
 
 "How say ye, man — ^how say ye?" exclaimed the King, im- 
 patiently; "the carle of a Conservator, the son of a Low-Dutch 
 skipper, evict the auld estate and lordship of the house of Olifaunt ? 
 — God's bread, man, that maun not be — we maun suspend the 
 diligence by writ of favour, or otherwise." 
 
 " I doubt that may hardly be," answered the citizen, " if it 
 please your Majesty j your learned counsel in the law of Scotland 
 advise, that there is no remeid but in paying the money." 
 
 " Ud's fish," said the King, " let him keep haud by the strong 
 hand against the carle, until we can take some order about his 
 affairs." 
 
 "Alas !" insisted the goldsmith, "if it like your Majesty, your 
 own pacific government, and your doing of equal justice to all 
 men, has made main force a kittle line to walk by, unless just 
 within the bounds of the Highlands." 
 
 " Weel — weel — weel, man," said the perplexed monarch, whose 
 ideas of justice, expedience, and convenience, became on such 
 occasions strangely embroiled ; " just it is we should pay our 
 debts, that the young man may pay his ; and he must be paid, 
 and in verba regis \\^q shall be paid — but how to come by the 
 siller, man, is a difficult chapter — ye maun try the city, Geordie." 
 
 " To say the truth," answered Heriot, " please your gracious 
 Majesty, what betwixt loans and benevolences, and subsidies, the 
 city is at this present " 
 
 " Donna tell me of what the city is," said King James ; 
 "our Exchequer is as dry as Dean Giles's discourses on the 
 penitentiary psalms — Ex nihilo nihil fit— Vls ill taking the breebb 
 aff a wild Highlandman — they that come to me for siller, should 
 tell me how to come by it — the city ye maun try, Heriot ; and 
 donna think to be called Jingling Geordie for nothing — and 
 in verba regis I will pay the lad if you get me the loan— 
 I wonnot haggle on the terms ; and, between you and me, 
 Geordie, we will redeem the brave auld estate of Glenvarloch. — 
 
 G 2 
 
84 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 But wherefore comes not the young lord to Court, Heriot— is he 
 comely — is he presentable in the presence ? " 
 
 " No one can be more so," said George Heriot ; " but " 
 
 " Ay, I understand ye," said his Majesty—" I understand ye— 
 Res angiista domi—^vAx lad— puir lad !— and his father a right true 
 leal Scots heart, though stiff in some opinions. Hark ye, Heriot, 
 let the lad have twa hundred pounds to fit him out. And, here— 
 here "—(taking the carcanet of rubies from his old hat)—" ye have 
 had these in pledge before for a larger sum, ye auld Levite that ye 
 are. Keep them in gage, till I gie ye back the siller out of the next 
 subsidy." 
 
 " If it please your Majesty to give me such directions in writing," 
 said the cautious citizen. 
 
 " The deil is in your nicety, George," said the King ; " ye are as 
 preceese as a puritan in form, and a mere Nullifidian in the marrow 
 of the matter. May not a King's word serve you for advancing 
 your pitiful twa hundred pounds?" 
 
 " But not for detaining the crown jewels," said George Heriot. 
 
 And the King, who from long experience was inured to dealing 
 with suspicious creditors, wrote an order upon George Heriot, his 
 well-beloved goldsmith and jeweller, for the sum of two hundred 
 pounds, to be paid presently to Nigel Olifaunt, Lord of Glenvarloch, 
 to be imputed as so much debts due to him by the crown ; and 
 authorizing the retention of a carcanet of balas rubies, with a great 
 diamond, as described in a Catalogue of his Majesty's Jewels, to 
 remain in possession of the said George Heriot, advancer of the 
 said sum, and so forth, until he was lawfully contented and paid 
 thereof. By another rescript, his Majesty gave the said George 
 Heriot directions to deal with some of the monied men, upon 
 equitable terms, for a sum of money for his Majesty's present 
 use, not to be under 50,000 merks, but as much more as could con- 
 veniently be procured. 
 
 " And has he ony lair, this Lord Nigel of ours ? " said the King. 
 
 George Heriot could not exactly answer this question ; but 
 believed " the young lord had studied abroad." 
 
 " He shall have our own advice," said the King, "how to carry 
 on his studies to maist advantage ; and it may be we will have him 
 come to Court, and study with Steenie, and Babie Charles. 
 And now we think on't, away — away, George — for the bairns will 
 be coming hame presently, and we would not as yet they kend of 
 this matter we have been treating anent. Propera pedem, O 
 Geordie. Clap your mule between your hough s, and god-den with you." 
 
 Thus ended the conference betwixt the gentle King Jamie and 
 his benevolent jeweller and goldsmith. 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL, 85 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 O, I do know him— 'tis the mouldy lemon 
 Which our court wits will wet their lips withal, 
 When they would sauce their honied conversation 
 With somewhat sharper flavour. — Marry, sir, 
 That virtue's wellnigh left him — all the juice 
 That was so sharp and poignant, is squeezed out ; 
 While the poor rind, although as sour as ever, 
 Must season soon the draff we give our grunters, 
 For two-legg'd things are weary on't. 
 
 The Chamberlain— A Comedy. 
 
 The good company invited by the hospitable citizen, assembled 
 at his house in Lombard- street at the " hollow and hungry hour " 
 of noon, to partake of that meal which divides the day, being about 
 the time when modern persons of fashion, turning themselves upon 
 their pillow, begin to think, not without a great many doubts and 
 much hesitation, that they will by and by commence it. Thither 
 came the young Nigel, arrayed plainly, but in a dress, neverthe- 
 less, more suitable to his age and quality than Tie had formerly 
 worn, accompanied by his servant Moniplies, whose outside also 
 was considerably improved. His solemn and stern features glared 
 forth from under a blue velvet bonnet, fantastically placed side- 
 ways on his head — he had a sound and tough coat of Enghsh blue 
 broad-cloth, which, unlike his former vestment, would have stood 
 the tug of all the apprentices in Fleet-street. The buckler and 
 broadsword he wore as the arms of his condition, and a neat silver 
 badge, bearing his lord's arms, announced that he was an appen- 
 dage of aristocracy. He sat down in the good citizen's buttery, not 
 a little pleased to find his attendance upon the table in the hall was 
 likely to be rewarded with his share of a meal such as he had 
 seldom partaken of. 
 
 Mr. David Ramsay, that profound and ingenious mechanic, was 
 safely conducted to Lombard-street, according to promise, well 
 washed, brushed, and cleaned, from the soot of the furnace and 
 the forge. His daughter, who came with him, was about twenty 
 years old, very pretty, very demure, yet with lively black eyes, that 
 ever and anon contradicted the expression of sobriety, to which 
 silence, reserve, a plain velvet hood, and a cambric ruff, had con- 
 demned Mistress Marget, as the daughter of a quiet citizen. 
 
 There were also two citizens and merchants of London, men 
 ample in cloak, and many-linked golden chain, well to pass in the 
 
86 THE FORTUNKS OF NIGEL. 
 
 world, and experienced in their craft of merchandise, but who 
 require no particular description. There was an elderly clergyman 
 also, in his gown and cassock, a decent venerable man, partaking 
 in his manners of the plainness of the Citizens amongst whom he 
 had his cure. 
 
 These may be dismissed with brief notice ; but not so Sir 
 Mungo Malagrowther, of Girnigo Castle, who claims a Uttle more 
 attention, as an original character of the time in which he flourished. 
 
 That good knight knocked at Master Heriot's door just as the 
 clock began to strike twelve, and was seated in his chair ere the 
 last stroke had chimed. This gave the knight an excellent oppor- 
 tunity of making sarcastic observations on all who came later than 
 himself, not to mention a few rubs at the expense of those who had 
 been so superfluous as to appear earlier. 
 
 Having littie or no property save his bare designation. Sir Mungo 
 had been early attached to Court in the capacity of whipping-boy, 
 as the office was then called, to King James the Sixth, and with 
 his Majesty, trained to all polite learning by his celebrated precep- 
 tor, George Buchanan. The ofBce of whipping-boy doomed its 
 unfortunate occupant to undergo all the corporeal punishment 
 which the Lord's Anointed, whose proper person was of course 
 sacred, might chance to incur, in the Course of trav-elling through 
 his grammar and prosody. Under the stern rule, indeed, of George 
 Buchanan, who did not approve of the vicarious mode of punish- 
 ment, James bore the penance of his own faults, and Mungo Mala- 
 growther enjoyed a sinecure ; but James's other pedagogue. Master 
 Patrick Young, went more ceremoniously to work, and appalled 
 the very soul of the youthful King by the floggings which he be- 
 stowed on the whipping-boy, when the royal task was not suitably 
 performed. And be it told to Sir Mungo's praise, that there were 
 points about him in the highest respect suited to his official situa- 
 tion. He had even in youth a naturally irregular and grotesque set 
 of features, which, when distorted by fear, pain, and anger, looked 
 like one of the whimsical faces which present themselves in a 
 Gothic cornice. His voice also was high-pitched and querulous, 
 so that, when smarting under Master Peter Young's unsparing in- 
 flictions, the expression of his grotesque physiognomy, and the 
 superhuman yells which he uttered, were well suited to produce all 
 the effects on the Monarch who deserved the lash, that could pos- 
 sibly be produced by seeing another and an innocent individual 
 suffering for his delict. 
 
 Sir Mungo Malagrowther, for such he became, thus got an early 
 footing at Court, which another would have improved and main- 
 tained. But, when he grew too big to be whipped, he had no other 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 87 
 
 means of rendering himself acceptable. A bitter, caustic, and 
 backbiting humour, a malicious wit, and an envy of others more 
 prosperous than the possessor of such amiable qualities, have not, 
 indeed, always been found obstacles to a courtier's rise ; but then 
 they must be amalgamated with a degree of selfish cunning and 
 prudence, of which Sir Mungo had no share. His satire ran riot, 
 his envy could not conceal itself, and it was not long after his 
 majority till he had as many quarrels upon his hands as would 
 have required a cat's nine lives to answer. In one of these rencon- 
 tres he received, perhaps we should say fortunately, a wound, which 
 served him as an excuse for answering no invitations of the kind 
 in future. Sir RuUion Rattray, of RanaguUion, cut off, in mortal 
 combat, three of the fingers of his right hand, so that Sir Mungo 
 never could hold sword again. At a later period, having written 
 some satirical verses upon the Lady Cockpen, he received so severe 
 a chastisement from some persons employed for the purpose, that 
 he was found half dead on the spot where they had thus dealt with 
 him, and one of his thighs having been broken, and ill set, gave 
 him. a hitch in his gait, with which he hobbled to his grave. The 
 lameness of his leg and hand, besides that they added considerably 
 to the grotesque appearance of this original, procured him in future 
 a personal immunity from the more dangerous consequences of his 
 own humour ; and he gradually grew old in the service of the 
 Court, in safety of life and limb, though without either making 
 friends, or attaining preferment. Sometimes, indeed, the King was 
 amused with his caustic sallies, but he had never art enough to 
 improve the favourable opportunity ; and his enemies (who were for 
 that matter the whole Court) always found means to tbv' w him out 
 of favour again. The celebrated Archie Armstrong offered Sir 
 Mungo, in his generosity, a skirt of his own fool's coat, proposing 
 thereby to communicate to him the privileges and immunities of a 
 professed jester — " For," Said the man of motley, " Sir Mungo, as 
 he goes on just now, gets no more for a good jest than just the 
 King's pardon for having made it." 
 
 Even in London, the golden shower which fell around him, did 
 not moisten the blighted fortunes of Sir Mungo Malagrowther. He 
 grew old, deaf, and peevish — lost even the spirit which had fer- 
 merly animated his strictures — and was barely endured by James, 
 who, though himself nearly as far stricken in years, retained, to an 
 unusual and even an absurd degree, the desire to be surrounded by 
 young people. 
 
 Sir Mungo, thus fallen into the yellow leaf of years and fortune, 
 showed his emaciated form and faded embroidery at Court as sel- 
 dom as his duty permitted ; and spent his time in indulging his 
 
88 THE FORTUNES OF NIGKL, 
 
 food for satire in the public walks, and in the aisles of Saint Paul's, 
 which were then the general resort of newsmongers and characters 
 of all descriptions, associating himself chiefly with such of his 
 countrymen as he accounted of inferior birth and rank to himself. 
 In this manner, hating and contemning commerce, and those who 
 pursued it, he nevertheless lived a good deal among the Scottish 
 artists and merchants, who had followed the court to London. To 
 these he could show his cynicism without much offence ; for some 
 submitted to his jeers and ill-humour in deference to his birth and 
 knighthood, which in those days conferred high privileges —and 
 others, of more sense, pitied and endured the old man, unhappy 
 alike in his fortunes and his temper. 
 
 Amongst the latter was George Heriot, who, though his habits 
 and education induced him to carry aristocratical feelings to a 
 degree which would now he thought extravagant, had too much 
 spirit and good sense to permit himself to be intruded upon to 
 an unauthorized excess, or used with the slightest improper free- 
 dom, by such a person as Sir Mungo, to whom he was, never- 
 theless, not only respectfully civil, but essentially kind, and even 
 generous. 
 
 Accordingly, this appeared from the manner in which Sir Mungo 
 Malagrowther conducted himself upon entering the apartment. 
 He paid his respects to Master Heriot, and a decent, elderly, some- 
 what severe-looking female, in a coif, who, by the name of Aunt 
 Judith, did the honours of his house and table, with httle or no 
 portion of the supercilious acidity, which his singular physiognomy 
 assumed when he made his bow successively to David Ramsay, 
 and the two sober citizens. He thrust himself into the conversa- 
 tion of the latter, to observe he had heard in Paul's, that the 
 bankrupt concerns of Pindivide, a great merchant, — who, as he 
 expressed it, had given the crows a pudding, and on whom he 
 knew, from the same authority, each of the honest citizens had 
 some unsettled claim, — was like to prove a total loss — " stock and 
 block, ship and cargo, keel and rigging, all lost, now and for ever." 
 
 The two citizens grinned at each other ; but, too prudent to 
 make their private affairs the subject of public discussion, drew 
 their heads together, and evaded farther conversation by speaking 
 in a whisper. 
 
 The old Scots knight next attacked the watchmaker with the 
 same disrespectful familiarity. — " Davie," he said, — " Davie, ye 
 donnard auld idiot, have ye no gane mad yet, with applying your 
 mathematical science, as ye call it, to the Book of Apocalypse ? I 
 expected to have heard ye make out the sign gf the beast, as clear 
 as a tout on a bawbee whistle," 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 89 
 
 " Why, Sir Mungo," said the mechanist, after making an effort 
 to recall to his recollection what had been said to him, and by 
 whom, " it may be, that ye are nearer the mark than ye are yoursell 
 aware of ; for, taking the ten horns o' the beast, ye may easily 
 estimate by your digitals " 
 
 " My digits ! you d — d auld, rusty, good-for-nothing timepiece ! " 
 exclaimed Sir Mungo, while, betwixt jest and earnest, he laid on 
 his hilt his hand, or rather his claw, (for Sir Rullion's broadsword 
 had abridged it into that form,) — " D'ye mean to upbraid me with 
 my mutilation ? " 
 
 Master Heriot interfered. " I cannot persuade our friend David," 
 he said, "that scriptural prophecies are intended to remain in 
 obscurity, until their unexpected accomplishment shall make, as in 
 former days, that fulfilled which was written. But you must not 
 exert your knightly valour on him for all that." 
 
 "By my saul, and it would be throwing it away," said Sir 
 Mungo, laughing. " I would as soon set out, with hound and 
 horn, to hunt a sturdied sheep ; for he is in a doze again, and up 
 to the chin in numerals, quotients, and dividends. — Mistress Mar- 
 garet, my pretty honey," for the beauty of the young citizen made 
 even Sir Mungo Malagrowther's grim features relax themselves 
 a little, " is your father always as entertaining as he seems just now?" 
 
 Mistress Margaret simpered, bridled, loolced to either side, then 
 straight before her ; and, having assumed all the airs of bashful 
 embarrassment and timidity which were necessary, as she thought, 
 to cover a certain shrewd readiness which really belonged to her 
 character, at length replied, " That indeed her father was very 
 thoughtful, but she had heard, that he took the habit of mind from 
 her grandfather." 
 
 " Your grandfather ! " said Sir Mungo, — after doubting if he had 
 heard her aright, — " Said she her grandfather ! The lassie is dis- 
 traught ! — I ken nae wench on this side of Temple-Bar that is 
 derived from so distant a relation." 
 
 "She has got a godfather, however, Sir Mungo," said George 
 Heriot, again interfering ; " and I hope you will allow him interest 
 enough with you, to request you will not put his pretty godchild to 
 so deep a blush." 
 
 " The better — the better," said Sir Mungo. " It is a credit to 
 her, that, bred and born within the sound of Bow-bell, she can 
 blush for any thing ; and, by my saul. Master George," he con- 
 tinued, chucking the irritated and reluctant damsel under the chin, 
 " she is bonny enough to make amends for her lack of ancestry — 
 at least, in such a region as Cheapside, where, d'ye mind me, the 
 kettle cannot call the porridge-pot " " 
 
go THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 The damsel blushed, but not so angrily as before. Master 
 George Heriot hastened to interrupt the conclusion of Sir Mungo's 
 homely proverb, by introducing him personally to Lord Nigel. 
 
 Sir Mungo could not at first understand what his host said.— 
 " Bread of Heaven, wha say ye, man ? " 
 
 Upon the name of Nigel OHfaunt, Lord Glenvarloch, being again 
 hollowed into his ear,. he drew up, and, regarding his entertainer 
 with some austerity, rebuked him for not making persons of quality 
 acquainted with each other, that they might exchange courtesies 
 before they mingled with other folks. He then made as handsome 
 and courtly a congee to his new acquaintance as a man maimed in 
 foot and hand could do ; and, observing he had known my lord, 
 his father, bid him welcome to London, and hoped he should see 
 him at Court. 
 
 Nigel in an instant comprehended, as well from Sir Mungo's 
 manner, as from a strict compression of their entertainer's lips, 
 which intimated the suppression of a desire to laugh, that he was 
 dealing with an original of no ordiifary description, and, accord- 
 ingly, returned his courtesy with suitable punctiliousness. Sir 
 Mungo, in the meanwhile, gazed on him with much earnestness ; 
 and, as the contemplation of natural advantages was as odious to 
 him as that of wealth, or other adventitious benefits, he had no 
 sooner completely perused the handsome form and good features of 
 the young lord, than, like one of the comforters of the Man of Uz, 
 he drew close up to him, to enlarge on the former grandeur of the 
 Lords of Glenvarloch, and the regret with which he had heard, 
 that their representative was not likely to possess the domains of 
 his ancestry. Anon, he enlarged upon the beauties of the principal 
 mansion of Glenvarloch — ^the commanding site of the old clastle — 
 the noble expanse of the lake, stocked with wildfowl for hawking — 
 the commanding screen of forest, terminating in a mountain- ridge 
 abounding with deer — and all the other advantages ofthat fine and 
 ancient barony, till Nigel, in spite of every effort to the contrary, 
 was unwillingly obliged to sigh. 
 
 Sir Mungo, skilful in discerning when the withers of those he 
 conversed with were wrung, observed that his new acquaintance 
 winced, and would willingly have pressed the discussion ; but the 
 cook's impatient knock upon the dresser with the haft of his 
 dudgeon-knife, now gave a signal loud enough to be heard from the 
 top of the house to the bottom, summoning, at the same time, the 
 serving-men to place the dinner upon the table, and the guests to 
 partake of it. 
 
 Sir Mungo, who was an admirer of good cheer, — a taste which, 
 by the way, might have some weight in reconciling his dignity to 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. gi 
 
 these city visits, — was tolled off by the sound, and left Nigel and 
 the other guests in peace, until his anxiety to arrange himself in his 
 due place of pre-eminence at the genial board was duly gratified. 
 Here, seated on the left hand of Aunt Judith, he beheld Nigel 
 occupy the station of yet higher honour on the right, dividing that 
 matron from pretty Mistress Margaret ; but he saw this with the 
 more patience, that there stood betwixt him and the young lord a 
 superb larded capon. 
 
 The dinner proceeded according to the form of the times. All 
 was excellent of the kind ; and, besides the Scottish cheer promised, 
 the board displayed beef and pudding, the statutory dainties of Old 
 England. A small cupboard of plate, very choicely and beautifully 
 wrought, did not escape the compliments of some of the company, 
 and an oblique sneer from Sir Mungo, as intimating the owner^s 
 excellence in his own mechanical craft. 
 
 " I am not ashamed of the workmanship. Sir Mungo," said the 
 honest citizen. " They say, a good cook knows how to lick his own 
 fingers ; and, methinks, it were unseemly that I, who have fur- 
 nished half the cupboards in broad Britain, should have my own 
 covered with paltry pewter." 
 
 The blessing of the clergyman now left the guests at liberty to 
 attack what was placed before them ; and the meal went forward 
 with great decorum, until Aunt Judith, in farther recommendation 
 of the capon, assured her company, that it was of a celebrated 
 breed of poultry, which she had herself brought from Scotland. 
 
 " Then, like some of his countrymen, madam," said the pitiless Sir 
 Mungo, not without a glance towards his landlord, " he has been 
 well larded in England." 
 
 " There are some others of his countrymen," answered Master 
 Heriot, "to whom all the lard in England has not been able to 
 render that good office." 
 
 Sir Mungo sneered and reddened, the rest of the company 
 laughed ; and the satirist, who had his reasons for not coming to 
 extremity with Master George, was silent for the rest of the dinner. 
 
 The dishes were exchanged for confections, and wine of the 
 highest quality and flavour ; and Nigel saw the entertainments of 
 the wealthiest burgomasters, which he had witnessed abroad, fairly 
 outshone by the hospitality of a London citizen. Yet there was 
 nothing ostentatious, or which seemed inconsistent with the degree 
 of an opulent burgher. 
 
 While the collation proceeded, Nigel, according to the good- 
 breeding of the time, addressed his discourse principally to Mrs. 
 Judith ; whom he found to be a woman of a strong Scottish under- 
 standing, more inclined towards the Puritans than was her brother 
 
52 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 George, (for in that relation she stood to him, though he always 
 called her aunt,) attached to him in the strongest degree, and 
 sedulously attentive to all his comforts. As the conversation of 
 this good dame was neither lively nor fascinating, the young lord 
 naturally addressed himself next to the old horologer's very pretty 
 daughter, who sat upon his left hand. From her, however, there 
 was no extracting any reply beyond the measure of a monosyllable ; 
 and when the young gallant had said the best and most com- 
 plaisant things which his courtesy supplied, the smile that mantled 
 upon her pretty mouth was so slight and evanescent, as scarce to 
 be discernible. 
 
 Nigel was beginning to tire of his company, for the old citizens 
 were speaking with his host of commercial matters in language to 
 him totally unintelligible, when Sir Mungo Malagrowther suddenly 
 summoned their attention. 
 
 That amiable personage had for some time withdrawn from the 
 company into the recess of a projecting window, so formed and 
 placed, as to command a view of the door of the house, and of the 
 street. This situation was probably preferred by Sir Mungo on 
 account of the number of objects which the streets of a metropolis 
 usually offer, of a kind congenial to the thoughts of a splenetic man. 
 What he had hitherto seen passing there, was probably of little 
 consequence j but now a trampling of horse was heard without, and 
 the knight suddenly_ exclaimed, — " By my faith. Master George, 
 you had better go look to shop ; for here comes Knighton, the Duke 
 of Buckingham's groom, and two fellows after him, as if he were 
 my Lord Duke himself." 
 
 " My cash-keeper is below,'* said Heriot, without disturbing him- 
 self, " and he will let me know if his Grace's commands require my 
 immediate attention." 
 
 " Umph ! — cash-keeper ? " muttered Sir Mungo to himself ; " he 
 would have had an easy office when I first kend ye. — But," said he, 
 speaking aloud, " will you not come to the window, at least? for 
 Knighton has trundled a piece of silver-plate into your house — ha ! 
 ha ! ha ! — trundled it upon its edge, as a callan' would drive a 
 hoop. I cannot help laughing — ha ! ha ! ha ! — at the fellow's im- 
 pudence." 
 
 " I believe you could not help laughing," said George Heriot, 
 rising up and leaving the room, "if your best friend lay 
 dying." 
 
 " Bitter that, my lord — ha?" said Sir Mungo, addressing Nigel. 
 " Our friend is not a goldsmith for nothing — he hath no leaden wit. 
 But I will go down, and see what comes on't." 
 
 Heriot, as he descended the stairs, met hi? qagh-keeper coming 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 93 
 
 up, with some concern in his face. — " Why, how now, Roberts," 
 said the goldsmith, " what means all this, man ? " 
 
 " It is Knighton, Master Heriot, from the court — Knighton, the 
 Duke's man. He brought back the salver you carried to White- 
 hall, flung it into the entrance as if it had been an old pewter 
 platter, and bade me tell you, the King would have none of your 
 trumpery." 
 
 " Ay, indeed ! " said George Heriot — " None of my trumpery ! 
 — Come hither into the compting-room, Roberts. — Sir Mungo," he 
 added, bowing to the knight, who had joined, and was preparing to 
 follow them, " I pray your forgiveness for an instant." 
 
 In virtue of this prohibition. Sir Mungo, who, as well as the rest 
 of the company, had overheard what passed betwixt George Heriot 
 and his cash-keeper, saw himself condemned to wait in the outer 
 business-room, where he would have endeavoured to slake his 
 eager curiosity by questioning Knighton ; but that emissary of 
 greatness, after having added to the uncivil message of his master, 
 some rudeness of his own, had again scampered westward, with his 
 satellites at his heels. 
 
 In the meanwhile, the name of the Duke of Buckingham, the 
 omnipotent favourite both of the King and the Prince of Wales, 
 had struck some anxiety into the party which remained in the great 
 parlour. He was more feared than beloved, and, if not absolutely 
 of a tyrannical disposition, was accounted haughty, violent, and 
 vindictive. It pressed on Nigel's heart, that he himself, though he 
 could not conceive how, nor why, might be the original cause of 
 the resentment of the Duke against his benefactor. The others 
 made their comments in whispers, until the sounds reached Ramsay, 
 who had not heard a word of what had previously passed, but, 
 plunged in those studies with which he connected every other 
 incident and event, took up only the catchword, and replied, — " The 
 Duke — the Duke of Buckingham — George Villiers — ay — I have 
 spoke with Lambe about him." 
 
 " Our Lord and our Lady ! Now, how can you say so, father ? " 
 said his daughter, who had shrewdness enough to see that her 
 father was touching upon dangerous ground. 
 
 " Why, ay, child," answered Ramsay ; " the stars do but incline, 
 they cannot compel. But well you' wot, it is commonly said of his 
 Grace, by those who have the skill to cast nativities, that there was 
 a notable conjunction of Mars and Saturn — the apparent or true 
 time of which, reducing the calculations of Eichstadius made for 
 the latitude of Oranienburgh to that of London, gives seven hours, 
 fifty-five minutes, and forty-one seconds " 
 
 ' Hold your peace, old soothsayer," said Heriot, who at that 
 
94 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 instant entered the room with a cahn and steady countenance ; 
 " your calculations are true gnd undeniable when they regard brass 
 and wire, and mechanical force; but future events are at the 
 pleasure of Him who bears the hearts of kings in his hands." 
 
 "Ay, but, George," answered the watchmaker, "there was a con- 
 currence of signs at this gentleman's birth, which showed his course 
 would be a strange one. Long has it been said of him, he was born 
 at the very meeting of night and day, and under crossing and con- 
 tending influences that may affect both us and him. 
 
 ' Full moon and high sea. 
 Great man shalt thou be. 
 Red dawning, stormy sky. 
 Bloody death shalt thou die.'" 
 
 " It is not good to speak of such things," said Heriot, " especially 
 of the great ; stone walls have ears, and a bird of the air shall 
 carry the matter." 
 
 Several of the guests seemed to be of their host's opinion. The 
 two merchants look brief leave, as if under consciousness that 
 something was wrong. Mistress Malrgaret, her body-guard of 
 'prentices being in readiness, plucked her father by the sleeve, and, 
 rescuing him from a brown study, (whether referring to the wheels 
 of Time, or to that of Fortune, is uncertain,) wished good-night to 
 her friend Mrs. Judith, and received her godfather's blessing, who, 
 at the same time, put upon her slender finger a ring of much taste 
 and some value ; for he Seldom suffered her to leave him without 
 some token of his affection. Thus honourably dismissed, and ac- 
 companied by her escort, she set forth on her return to Fleet- 
 street. 
 
 Sir Mungo had bid adieu to Master Heriot as he came out from 
 the back compting-room, but such was the interest which he took 
 in the affairs of his friend, that, when Master George went up stairs, 
 he could not help walking into that sanctum sanctorum, to see how 
 Master Roberts was employed. The knight found the cash-keeper 
 busy in making extracts from those huge brass-clasped leathern- 
 bound manuscript folios, which are the pride and trust of dealers, 
 and the dread of customers whose year of grace is out. The good 
 knight leant his elbows on the desk, and said to the functionary, in 
 a condoling tone of voice, — " What ! you have lost a good customer, 
 I fear, Master Roberts, and are busied in making out his bill of 
 charges ? " 
 
 Now, it chanced that Roberts, like Sir Mungo himself, was a 
 little deaf, and, like Sir Mungo, knew also how to make the most 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 9S 
 
 of it ; so that he answered at cross purposes, — " I humbly crave 
 your pardon, Sir Mungo, for not having sent in your bill of charge 
 sooner, but my master bade me not disturb you. I will bring the 
 items together in a moment." So saying, he began to turn over the 
 leaves of his book of fate, murmuring, " Repairing ane silver seal — 
 new clasp to his chain of office — ane over-gilt brooch to his hat, 
 being a Saint Andrew's cross, with thistles^a copper gilt pair of 
 spurs, — this to Daniel Driver, we not dealing in the article." 
 
 He would have proceeded ; but Sir Mungo, not prepared to 
 endure the recital of the catalogue of his own petty debts, and still 
 less willing to satisfy them on the spot, wished the book-keeper, 
 cavalierly, good-night, and left the house without farther ceremony, 
 The clerk looked after him with a civil city sneer, and immediately 
 resumed the more serious labours which Sir Mungo's intrusion had 
 interrupted.* 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Things needful we have thought on ; but the thing 
 Of all most needful — that which Scripture terms. 
 As if alone it merited regard, 
 The ONE thing needful — that's yet unconslder'd. 
 
 The Chamberlain. 
 
 When the rest of the company had taken their departure from 
 Master Heriot's house, the young Lord of Glenvarloch also offered 
 to take leave ; but his host detained him for a few minutes, until 
 all were gone excepting the clergyman. 
 
 " My lord," then said the worthy citizen, " we have had our per- 
 mitted hour of honest and hospitable pastime, and now I would 
 fain delay you for another and graver purpose, as it is our custom, 
 when we have the benefit of good Mr. Windsor's company, that he 
 reads the prayers of the church for the evening before we separate. 
 Your excellent father, my lord, would not have departed before 
 family worship — I hope the same from your lordship." 
 
 " With pleasure, sir," answered Nigel ; " and you add in the 
 invitation an additional obligation to those with which you have 
 loaded me. When young men forget what is their duty, they owe 
 deep thanks to the friend who will remind them of it." 
 
 While they talked together in this manner, the serving-men had 
 removed the folding-tables, brought forward a portable reading- 
 desk, and placed chairs and hassocks for their master, their mistress, 
 
96 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 and the noble stranger. Another low chair, or rather a sort of 
 stool, was placed close beside that of Master Heriot ; and though 
 the circumstance was trivial, Nigel was induced to notice it, because, 
 when about to occupy that seat, he was prevented by a sign from 
 the old gentleman, and motioned to another of somewhat more 
 elevation. The clergyman took his station behind the reading- 
 desk. The domestics, a numerous family both of clerks and 
 servants, including Moniplies, attended with great gravity, and were 
 accommodated with benches. 
 
 The household were all seated, and, externally, at least, composed 
 to devout attention, when a low knock was heard at the door of the 
 apartment ; Mrs. Judith looked anxiously at her brother, as if de- 
 siring to know his pleasure. He nodded his head gravely, and 
 looked at the door. Mrs. Judith immediately crossed the chamber, 
 opened the door, and led into the apartment a beautiful creature, 
 whose sudden and singular appearance might have made her almost 
 pass for an apparition. She was deadly pale — there was not the 
 least shade of vital red to enliven features, which were exquisitely 
 formed, and might, but for that circumstance, have been termed 
 transcendently beautiful. Her long black hair fell down over her 
 shoulders and down her back, combed smoothly and regularly, but 
 without the least appearance of decoration or ornament, which looked 
 very singular at a period when head-gear, as it was called, of one sort 
 or other, was generally used by all ranks. Her dress was of pure 
 white, of the simplest fashion, and hiding all her person excepting 
 the throat, face, and hands. Her form was rather beneath than 
 above the middle size, but so justly proportioned and elegantly 
 made, that the spectator's attention was entirely withdrawn from 
 her size. In contradiction of the extreme plainness of all the rest 
 of her attire, she wore a necklace which a Duchess might have en- 
 vied, so large and lustrous were the brilliants of which it was com- 
 posed ; andaround her waist a zone of rubies of scarce inferior value. 
 
 When this singular figure entered the apartment, she cast her 
 eyes on Nigel, and paused, as" if uncertain whether to advance or 
 retreat. The glance which she took of him seemed to be one 
 rather of uncertainty and hesitation, than of bashfulness or timidity. 
 Aunt Judith took her by the hand, and led her slowly forward — her 
 dark eyes, however, continued to be fixed on Nigel, with an ex- 
 pression of melancholy by which he felt strangely affected. Even 
 when she was seated on the vacant stool, which was placed there pro- 
 bably for her accommodation, she again looked on him more than 
 once with the same pensive, lingering, and anxious expression, but 
 without either shyness or embarrassment, not even so much as to 
 call the slightest degree of complexion into her cheek. 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 97 
 
 So soon as this singular female had taken up the prayer-book, 
 which was laid upon her cushion, she seemed immersed in devotional 
 duty ; and although Nigel's attention to the service was so much 
 disturbed by this extraordinary apparition, that he looked towards 
 her repeatedly in the course |of the service, he could never observe 
 that her eyes or her thoughts strayed so much as a single moment 
 from the task in which she was engaged. Nigel himself was less 
 attentive, for the appearance of this lady seemed so extraordinary, 
 that, strictly as he had been bred up by his father to pay the most 
 reverential attention during the perfoi-mance of divine service, his 
 thoughts in spite of himself were disturbed by her presence, and 
 he earnestly wished the prayers were ended, that his curiosity might 
 obtain some gratification. When the service was concluded, and 
 each had remained, according to the decent and edifying practice 
 of the church, concentrated in mental devotion for a short space, 
 the mysterious visitant arose ere any other person stirred ; and 
 Nigel remarked that none of the domestics left their places, or even 
 moved, until she had first kneeled on one knee to Heriot, who 
 seemed to bless her with his hand laid on her head, and a melan- 
 choly solemnity of look and action. She then bended her body, 
 but without kneeling, to Mrs. Judith, and having performed 
 these two acts of reverence, she left the room ; yet just in the act 
 of her departure, she once more turned her penetrating eyes on 
 Nigel with a fixed look, which compelled him to turn his own aside. 
 When he looked towards her again, he saw only the skirt of her 
 white mantle as she left the apartment. 
 
 The domestics then rose and dispersed themselves — wine, andfruit, 
 and spices, were offered to Lord Nigel and to the clergyman, and the 
 latter took his leave. The young lord would fain have accompanied 
 him, in hope to get some explanation of the apparition which he had 
 beheld, but he was stopped by his host, who requested to speak 
 with him in his compting-room. 
 
 " I hope, my lord," said th^ citizen, " that your preparations for 
 attending Court are in such forwardness that you can go thither the 
 day after to-morrow. It is, perhaps, the last day, for some time, 
 that his Majesty will hold open court for all who have pretensions 
 by birth, rank or office, to attend upon him. On the subsequent 
 day he goes to Theobald's, where he is so much occupied with 
 hunting and other pleasures, that he cares not to be intruded 
 on." 
 
 " I shall be in all outward readiness to pay my duty," said the 
 young nobleman, " yet I have httle heart to do it. The friends from 
 whom I ought to have found encouragement and protection, have 
 proved cold and false — I certainly will not trouble them for their 
 
 H 
 
gS THE FORTUNES -OF NIGEL. 
 
 countenance on this occasion— and yet I must confess my childish 
 unwillingness to enter quite alone upon so new a scene." 
 
 " It is bold of a mechanic like me to make such an offer to a 
 nobleman," said Heriot ; " but I must attend at Court to-morrow. I 
 can accompany you as far as the presence-chamber, from my 
 privilege as being of the household. I can facilitate your entrance, 
 should you find difficulty, and I can point out the proper manner 
 and time of approaching the King. But I do not know," he added, 
 smiling, " whether these little advantages will not be overbalanced 
 by the incongruity of a nobleman receiving them from the hands of 
 an old smith." 
 
 " From the hands rather of the only friend I have found in 
 London," said Nigel, offering his hand. 
 
 " Nay, if you think of the matter in that way," replied the honest 
 citizen, "there is no more to be said — I will come for you to- 
 morrow, with a barge proper to the occasion. — But remember, my 
 good young lord, that I do not, like some men of my degree, wish 
 10 take opportunity to step beyond it, and associate with my 
 superiors in rank, and therefore do not fear to mortify my pre- 
 sumption, by suffering me to keep my distance in the presence, 
 and where it is fitting for both of us to separate ; and for what 
 remains, most truly happy shall I be in proving of service to the 
 son of my ancient patron." 
 
 The style of conversation led so far from the point which had 
 interested the young nobleman's curiosity, that there was no re- 
 turning to it that night. He therefore exchanged thanks and 
 greeting with George Heriot, and took his leave, promising to be 
 equipped and in readiness to embark with him on the second 
 successive morning at ten o'clock. 
 
 The generation of linkboys, celebrated by Count Anthony Hamil- 
 ton, as peculiar to London, had already, in the reign of James I., 
 begun their functions, and the service of one of them with his 
 smoky torch, had been secured to light the young Scottish lord and 
 his follower to their own lodgings, which, though better acquainted 
 than formerly with the city, they might in the dark have run some 
 danger of missing. This gave the ingenious Mr. Moniplies an 
 opportunity of gathering close up to his master, after he had gone 
 through the form of slipping his left arm into the handles of his 
 buckler, and loosening his broadsword in the sheath, that he might 
 be ready for whatever should befall. 
 
 " If it were not for the wine and the good cheer which we have 
 had in yonder old man's house, my lord," said this sapient 
 follower, " and that I ken him by report to be a just living man in 
 many respects, and a real Edinburgh gutter-blood, I should have 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 99 
 
 been well pleased to have seen how his feet were shaped, and 
 whether he had not a cloven cloot under the braw roses and cordovan 
 shoon of his." 
 
 " Why, you rascal," answered Nigel, " you have been too kindly 
 treated, and now that you have filled your ravenous stomach, you 
 are railing on the good gentleman that relieved you." 
 
 " Under favour, no, my lord," said Moniplies, — " I would only 
 like to see something mair about him. I have eaten his meat, it is 
 true — more shame that the like of him should have meat to give, 
 when your lordship and me could scarce have gotten, on our own 
 account, brose and a bear bannock — I have drunk his wine, too." 
 
 " I see you have," replied his master, " a great deal more than 
 you should have done." 
 
 " Under your patience, my lord," said Moniplies, " you are pleased 
 to say that, because I crushed a quart .with that jolly boy Jenkin, 
 as they call the 'prentice boy, and that was out of mere acknowledg- 
 ment for his former kindness — I own that I, moreover, sung the good 
 old song of Elsie Marley, so as they never heard it chanted in their 
 lives " 
 
 And withal (as John Bunyan says) as they went on their way, he 
 sung — 
 
 " O, do ye ken Elsie Marley, honey — 
 The wife that sells the barley, honey ? 
 For Elsie Marley's grown sae fine. 
 She winna get up to feed the swine. — 
 O, do ye ken " 
 
 Here in mid career was the songster interrupted by the stern gripe 
 of his master, who threatened to baton him to death if he brought 
 the city-watch upon them by his ill-timed melody. 
 
 " I crave pardon, my lord — I humbly crave pardoi*— only when I 
 think of that Jen Win, as they call him, I can hardly help humming 
 — ' O, do ye ken ' — But I crave your honour's pardon, and will be 
 totally dumb, if you command me." 
 
 " No, sirrah ! " said Nigel, " talk on, for I well know you would 
 say and suffer more under pretence of holding your peace, than 
 when you get an unbridled license. How is it, then ? What have 
 you to say against Master Heriot ? " 
 
 It seems more than probable, that in permitting this license, the 
 young lord hoped his attendant would stumble upon the subject of 
 the young lady who had appeared at prayers in a manner so 
 mysterious. But whether this was the case, or whether he merely 
 desired that Moniplies should utter in a subdued and under tone of 
 voice, those spirits which might otherwise have vented themselves 
 
 H 3 
 
100 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 in obstreperous song, it is certain he permitted his attendant to 
 proceed with his story in his own way. 
 
 " And therefore," said the orator, availing himself of his immunity, 
 " I would like to ken what sort of a carle this Maister Heriot is. 
 He hath supplied your lordship with wealth of gold, as I can under- 
 stand ; and if he has, I make it for certain he hath had his ain 
 end in it, according to the fashion of the world. Now, had your 
 lordship your own good lands at your guiding, doubtless this person, 
 with most of his craft — goldsmiths they call themselves— I say 
 usurers — wad be glad to exchange so many pounds of African dust, 
 by whilk I understand gold, against so many fair acres, and 
 hundreds of acres, of broad Scottish land." 
 
 " But you know I have no land," said the young lord, " at least 
 ■one that can be affected by any debt which I can at present 
 become obliged for— I think you need not have reminded me of 
 that." 
 
 " True, my lord, most true ; and, as your lordship says, open to 
 the meanest capacity, without any unnecessary expositions. Now, 
 therefore, mylord,unless Maister George Heriot has something mair 
 to allege as a motive for his liberality, vera different from the pos- 
 session of your estate — and moreover, as he could gain little by the 
 capture of your body, wherefore should it not be your soul that he 
 is in pursuit of ? " 
 
 " My soul, you rascal ! " said the young lord ; " what good should 
 my soul do him ? " 
 
 " What do I ken about that ? " said Moniplies ; " they go about 
 roaring and seeking whom they may devour — doubtless, they like 
 the food that they rage so much about — and, my lord, they say," 
 added Monoplies, drawing up still closer to his master's side, " they 
 say that Master Heriot has one spirit in his house already." 
 
 " How, or what do you mean?" said Nigel ; " I will break your 
 head, you drunken knave, if you palter with me any longer." 
 
 " Drunken ? " answered his trusty adherent, " and is this the story ? 
 — why, how could I but drink your lordship's health on my bare 
 knees, when Master Jenkin began it to me ?— hang them that would 
 pot — I would have cut the impudent knave's hams with my broad- 
 sword, that should make scruple of it, and so have made him kneel 
 when he should have found it difficult to rise again. But touching 
 the spirit," he proceeded, finding that his master made no answer 
 to his valorous tirade, " your lordship has seen her with your own 
 eyes." 
 
 " I saw no spirit," said Glenvarloch, but yet breathing thick as 
 one who expects some singular disclosure, " what mean you by a 
 a spirit ? " 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NKIEL. loi 
 
 " You saw a young lady come in to prayers, that spoke not a word 
 to any one, only made becks and bows to the old gentleman and 
 lady of the house — ken ye wha she is ? " 
 
 " No, indeed," answered Nigel ; " some relation of the family, I 
 suppose." 
 
 " Deil a bit — deil a bit," answered Monoplies, hastily, " not a 
 blood-drop's kin to them, if she had a drop of blood in her body — I 
 tell you but what all human beings allege to be truth, that dwell 
 within hue and cry of Lombard-street— that lady, or quean, or what- 
 ever you choose to call her, has been dead in the body these many 
 a year, though she haunts them, as we have seen, even at their very 
 devotions." 
 
 " You will allow her to be a good spirit at least," said Nigel 
 Olifaunt, " since slie chooses such a time to visit her friends ? " 
 
 " For that I kenna, my lord," answered the superstitious fol- 
 lower ; " I ken no spirit that would have faced the right down 
 hammer-blow of Mess John Knox, whom my father stood by in his 
 very warst days, bating a chance time when the Court, which my 
 father supplied with butcher-meat, was against him. But yon 
 divine has another airt from powerful Master RoUock, and Mess 
 David Black, of North Leith, and sic like. — Alack-a-day ! wha can 
 ken, if it please your lordship, whether sic prayers as the Southron 
 read out of their auld blethering black mess-book there, may not be 
 as powerful to invite fiends, as a right red-het prayer warm frae the 
 heart, may be powerful to drive them away, even as the Evil Spirit 
 was driven by the smell of the fish's liver from the bridal-chamber 
 of Sara, the daughter of Raguel ? As to whilk story, nevertheless, 
 I make scruple to say whether it be truth or not, better men than 
 I am having doubted on that matter." 
 
 " Well, well, well," said his master impatiently, " we are now near 
 home, and I have permitted you to speak of this matter for once, 
 that we may have an end of your prying folly, and your idiotical 
 superstitions, for ever. For whom do you, or your absurd authors 
 or informers, take this lady .' " 
 
 " I can say naething preceesely as to that," answered Moniplies ; 
 " certain it is her body died and was laid in the grave many a day 
 since, notwithstanding she still wanders on earth, and chiefly 
 amongst Maister Heriot's family, though she hath been seen in 
 other places by them that well knew her. But who she is, I will 
 not warrant to say, or how she becomes attached, like a Highland 
 Brownie, to some peculiar family. They say she has a row of 
 apartments of her own, anteroom, parlour, and bedroom ; but deil 
 a bed she sleeps in but her own coffin, and the walls, doors, and 
 windows are so chinked up, as to prevent the least blink of daylight 
 from entering ; and then she dwells by torchlight " 
 
ita THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 " To what purpose, if she be a spirit ? " said Nigel Olifaunt. 
 ' " How can I tell your lordship ? " answered his attendant. " I 
 thank God, I know nothing of her likings, or mislikings— only her 
 coffin is there ; and I leave your lordship to guess what a live person 
 has to do with a coffin. As little as a ghost with a lantern, I 
 trow." 
 
 " What reason," repeated Nigel, " can a creature, so young and 
 so beautiful, have already habitually to contemplate her bed of last 
 long rest?" 
 
 " In troth, I kenna, my lord," answered Moniplies ; " but there is 
 the coffin, as they told me who have seen it : It is made of heben- 
 wood, with silver nails, and lined all through with three-piled 
 damask, might serve a princess to rest in." 
 
 " Singular," said Nigel, whose brain, like that of most active 
 young spirits, was easily caught by the singular and romantic ; 
 " does she not eat with the family? " 
 
 " Who ! — she ! " exclaimed Moniplies, as if surprised at the 
 question ; "they would need alang spoon that would sup with her, 
 I trow. Always there is something put for her into the Tower, 
 as they call it, whilk is a whigmaleery of a whirling-box, that turns 
 round half on the tae side o' the wa', half on the tother." 
 
 " I have seen the contrivance in foreign nunneries," said the 
 Lord of Glenvarloch. " And is it thus she receives her food ? " 
 
 " They tell me something is put in ilka day, for fashion's sake," 
 replied the attendant ; "but it's no to be supposed she would consume 
 it, ony mair than the images of Bel and the Dragon consumed the 
 dainty vivers that were placed before them. There are stout 
 yeomen and chamber-queans in the house, enow to play the part of 
 Lick-it-up-a', as well as threescore and ten priests of Bel, besides 
 their wives and children." 
 
 "And she is never seen in the family but when the hour of 
 prayer arrives ? " said the master. 
 
 " Never, that I hear of," replied the servant. 
 
 " It is singular," said Nigel Olifaunt, musing. " Were it not for the 
 ornaments which she wears, and still more for her attendance upon 
 the service of the Protestant Church, I should know what to think, 
 and should believe her either a Catholic votaress, who, for some 
 cogent reason, was allowed to make her cell here in London, or 
 some unhappy Popish devotee, who was in the course of undergoing 
 a dreadful penance. As it is, I know not what to deem of it." 
 
 His reverie was interrupted by the linkboy knocking at the door 
 of honest John Christie, whose wife came forth with " quips, and 
 becks, and wreathed smiles," to welcome her honoured guest on his 
 return to his apartment. 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 103 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Ay ! mark the matron well — and laugh not, Harry, 
 At her old steeple-hat and velvet guard — 
 I've call'd her like the ear of Dionysius ; 
 I mean that ear-form'd vault, built o'er his dungeon, 
 To catch the groans and discontented murmurs 
 Of his poor bondsmen — Even so doth Martha 
 Drink up, for her own purpose, all that passes. 
 Or is supposed to pass, in this wide city — 
 She can retail it too, if that her profit 
 Shall call on her to do so ; and retail it 
 For your advantage, so that you can make 
 Your profit jump with hers. 
 
 The Conspiracy. 
 
 We must now introduce to the reader's acquaintance another 
 character, busy and important far beyond her ostensible situation 
 in society— in a word, Dame Ursula Suddlechop, wife of Benjamin 
 Suddlechop, the most renowned barber in all Fleet-street. This 
 dame had her own particular merits, the principal part of which was 
 (if her own report could be trusted) an infinite desire to be of service 
 to her fellow-creatures. Leaving to her thin half-starved partner 
 the boast of having the most dexterous snap with his fingers of any 
 shaver in London, and the care of a shop where starved apprentices 
 flayed the faces of those who were boobies enough to trust them, 
 the dame drove a separate and more lucrative trade, which yet had 
 so many odd turns and windings, that it seemed in many respects 
 to contradict itself. 
 
 Its highest and most important duties were of a very secret and 
 confidential nature, and Dame Ursula Suddlechop was never known 
 to betray any transaction intrusted to her, unless she had either been 
 indifferently paid for her service, or that some one found it con- 
 venient to give her a double douceur to make her disgorge the 
 secret ; and these contingencies happened in so few cases, that her 
 character for trustiness remained as unimpeached as that for 
 honesty and benevolence. 
 
 In fact, she was a most admirable matron, and could be useful 
 to the impassioned and the frail in the rise, progress, and con- 
 sequences of their passion. She could contrive an interview for 
 lovers who could show proper reasons for meeting privately ; she 
 could relieve the frail fair one of the burden of a guilty passion, and 
 perhaps establish the hopeful offspring of unUcensed love as the 
 heir of some family whose love was lawful, but where an heir had 
 
104 THE tORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 not followed the union. More than this she could do, and had been 
 concerned in deeper and dearer secrets : She had been a pupil of 
 Mrs. Turner, and learned from her the secret of making the yellow 
 starch, and, it may be, two or three other secrets of more con- 
 sequence, though perhaps none that went to the criminal extent of 
 those whereof her mistress was accused. But all that was deep and 
 dark in her real character, was covered by the show of outward 
 mirth and good-humour, the hearty laugh and buxom jest with 
 which the dame knew well how to conciliate the elder part of her 
 neighbours, and the many petty arts by which she could recommend 
 herself to the younger, those especially of her own sex. 
 
 Dame Ursula was, in appearance, scarce past forty, and her full, 
 but not overgrown form, and still comely features, although her 
 person was plumped out, and her face somewhat coloured by good 
 cheer, had a joyous expression of gaiety and good-humour, which 
 set off the remains of beauty in the wane. Marriages, births, and 
 christenings, were seldom thought to be performed with sufficient 
 ceremony, for a considerable distance round her abode, unless 
 Dame Ursley, as they called her, was present. She could contrive 
 all sorts of pastimes, games, and jests, which might amuse the large 
 companies which the hospitality of our ancestors assembled 
 together on such occasions, so that her presence was literally con- 
 sidered as indispensable in the family of all citizens of ordinary rank, 
 on such joyous occasions. So much also was she supposed to know 
 of life and its labyrinths, that she was the v/illing confidant of half 
 the loving couples in the vicinity, most of whom used tfl com- 
 municate their secrets to, and receive their counsel from. Dame 
 Ursley. The rich rewarded her services with rings, owches, or 
 gold pieces, which she liked still better ; and she very generously 
 gave her assistance to the poor, on the same mixed principles as 
 young practitioners in medicine assist them, partly from compassion, 
 and partly to keep her hand in use. 
 
 Dame Ursley's reputation in the city was the greater that her 
 practice had extended beyond Temple-Bar, and that she had 
 acquaintances, nay, patrons and patronesses, among the quality, 
 whose rank, as their members were much fewer, and the prospect 
 of approaching the courtly sphere much more difficult, bore a degree 
 of consequence unknown to the present day, when the toe of the 
 citizen presses so close on the courtier's heel. Dame Ursley main- 
 tained her intercourse with this superior rank of customers, partly 
 by driving a small trade in perfumes, essences, pomades, head- 
 gears from France, dishes or ornaments from China, then already 
 beginning to be fashionable ; not to mention drugs of various 
 descriptions, chiefly for the use of the ladies, and partly by other 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 105 
 
 services, more or less connected with the esoteric branches of her 
 profession heretofore alluded to. 
 
 Possessing such and so many various modes of thriving, Dame 
 Ursley was nevertheless so poor, that she might probably have 
 mended her own circumstances, as well as her husband's, if she had 
 renounced them all, and set herself quietly down to the care of her 
 own household, and to assist Benjamin in the concerns of his trade. 
 But Ursula was luxurious and genial in her habits, and could no 
 more have endured the stinted economy of Benjamin's board, than 
 she could have reconciled herself to the bald chat of his conver- 
 sation. 
 
 It was on the evening of the day on which Lord Nigel Olifaunt 
 dined with the wealthy goldsmith, that we must introduce Ursula 
 Suddlechop upon the stage. She had that morning made a Icmg 
 tour to Westminster, was fatigued, and had assumed a certain large 
 elbow-chair, rendered smooth by frequent use, placed on one side 
 of her chimney, in which there was lit a small but bright fire. Here 
 she observed, betwixt sleeping and waking, the simmering of a pot 
 of well-spiced ale, on the brown surface of which bobbed a small 
 crab-apple, sufficiently roasted, while a little mulatto girl watched, 
 still more attentively, the process of dressing a veal sweetbread, in 
 a silver stewpan whijch occupied the other side of the chimney. 
 With these viands, doubtless, Dame Ursula proposed concluding 
 the well-spent day, of which she reckoned the labour over, and the 
 rest at her own command. She was deceived, however ; for just as 
 the ale, or, to speak technically, the lamb's-wool, was fitted for 
 drinking, and the little dingy maiden intimated that the sweet- 
 bread was ready to be eaten, the thin cracked voice of Benjamin 
 was heard from the bottom of the stairs. 
 
 "Why, Dame Ursley — why, wife, I say— why, dame — why, 
 love, you are wanted more than a strop for a blunt razor— why, 
 dame " 
 
 " I would some one would draw the razor across thy windpipe, 
 thou bawling ass ! " said the dame to herself, in the first moment 
 of irritation, against her clamorous helpmate; and then called 
 aloud, — " Why, what is the matter. Master Suddlechop ? I am 
 just going to slip into bed; I have been daggled to and fro the 
 whole day." 
 
 " Nay, sweetheart, it is not me," said the patient Benjamin, " but 
 the Scots laundry-maid from neighbour Ramsay's, who must speak 
 with you incontinent." 
 
 At the word sweetheart, Dame Ursley cast a wistful look at the 
 mess which was stewed to a second in the stewpan, and then 
 replied, with a sigh,—" Bid Scots Jenny come up, Master Suddle- 
 
io6 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL, 
 
 chop; I shall be very happy to hear what she has to say ;" then 
 added in a Iqwer tone, " and I hope she will go to the devil in the 
 flame of a tar-barrel, like many a Scots witch before her !" 
 
 The Scots laundress entered accordingly, a.nd having heard 
 nothing of the last kind wish of Dame Suddlechop, made her 
 reverence with considerable respect, and said, her young mistress 
 had returned home unwell, and wished to see her neighbour. Dame 
 Ursley, directly. 
 
 " And why will it not do to-morrow, Jenny, my good woman ? " 
 said Dame Ursley ; " for I have been as far as Whitehall to-day 
 already, and I am wellnigh worn off my feet, my good woman." 
 
 " Aweel !" answered Jenny, with great composure, "and if that 
 sae be sae, I maun take the langer tramp mysell, and maun gae 
 down the waterside for auld Mother Redcap, at the Hungerford 
 Stairs, that deals in comforting young creatures, e'en as you do 
 yoursell, hinny ; for ane o' ye the bairn maun see before she sleeps, 
 and that's a' that I ken on't." 
 
 So saying, the old emissary, without farther entreaty, turned on 
 her heel, and was about to retreat, when Dame Ursley exclaimed,— 
 " No, no — if the sweet child, your mistress, has any necessary 
 occasion for good advjce and kind tendance, you need not go to 
 Mother Redcap, Janet. She may do very well for skippers' wives, 
 c-handlers' daughters, and such like ; but nobody shall wait on 
 pretty Mistress Margaret, the daughter of his most Sacred Majesty's 
 horologer, excepting and saving myself. And so 1 will but take 
 my chopins and my cloak, and put on my muffler, and cross the 
 street to neighbour Ramsay's in an instant. But tell me yourself, 
 good Jenny, are you not something tired of your young lady's 
 frolics and change of mind twenty times a-day ? " 
 
 " In troth, not I," said the patient drudge, " unless it may be 
 when she is a wee fashions about washing her laces ; but 1 have 
 been her keeper since she was a bairn, neighbour Suddlechop, and 
 that makes a difference." 
 
 "Ay," said Dame Ursley, still busied putting on additional 
 defences against the night air ; "and you know for certain that she 
 has two hundred pounds a-year in good land, at her own free 
 disposal ? " 
 
 "Left by her grandmother. Heaven rest her soul!" said the 
 Scotswoman ; " and to a daintier lassie she could not have be- 
 queathed it." 
 
 "Very true, very true, mistress ; for, with all her little whims, I 
 have always said Mistress Margaret Ramsay was the prettiest girl 
 in the ward ; and, Jenny, I warrant the poor child has had no 
 supper ? " 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 107 
 
 Jenny could not say but it was the case, for, her master being 
 out, the twa 'prentice lads had gone out after shutting shop, to 
 fetch them home, and she and the other maid had gone out to 
 Sandy Mac-Givan's, to see a friend frae Scotland. 
 
 "As was very natural, Mrs. Janet," said Dame Ursley, who 
 found her interest in assenting to all sorts of propositions from all 
 sorts of persons. 
 
 " And so the fire went out, too " — said Jenny. 
 
 " Which was the most natural of the whole," said Dame Suddle- 
 chop ; " and so, to cut the matter short, Jenny, I'll carry over the 
 little bit of supper that I was going to eat. For dinner I have 
 tasted none, and it may be my young pretty Mistress Marget will 
 eat a morsel with me ; for it is mere emptiness, Mistress Jenny, 
 that often puts these fancies of illness into young folk's heads." 
 So saying, she put the silver posset-cup with the ale into Jenny's 
 hands, and assuming her mantle with the alacrity of one deter- 
 mined to sacrifice inclination to duty, she hid the stew-pan under 
 its folds, and commanded Wilsa, the little mulatto girl, to light 
 them across the street. 
 
 " Whither away, so late ? " said the barber, whom they passed 
 seated with his starveling boys round a mess of stock-fish and 
 parsnips, in the shop below. 
 
 " If I were to tell you, Gaffer," said the dame, with most con- 
 temptuous coolness, " I do not think you could do my errand, so I 
 will e'en keep it to myself." Benjamin was too much accustomed 
 to his wife's independent mode of conduct, to pursue his enquiry 
 farther ; nor did the dame tarry for farther question, but marched 
 out at the door, telling the eldest of the boys " to sit up tiU her 
 return, and look to the house the whilst." 
 
 The night was dark and rainy, and although the distance betwixt 
 tne two shops was short, it allowed Dame Ursley leisure enough, 
 while she strode along with high-tucked petticoats, to embitter it 
 by the following grumbling reflections — " I wonder what I have 
 done, that I must needs trudge at every old beldam's bidding, and 
 every young minx's maggot ! I have been marched from Temple- 
 Bar to Whitechapel, on the matter of a pinmaker's wife having 
 pricked her fingers — marry, her husband that made the weapon 
 might have salved the wound. — And here is this fantastic ape, 
 pretty Mistress Marget, forsooth — such a beauty as I could make 
 of a Dutch doll, and as fantastic, and humorous, and conceited, 
 as if she were a duchess. I have seen her in the same day as 
 changeful as a marmozet, and as stubborn as a mule. I should 
 like to know whether her little conceited noddle, or her father's 
 old crazy, calculating jolter-pate, breeds most whimsies. But then 
 there's that two hundred pounds a-year in dirty land, and the 
 
168 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 father is held a close chuff, though a fanciful— he is our landlord 
 besides, and she has begged a late day from him for our rent ; so, 
 God help me, I must be conformable — besides, the little capricious 
 devil is my only key to get at Master George Heriot's secret, and it 
 concerns my character to find that out ; and so, andiamos, as the 
 lingua franca hath it." 
 
 Thus pondering, she moved forward with hasty strides until she 
 arrived at the watchmaker's habitation. The attendant admitted 
 them by means of a pass-key. Onward glided Dame Ursula, now 
 in glimmer and now in gloom, not like the lovely Lady Cristabelle 
 through Gothic sculpture and ancient armour, but creeping and 
 stumbling amongst relics of old machines, and models of new 
 inventions in various branches of mechanics, with which wrecks of 
 useless ingenuity, either in a broken or half-finished shape, the apart- 
 ment of the fanciful though ingenious mechanist was continually 
 lumbered. 
 
 At length they attained, by a very narrow staircase, pretty Mis- 
 tress Margaret's apartment, where she, the cynosure of the eyes of 
 every bold young bachelor in Fleet-street, sat in a posture which 
 hovered between the discontented and the disconsolate. For her 
 pretty back and shoulders were rounded into a curve, her round 
 and dimpled chin reposed in the hollow of her little palm, while 
 the fingers were folded over her mouth ; her elbow rested on a 
 table, and her eyes seemed fixed upon the dying charcoal, which 
 was expiring in a small grate. She scarce turned her head when 
 Dame Ursula entered, and when the presence of that estimable 
 matron was more precisely announced in words by the old Scots- 
 woman, Mistress Margaret, without changing her posture, muttered 
 some sort of answer that was wholly unintelligible. 
 
 " Go your ways down to the kitchen with Wilsa, good Mistress 
 Jenny," said Dame Ursula, who was used to all sorts of freaks on 
 the part of her patients or clients, whichever they might be termed ; 
 " put the stewpan and the porringer by the fire-side, and go down 
 below — I must speak to my pretty love. Mistress Margaret, by 
 myself— and there is not a bachelor betwixt this and Bow but will 
 envy me the privilege." 
 
 The attendants retired as directed, and Dame Ursula, having 
 availed herself of the embers of charcoal, to place her stewpan to 
 the best advantage, drew herself as close as she could to her 
 patient, and began in a low, soothing, and confidential tone of 
 voice, to enquire what ailed her pretty flower of neighbours. 
 
 "Nothing, dame," said Margaret, somewhat pettishly, and 
 changing her posture so as rather to turn her back upon the kind 
 enquirer. 
 
 "Nothing, lady-bird?" answered Dame Suddlechop ; "and do 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. lop 
 
 you use to send for your friends out of bed at this hour for 
 nothing ? " 
 
 " It was not I who sent for you, dame," repUed the malecontent 
 maiden. 
 
 " And who was it, then ? " said Ursula ; " for if I had not been 
 sent for, I had not been here at this time of night, I promise you ! ', 
 
 " It was the old Scotch fool Jenny, who did it out of her own 
 head, I suppose," said Margaret ; " for she has been stunning me 
 these two hours about you and Mother Redcap." 
 
 " Me and Mother Redcap ! " said Dame Ursula, " an old fool 
 indeed, that couples folk up so. — But come, come, my sweet little 
 neighbour, Jenny is no such fool after all ; she knows young folks 
 want more and better advice than her own, and she knows, too, 
 where to find it for them ; so you must take heart of grace, my 
 pretty maiden, and tell me what you are moping about, and then 
 let Dame Ursula alone for finding out a cure." 
 
 " Nay, an ye be so wise, Mother Ursula," replied the girl, " you 
 may guess what I ail without my telling you." 
 
 " Ay, ay, child," answered the complaisant matron, " no one can 
 play better than I at the good old game of What is my thought 
 like? Now I'll warrant that little head of yours is running on a 
 new head-tire, a foot higher than those our city dames wear — or 
 you are all for a trip to Islington or Ware, and your father is cross 
 and will not consent— or" 
 
 " Or you are an old fool. Dame Suddlechop," said Margaret, 
 peevishly, " and must needs trouble yourself about matters you 
 know nothing of." 
 
 " Fool as much as you will, mistress," said Dame Ursula, 
 offended in her turn, " but not so very many years older than your- 
 self, mistress." 
 
 " Oh ! we are angry, are we ? " said the beauty ; " and pray, 
 Madam Ursula, how come you, that are not so many years older 
 than me, to talk about such nonsense to me, who am so many 
 years younger, and who yet have too much sense to care about 
 head-gears and Islington?" 
 
 "Well, well, young mistress," said the sage counsellor, rising, 
 " I perceive I can be of no use here ; and methinks, since you 
 know your own matters so much better than other people do, you 
 might dispense with disturbing folks at midnight to ask their 
 advice." 
 
 " Why, now you are angry, mother," said Margaret, detaining 
 her ; " this comes of your coming out at eventide without eating 
 your supper— I never heard you utter a cross word after you had 
 finished your little morsel.— Here, Janet, a trencher and salt for 
 
no THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 Dame Ursula ;— and what have you in that porringer, dame ?— 
 Filthy clammy ale, as I would live— Let Janet fling it out of the 
 window, or keep it for my father's morning draught ; and she shall 
 bring you the pottle of sack that was set ready for him— good man, 
 he will never find out the difference, for ale will wash down his 
 dusty calculations quite as well as wine." 
 
 " Truly, sweetheart, I am of your opinion,'' said Dame Ursula, 
 whose temporary displeasure vanished at once before these pre- 
 parations for good cheer; and so, settling herself on the great 
 easy-chair, with a three-legged table before her, she began to 
 dispatch,- with good appetite, the little delicate dish which she had 
 prepared for herself. She did not, however, fail in the duties of 
 civility, and earnestly, but in vain, pressed Mistress Margaret to 
 partake her dainties. The damsel declined the invitation. 
 
 " At least pledge me in a glass of sack," said Dame Ursula ; " I 
 have heard my grandame say, that before the gospellers came in, 
 the old Catholic father confessors and their penitents always had a 
 cup of sack together before confession ; and you are my penitent." 
 
 " I shall drink no sack, I am sure," said Margaret ; " and I told 
 you before, that if you cannot find out what ails me, I shall never 
 have the heart to tell it." 
 
 So saying, she turned away from Dame Ursula once more, and 
 resumed her musing posture, with her hand on her elbow, and her 
 back, at least one shoulder, turned towards her confidant. 
 
 " Nay, then," said Dame Ursula, " I must exert my skill in good 
 earnest. — ^You must give me this pretty hand, and I will tell you 
 by palmistry, as well as any gipsy of them all, what foot it is you 
 halt upon." 
 
 " As if I halted on any foot at all," said Margaret, something 
 scornfully, but yielding her left hand to Ursula, and continuing at 
 the same time her averted position. 
 
 "I see brave lines here," said Ursula, "and not ill to read 
 neither — pleasure and wealth, and merry nights and late mornings 
 to my Beauty, and such an equipage as shall shake Whitehall. O, 
 have I touched you there ? — and smile you now, my pretty one ? — 
 for why should not he be Lord Mayor, and go to court in his 
 gilded coach, as others have done before him ? " 
 
 " Lord Mayor ? pshaw ! " replied Margaret. 
 
 " And why pshaw at my Lord Mayor, sweetheart ? or perhaps 
 you pshaw at my prophecy ; but there is a cross in every one's line 
 of life as well as in yours, darling, And what though I see a 
 'prentice's fiat cap in this pretty palm, yet there is a sparkling 
 black eye under it, hath not its match in the Ward of Farringdon- 
 Without." 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. iii 
 
 " Whom do you mean, dame ? " said Margaret, coldly. 
 
 " Whom should I mean," said Dame Ursula, " but the prince of 
 'prentices, and king of good company, Jenkin Vincent?" 
 
 "Out, woman — Jenkin Vincent?— a clown — a Coclcney!" ex- 
 claimed the indignant damsel. 
 
 " Ay, sets the wind in that quarter, Beauty?" quoth the dame; 
 " why, it has changed something since we spoke together last, for 
 then I would have sworn it blew fairer for poor Jin Vin ; and the 
 poor lad dotes on you too, and would rather see your eyes than the 
 first glimpse of the sun on the great holiday on May-day." 
 
 " I would my eyes had the power of the sun to iDlind his, then," ' 
 said Margaret, "to teach the drudge his place." 
 
 " Nay," said Dame Ursula, " there be some who say that Frank 
 Tunstall is as proper a lad as Jin Vin, and of surety he is third 
 cousin to a knighthood, and come of a good house ; and so mayhap 
 you may be for northward ho ! " 
 
 " Maybe I may" — answered Mar^ret, " but not with my father's 
 'prentice— I thank you. Dame Ursula." 
 
 " Nay, then, the devil may guess your thoughts for me," said 
 Dame Ursula ; " this comes of trying to shoe a filly that is eternally 
 wincing and shifting ground ! " 
 
 " Hear me, then," said Margaret, " and mind what I say. — This 
 day I dined abroad" 
 
 " I can tell you where," answered her counsellor, — " with your 
 godfather the rich goldsmith — ay, you see I know something — nay, 
 I could tell you, an I would, with whom, too." 
 
 " Indeed !" said Margaret, turning suddenly round with an 
 accent of strong surprise, and colouring up to the eyes. 
 
 " With old Sir Mungo Malagrowther," said the oracular dame, — 
 " he was trimmed in my Benjamin's shop in his way to the city." 
 
 " Pshaw ! the frightful old mouldy skeleton !" said the damsel. 
 
 " Indeed you say true, my dear," replied the confidant, — " it is a 
 shame to him to be out of Saint Pancras's charnel-house, for 
 I know no other place he is fit for, the foul-mouthed old railer. He 
 said to my husband " 
 
 ■" Somewhat which signifies nothing to our purpose, I dare say," 
 interrupted Margaret. " I miesi speak, then. — There dined wifh 
 us a nobleman " 
 
 " A nobleman ! the maiden's mad ! " said Dame Ursula. 
 
 " There dined with us, I say," continued Margaret, without 
 regarding the interruption, " a nobleman — a Scottish nobleman." 
 
 " Now Our Lady keep her ! " said the confidant, " she is quite 
 frantic ! — heard ever any one of a watchmaker's daughter falling 
 in love with a nobleman — and a Scots nobleman, to make the 
 
112 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 matter complete, who are all as proud as Lucifer, and as poor as 
 Job ?— A Scots nobleman, quotha ? I had as lief you told me of a 
 Jew pedlar. I would have you think how all this is to end, pretty 
 one, before you jump in the dark." 
 
 " That is nothing to you, Ursula— it is your assistance," said 
 Mistress Margaret, " and not your advice, that I am desirous to 
 have, and you know I can make it worth your while." 
 
 " O, it is not for the sake of lucre. Mistress Margaret," answered 
 the obliging dame ; " but truly I would have you listen to some 
 advice — bethink you of your own condition." 
 
 "My father's calling is mechanical," said Margaret, "but our 
 blood is not so. I have heard my father say that we are descended, 
 at a distance indeed, from the great Earls of Dalwolsey." * 
 
 " Ay, ay," said Dame Ursula ; " even so — I never knew a Scot 
 of you but was descended, as ye call it, from some great house or 
 other ; and a piteous descent it often is — and as for the distance 
 you speak of, it is so great as to put you out of sight of each other. 
 Yet do not toss your pretty head so scornfully, but tell me the 
 name of this lordly northern gallant, and we will try what can be 
 done in the matter." 
 
 " It is Lord Glenvarloch, whom they call Lord Nigel 01ifau;nt," 
 said Margaret in a low voice, and turning away to hide her 
 blushes. 
 
 " Marry, Heaven forefend ! " exclaimed Dame Suddlechop ; 
 " this is the very devil, and something worse ! " 
 
 " How mean you ? " said the damsel, surprised at the vivacity of 
 her exclamation. 
 
 " Why, know ye not," said the dame, " what powerful enemies 
 he has at Court ? know ye not — But blisters on my tongue, it runs 
 too fast for my wit — enough to say, that you had better make your 
 bridal-bed under a falling house, than think of young Glenvar- 
 loch." 
 
 " He is unfortunate, then ? " said Margaret ; " I knew it — I 
 divined it — there was sorrow in his voice when he said even what 
 was gay — there was a touch of misfortune in his melancholy smile 
 — he had not thus clung to my thoughts had I seen him in all 
 the midday glare of prosperity." 
 
 " Romances have cracked her brain ! " said Dame Ursula ; " she 
 is a castaway girl — utterly distraught — loves a Scots lord— and 
 likes him the better for being unfortunate ! Well, mistress, I am 
 sorry this is a matter I cannot aid you in — it goes against my con- 
 science, and it is an affair above my condition, and beyond my 
 management ; — ^but I will keep your counsel." 
 
 " You will not be so base as to desert me, after having drawn my 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 113 
 
 secret from me ? " said Margaret, indignantly ; " if you do, I know 
 how to have my revenge ; and if you do not, I will reward you 
 well. Remember the house your husband dwells in is my father's 
 property." 
 
 " I remember it but two well, Mistress Margaret," said Ursula, 
 after a moment's reflection, " and I would serve you in any thing in 
 my condition; but to meddle with such high matters^! shall 
 never forget poor Mistress Turner,* my honoured patroness, peace 
 be with her !— she had the ill-luck to meddle in the matter of 
 Somerset and Overbury, and so the great earl and his lady slipt 
 their necks out of the collar, and left her and some half-dozen 
 others to suffer in their stead. I shall never forget the sight of 
 her standing on the scaffold with the ruff round her pretty neck, 
 all done up with the yellow starch which I had so often helped her 
 to make, and that was so soon to give place to a rough hempen 
 cord. Such a sight, sweetheart, will make one loth to meddle with 
 matters that are too hot or heavy for their handling." 
 
 " Out, you fool ! " answered Mistress Margaret ; " am I one to 
 speak to you about such criminal practices as that wretch died 
 for ? All I desire of you is, to get me precise knowledge of what 
 affair brings this young nobleman to Court." 
 
 " And when you have his secret," said Ursula, " what will it 
 avail you, sweetheart ? — and yet I would do your errand, if you 
 could do as much for me." 
 
 " And what is it you would have of me .' " said Mistress Mar- 
 garet. 
 
 " What you have been angry with me for asking before," 
 answered Dame Ursula. " I want to have some light about the 
 story of your god-father's ghost, that is only seen at prayers." 
 
 " Not for the world," said Mistress Margaret, " will I be a spy 
 on my kind god-father's secrets — No Ursula — that I will never pry 
 into, which he desires to keep hidden. But thou knowest that I 
 have a fortune of my own, which must at no distant day come 
 under my own riianagement — think of some other recompense." 
 
 " Ay, that I well know," said the counsellor — " it is that two 
 hundred per year, with your father's indulgence, that makes you so 
 wilful, sweetheart." 
 
 "It may be so,"— said Margaret Ramsay ; " meanwhile, do you 
 serve me truly, and here is a ring of value in pledge, that when my 
 fortune is in my own hand, I will redeem the token with fifty broad 
 pieces of gold." 
 
 " Fifty broad pieces of gold ! " repeated the dame ; " and this 
 ring, which is a right fair one, in token you fail not of your word ! 
 — ^Well, sweetheart, if I must put my throat in peril, I am sure I 
 
 I 
 
114 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 cannot risk it for a friend more generous than you ; and I would 
 not think of more than the pleasure of serving you, only Benjamin 
 gets more idle every day, and our family " 
 
 " Say no more of it," said Margaret ; " we understand each 
 other. And now, tell me what you know of this young man's 
 affairs, which made you so unwilling to meddle with them ? " 
 
 " Of that I can say no great matter, as yet," answered Dame 
 Ursula ; " only I know, the most powerful among his own country- 
 men are against him, and also the most powerful at the Court here. 
 But I will learn more of it ; for it will be a dim print that I will 
 not read for your sake, pretty Mistress Margaret. Know you 
 where this gallant dwells ? " 
 
 " I heard by accident," said Margaret, . as if ashamed of the 
 minute particularity of her memory upon such an occasion, — " he 
 lodges, I think — at one Christie's — if I mistake not — at Paul's 
 Wharf — a ship-chandler's." 
 
 " A proper lodging for a young baron ! — Well, but cheer you up, 
 Mistress Margaret — If he has come up a caterpillar, like some of 
 his countrymen,, he may cast his slough like them, and come out a 
 butterfly. — So I drink good-night, and sweet dreams to you, in 
 another parting cup of sack ; and you shall hear tidings of me 
 within four-and-twenty hours. And, once more, I commend 
 you to your pillow, my pearl of pearls, and Marguerite of 
 Marguerites ! " 
 
 So saying, she kissed the reluctant cheek of her young friend, or 
 patroness, and took her departure with the light and stealthy pace 
 of one accustomed to accommodate her footsteps to the purposes 
 of dispatch and secrecy. 
 
 Margaret Ramsay looked after her for some time, in anxious 
 silence. " I did ill," she at length murmured, " to let her wring 
 this out of me ; but she is artful, bold, aiid serviceable — and I 
 think faithful— or, if not, she will be true at least to her interest, 
 and that I can command. I would I had not spoken, however — I 
 have begun a hopeless work. For what has he said to me, to 
 waiTant my meddling in his fortunes ? — Nothing but words of the 
 most ordinary import — mere table-talk, and terms of course. Yet 
 who knows " — she said, and then broke off, looking at the glass the 
 while ; which, as it reflected back a face of great beauty, probably 
 suggested- to her mind a more favourable conclusion of the sentence 
 than she cared to trust her tongue witheil. 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 115 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 So pitiful a thing is suitor's state ! 
 Most miserable man, whom wicked fate 
 Hath brought to Court to sue, for Had I wist, 
 That few have found, and many a one hath miss'd ! 
 Full little knowest thou, that hast not tried, 
 What hell it is, in sueing long to bide : 
 To lose good days, that might be better spent ; 
 To waste long nights in pensive discontent ; 
 To speed to-day, to be put back to-morrow ; 
 To feed on hope, to pine with fear and sorrow ; 
 To have thy Prince's grace, yet want her Peers' ; 
 To have thy asking, yet wait many years ; 
 To fret thy soul with crosses and with cares — 
 To eat thy heart through comfortless despairs. 
 To fawn, to crouch, to wait, to ride, to run, 
 To spend, to give, to want, to be undone. 
 
 Mother Hiibberd's Tale. 
 
 On the morning of the day on which George Heriot had 
 prepared to escort the young Lord of Glenvarloch to the Court at 
 Whitehall, it may be reasonably supposed, that the young man, 
 whose fortunes were likely to depend on this cast, felt himself more 
 than usually anxious. He rose early, made his toilette with 
 uncommon care, and, being enabled, by the generosity of his more 
 plebeian countryman, to set out a very handsome person to the best 
 advantage, he obtained a momentary approbation from himself as 
 he glanced at the mirror, and a loud and distinct plaudit from his 
 landlady, who declared at once, that, in her judgment, he would 
 take the wind out of the sail of every gallant in the presence — so 
 much had she been able to enrich her discourse with the metaphors 
 of those with whom her husband dealt. 
 
 At the appointed hour, the barge of Master George Heriot 
 arrived, handsomely manned and appointed, having a tilt, with. 
 his own cipher, and the arms of his company, painted thereupon. 
 
 The young Lord of Glenvarloch received the friend, who had 
 evinced such disinterested attachment, with the kind courtesy 
 which well became him. 
 
 Master Heriot then made him acquainted with the bounty of 
 his Sovereign ; which he paid over to his young friend, declining 
 what he had himself formerly advanced to him. Nigel felt all 
 the gratitude which the citizen's disinterested friendship had 
 deserved, and was not wanting in expressing it suitabl)-. 
 
 I 2 
 
ii6 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 Yet, as the young and high-born nobleman embarked to go 
 to the presence of his Prince, under the patronage of one whose 
 best, or most distinguished qualification, was his being an eminent 
 member of the Goldsmith's Incorporation, he felt a little sur- 
 prised, if not abashed, at his own situation ; and Richie Moni- 
 plies, as he stepped over the gangway to take his place forward 
 in the boat, could not help muttering, — " It was a changed day 
 betwixt Master Heriot and his honest father in the Krssmes ; — 
 but, doubtless, there was a difference between clinking on gold 
 and silver, and clattering upon pewter." 
 
 On they glided, by the assistance of the oars of four stout 
 watermen, along the Thames, which then served for the principal 
 high-road betwixt London and Westminster ; for few ventured 
 on horseback through the narrow and crowded streets of the 
 city, and coaches were then a luxury reserved only for the higher 
 nobility, and to which no citizen, whatever was his wealth, presumed 
 to aspire. The beauty of the banks, especially on the northern 
 side, where the gardens of the nobility descended from their 
 hotels, in many places, down to the water's edge, was pointed 
 out to Nigel by his kind conductor, and was pointed out in vain. 
 The mind of the young Lord of Glenvarloch was filled with an- 
 ticipations, not the most pleasant, concerning the manner in 
 which he was likely to be received by that monarch, in whose 
 behalf his family had been nearly reduced to ruin ; and he was, 
 with the usual mental anxiety of those in such a situation, framing 
 imaginary questions from the King, and over-toiliftg his spirit in 
 devising answers to them. 
 
 His conductor saw the labour of Nigel's mind, and avoided 
 increasing it by farther conversation ; so that, when he had 
 explained to him briefly the ceremonies observed at Court on such 
 occasions of presentation, the rest of their voyage was performed 
 in silence. 
 
 They landed at Whitehall Stairs, and entered the Palace after 
 announcing their names,— the guards paying to Lord Glenvarloch 
 the respect and honours due to his rank. 
 
 The young man's heart beat high and thick within him as he 
 came into the royal apartments. His education abroad, conducted, 
 as it had been, on a narrow and limited scale, had given him but 
 imperfect ideas of the grandeur of a Court ; and the philosophical 
 reflections which taught him to set ceremonial and exterior 
 splendour at defiance, proved, like other maxims of mere philo- 
 sophy, ineffectual, at the moment they were weighed against the 
 impression naturally made on the mind of an inexperienced youth, 
 by the unusual magnificence of the scene. The splendid apart. 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 117 
 
 merits through which they passed, the rich apparel of the grooms, 
 guards, and domestics in waiting, and the ceremonial attending 
 their passage through the long suite of apartments, had something 
 in it, trifling and common-place as it might appear to practised 
 courtiers, embarrassing, and even alarming, to one, who went 
 through these forms for the first time, and who was doubtful what 
 sort of reception was to accompany his first appearance before his 
 Sovereign. 
 
 Heriot, in , anxious attention to save his young friend from any 
 momentary awkwardness, had taken care to give the necessary 
 password to the warders, grooms of the chambers, ushers, or by 
 whatever name they were designated ; so they passed on without 
 interruption. 
 
 In this manner they passed several anterooms, filled chiefly 
 with guards, attendants of the Court, and their acquaintances, male 
 and female, who, dressed in their best apparel, and with eyes 
 rounded by eager curiosity to make the most of their opportunity, 
 stood, with beseeming modesty, ranked against the wall, in a 
 manner which indicated that they were spectators, not performers, 
 in the courtly exhibition. 
 
 Through these exterior apartments- Lctrd Glenvarloch and his 
 city friend advanced into a large and splendid withdrawing-room, 
 communicating with the presence-chamber, into which anteroom 
 were admitted those only, who, from birth, their posts in the state 
 or household, or by the particular grant of the King, had right to 
 attend the Court, as men entitled to pay their respects to their 
 Sovereign. 
 
 Amid this favoured and selected company, Nigel observed Sir 
 Mungo Malagrowther, who, avoided and discountenanced by thost 
 who knew how low he stood in Court interest and favour, was but 
 too happy in the opportunity of hooking himself upon a person of 
 Lord Glenvarloch's rank, who was, as yet, so inexperienced, as to 
 feel it difficult to shake oif an intruder. 
 
 The knight forthwith framed his grim features to a ghastly 
 smile, and, after a preliminary and patronising nod to George 
 Heriot, accompanied with an aristocratic wave of the hand, which 
 intimated at once superiority and protection, he laid aside altogether 
 the honest citizen, to whom he owed many a dinner, to attach him- 
 self exclusively to the young lord, although he suspected he might 
 be occasionally in the predicament of needing one as much as him- 
 self. And even the notice of this original, singular and unamiable 
 as he was, was not entirely indifferent to the Lord Glenvarloch, 
 since the absolute and somewhat constrained silence of his good 
 friend Heriot, which left him at liberty to retire painfully to his 
 
ii8 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL 
 
 own agitating reflections, was now relieved ; while, on the other 
 hand, he could not help feeling interest in the sharp and sarcastic 
 information poured upon him by an observant, though discon- 
 tented courtier, to whom a patient auditor, and he a man of title 
 and rank, was as much a prize, as his acute and communicative 
 disposition rendered him an entertaining companion to Nigel 
 Olifaunt. Heriot, in the meantime, neglected by Sir ^ungo, and 
 avoiding every attempt by which the grateful politeness of Lord 
 Glenvarloch strove to bring him into the conversation, stood by, 
 with a kind of half smile on his countenance ; but whether excited 
 by Sir Mungo's wit, or arising at his expense, did not exactly 
 appear. 
 
 In the meantime, the trio occupied a nook of the anteroom, next 
 to the door of the presence-chamber, which was not yet thrown 
 open, when Maxwell, with his rod of office, came bustling into the 
 apartment, where most men, excepting those of high rank, made 
 way for him. He stopped beside the party in which we are 
 interested, looked for a moment at the young Scots nobleman 
 then made a slight obeisance to Heriot, and lastly, addressing Sir 
 Mungo Malagrowther, began a hurried complaint to him of the 
 misbehaviour of the gentlemen-pensioners and warders, who 
 suffered all sort of citizens, suitors, and scriveners, to sneak into 
 the outer apartments, without either respect or decency. — " The 
 English," he said, " were scandalized, for such a thing durst not be 
 attempted in the Queen's days. In her time, there was then the 
 court-yard for the mobility, and the apartments for the nobility ; 
 and it reflects on your place. Sir Mungo," he added, " belonging to 
 the household as you do, that such things should not be better 
 ordered." 
 
 Here Sir Mungo, afflicted, as was frequently the case on such 
 occasions, with one of his usual fits of deafness, answered, " It was 
 no wonder the mobility used freedoms, when those whom they saw 
 in office were so little better in blood and havings than them- 
 selves." 
 
 " You are right, sir— quite right," said Maxwell, putting his hand 
 on the tarnished embroidery on the old knight's sleeve— "when 
 such fellows see men in office dressed in cast-off suits, like paltry 
 stage-players, it is no wonder the Court is thronged with in- 
 truders." 
 
 "Were you lauding the taste of my embroidery, Maister Max- 
 well ? " answered the knight, who apparently interpreted the deputy- 
 chamberlain's meaning rather from his action than his words ;— 
 "it is of an ancient and liberal pattern, having been made by your 
 mother's father, auld James Stitchell, a master-fashioner of honest 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 119 
 
 repute, in Merlin's Wynd, whom I made a point to employ, as I 
 am now happy to remember, seeing yoitr father thought fit to inter- 
 marry with sic a person's daughter." * 
 
 Maxwell looked stern ; but, conscious there was nothing to be 
 got of Sir Mungo in the way of amends, and that prosecuting the 
 quarrel with such an adversary would only render him ridiculous, 
 and make public a mis-alliance of which he had no reason to be 
 proud, he covered his resentment with a sneer ; and, expressing 
 his regret that Sir Mungo was become too deaf to understand or 
 attend to what was said to him, walked on, and planted himself 
 beside the folding-doors of the presence-chamber, at which he was 
 to perform the duty of deputy- chamberlain, or usher, so soon as 
 they should be opened. 
 
 " The door of the presence is about to open," said the goldsmith, 
 in a whisper, to his young friend ; " my condition pgrmits me to go 
 no farther with you. Fail not to present yourself boldly, according 
 to your birth, and offer your Supplication ; which the King will 
 not refuse to accept, and, as I hope, to consider favourably." 
 
 As he spoke, the door of the presence-chamber opened accord- 
 ingly, and, as is usual on such occasions, the courtiers began to 
 advance towards it, and to enter in a slow, but continuous and un- 
 interrupted stream. 
 
 As Nigel presented himself in his turn at the entrance, and 
 mentioned his name and title. Maxwell seemed to hesitate. " You 
 are not known to any one," he said. " It is my duty to suffer no 
 one to pass to the presence, my lord, whose face is unknown to me 
 unless upon the word of a responsible person." 
 
 " I came with Master George Heriot," said Nigel, in some em- 
 barrassment at this unexpected interruption. 
 
 " Master Heriot's name will pass current for much gold and 
 silver, my lord," replied Maxwell, with a civil sneer, " but not for 
 birth and rank. I am compelled by my office to be peremptory. — 
 The entrance is impeded — I am much concerned to say it — your 
 lordship must stand back.'' 
 
 " What is the matter ? " said an old Scottish nobleman, who had 
 been speaking with George Heriot, after he had separated from 
 Nigel, and who now came forward, observing the altercation 
 betwixt the latter and Maxwell. 
 
 " It is only Master Deputy- Chamberlain Maxwell," said Sir 
 Mungo Malagrowther, " expressing his joy to see Lord Glenvarloch 
 at Court, whose father gave him his office— at least I think he is 
 speaking to that purport— for your lordship kens my imper- 
 fection." A subdued laugh, such as the situation permitted, 
 passed round amongst those who heard this specimen of Sir 
 Mungo's sarcastic temper. But the old nobleman stepped still 
 
120 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 more forward, saying,—" What !— the son of my gallant old 
 opponent, Ochtred Olifaunt?— I will introduce him to the pre- 
 sence myself." 
 
 So saying, he took Nigel by the arm, without farther ceremony, 
 and was about to lead him forward, when Maxwell, still keeping 
 his rod across the door, said, but with hesitation and embarrass- 
 ment, — " My lord, this gentleman is not known, and I have orders 
 to be scrupulous." 
 
 " Tutti-taiti, maji," said the old lord, " I will be answerable he 
 is his father's son, from, the cut of his eyebrow — and thou, Max- 
 well, knews't his father well enough to have spared thy scruples. 
 Let us pass, man." So saying, he put aside the deputy-chamber- 
 lain's rod, and entered the presence-room, still holding the young 
 nobleman by the arm. 
 
 " Why, I must know you, man," he said ; " I must know you. 
 I knew your father well, man, and I have broke a lance and crossed 
 a blade with him ; and it is to my credit that I am living to brag 
 of it. He was king's-man, and I was queen's-man, during the 
 Douglas-wars— young fellows both, that feared neither fire nor 
 steel ; and we had some old feudal quarrels besides, that "had come 
 down from father to son, with our seal-rings, two-handed broad- 
 swords, and plate-coats, and the crests on our burgonets." 
 
 " Too loud, my Lord of Huntinglen," ivhispered a gentleman of 
 the chamber,—" The King !— the King ! " 
 
 The old Earl (for such he proved) took the hint, and was silent : 
 and James, advancing from a side-dofor, received in succession the 
 compliments of strangers, while a little group of favourite courtiers, 
 or officers of the household, stood around him, to whom he 
 addressed himself from time to time. Some more pains had been 
 bestowed on his toilette than upon the occasion when we first pre- 
 sented the monarch to our readers ; but there was a natural awk- 
 wardness about his figure which prevented his clothes from sitting 
 handsomely, and the prudence or timidity of his disposition had 
 made him adopt the custom, already noticed, of wearing a dress 
 so thickly quilted as might withstand the stroke of a dagger, which 
 added an ungainly stiffness to his whole appearance, contrasting 
 oddly with the frivolous, ungraceful, and fidgeting motions with 
 which he accompanied his conversation. And yet, though the 
 King's deportment was very undignified, he had a manner so 
 kind, familiar, and good-humoured, was so little apt to veil over 
 or conceal his own foibles, and had so much indulgence and 
 sympathy for those of others, that his address, joined to his 
 learning, and a certain proportion of shrewd mother-wit, failed 
 not to make a favourable impression on those who approached 
 his person* 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 121 
 
 When the Earl of Huntinglen had presented Nigel to his 
 Sovereign, a ceremony which the good peer took upon himself, 
 the King received the young lord very graciously, and observed to 
 his introducer, that he " was fain to see them twa stand side by 
 side ; for I trow, my Lord Huntinglen," continued he, " your 
 ancestors, ay, and e'en your lordship's self and this lad's father, 
 have stood front to front at the sword's point, and that is a worse 
 posture." 
 
 " Until your Majesty," said Lord Huntinglen, " made Lord 
 Ochtred and me cross palms, upon the memorable day when your 
 Majesty feasted all the nobles that were at feud together, and made 
 them join hands in your presence" 
 
 " I mind it weel," said the King ; " I mind it weel— it was a 
 blessed day, being the nineteen of September, of all days in the 
 year— and it was a blithe sport to see how some of the carles girned 
 as they clapped loofs together. By my saul, I thought some of 
 them, mair special the Hieland chiels, wad have broken out in our 
 own presence ; but we caused them to march hand in hand to the 
 Cross, ourselves leading the way, and there drink a blithe cup of 
 kindness with ilk other, to the stanching of feud, and perpetuation 
 of amity. Auld John Anderson was Provost that year— the carle 
 grat for joy, and the Bailies and Councillors danced bare-headed 
 in our presence like five-year-auld colts, for very triumph." 
 
 " It was indeed a happy day," said Lord Huntinglen, " and wiU 
 not be forgotten in the history of your Majesty's reign." 
 
 " I would not that it were, my lord," replied the Monarch--" I 
 would not that it were pretermitted in our annals. Ay, a.y~Beati 
 factfici. My English lieges here may weel make much of me, for 
 I would have them to know, they have gotten the only peaceable 
 man that ever came of my family. If James with the Fiery Face 
 had come amongst you," he said, looking round him, '' or my great 
 grandsire, of Flodden memory ! " 
 
 " We should have sent him back to the north again," whispered 
 one English nobleman. 
 
 "At least," said another, in the same inaudible tone, " we should 
 have had a 7nan to our sovereign, though he were but a Scotsman." 
 
 "And now, my young springald," said the King to Lord Glen- 
 varloch, " where have you been spending your calf-time?" 
 
 "At Leyden, of late, may it please your Majesty," answered Lord 
 Nigel. 
 
 "Aha ! a scholar," said the King ; " and, by my saul, a modest 
 and ingenuous youth, that hath not forgotten how to blush, like 
 most of our travelled Monsieurs. We will treat him conform- 
 ably." 
 
122 THE .FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 Then drawing himself up, coughing slightly, and looking around 
 him with the conscious importance of superior learning, while all 
 the courtiers who understood, or understood not, Latin, pressed 
 eagerly forward to listen, the sapient monarch prosecuted his 
 enquiries as follows : — 
 
 " Hem ! hem ! Salve bis, quaterque salve, Glenvarlochides 
 nosier! Nuperumne ab Lugduno Batavorum Britanniam 
 r edits ti f " 
 
 The young nobleman replied, bowing low — 
 
 " Imo, Rex augustissime—biennium fere apud Lugdunenses 
 moratus sum!' 
 
 James proceeded — 
 
 " Biennium diets ? bene, bene, opttime factum est — Non una die, 
 quod dicunt, — ititelligisti, Domine Glenvarlochiensis f Aha ! " 
 
 Nigel repUed by a reverent bow, and the King, turning to those 
 behind him, said — 
 
 " Adolescens quidem ingettui vultus ingenuiqiie pudoris." Then 
 resumed his learned queries. " Et quid hodie Lugdunenses 
 loquuntur — Vossius vester nihilne novi scripsit ? — nihil certe, 
 quod doleo, typis recenter edidit." 
 
 " Valet quidem Vossius, Rex benevolel' replied Nigel, " as, senex 
 veneratissimus annum agit, ni fallor, septuagesimumP 
 
 " Virum, mehercle, vix tam grandcevum credideriml' replied the 
 monarch. ^^ Et Vorstius iste f—Arminii improbi successor aque 
 ac sectator — Herosne adhuc, ut cum, Homero loquar, Z<b6j tori Km 
 etti xBovi Sepiaov ? " 
 
 Nigel, by good fortune, remembered that Vorstius, the divine 
 last mentioned in his Majesty's queries about the state of Dutch 
 literature, had been engaged in a personal controversy with Jaihes, 
 in which the King had taken so deep an interest, as at length to 
 hint in his public correspondence with the United States, that they 
 would do well to apply the secular arm to stop the progress of 
 heresy by violent measures against the Professor's person— a 
 demand which their Mighty Mightinesses' principles of universal 
 toleration induced them to elude, though with some difficulty 
 Knowing all this. Lord Glenvarloch, though a courtier of only five 
 minutes' standing, had address enough to reply 
 
 " Vivum quidem, haud diu est, Jiominem videbam—vigere auiem 
 quis dicat qui sub fulminibus eter/tientice tucc. Rex magne, jam- 
 dudum pronus jacet, et prostratus f" * 
 
 This last tribute to his polemical powers completed James's hap- 
 piness, which the triumph of exhibiting his erudition had already 
 raised to a considerable height. 
 
 He rubbed his hands, snapped his fingers, fidgeted, chuckled, 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEI-. 
 
 123 
 
 exclaimed — Euge ! belle ! optime ! " and turning to the Bishops of 
 Exeter and Oxford, who stood behind him, he said, — " Ye see, my 
 lords, no bad specimen of our Scottish Latinity, with which lan- 
 guage we would all our subjects of England were as well embued 
 as this, and other youths of honourable birth, in our auld kingdom ; 
 also, we keep the genuine and Roman pronunciation, like other 
 learned nations on the continent, sae that we hold communing with 
 any scholar in the universe, who can but speak the Latin tongue ; 
 whereas ye, our learned subjects of England, have introduced into 
 your universities, otherwise most learned, a fashion of pronouncing 
 like unto the ' nippit foot and clippit foot ' of the bride in the fairy 
 tale, whilk manner of speech, (take it not amiss that I be round 
 with you) can be understood by no nation on earth saving your- 
 selves ; whereby Latin, quoad Anglos, ceaseth to be copttnunis 
 lingtm, the general dragoman, or interpreter, between all the wise 
 men of the earth." 
 
 The Bishop of Exeter bowed, as in acquiescence to the royal 
 censure ; but he of Oxford stood upright, as mindful over what 
 subjects his see extended, and as being equally willing to become 
 food for fagots in defence of the Latinity of the university, as for 
 any article of his religious creed. 
 
 The King, without awaiting an answer from either prelate, pro- 
 ceeded to question Lord Nigel, but in the vernacular tongue, — 
 " Weel, my likely Alvimnus of the Muses, and what make you so 
 far from the north .' " 
 
 "To pay my homage to your Majesty," said the young nobleman, 
 kneeling on one knee, " and to lay before you," he added, " this my 
 humble and dutiful Supplication." 
 
 The presenting of a pistol would certainly have startled King 
 James more, but could (setting apart the fright) hardly have been 
 more unpleasing to his indolent disposition. 
 
 " And is it even so, man ? " said he ; " anu can no single man, 
 were it but for the rarity of the case, ever come up frae Scotland, 
 excepting ex proposito — on set purpose, to see what he can make 
 out of his loving sovereign ? It is but three days syne that we had 
 weelnigh lost our life, and put three kingdoms into dule-weeds, 
 from the over-haste of a clumsy-handed peasant, to thrust a packet 
 into our hand, and now we are beset by the like impediment in our 
 very Court. To our Secretary with that gear, my lord — to our 
 Secretary with that gear." 
 
 " I have already offered my humble Supplication to your Ma- 
 jesty's Secretary of State," said Lord Glenvarloch — "but it 
 seems '' — ^— 
 
 " That he would not receive it, I warrant ? " said the King, inter- 
 
124 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 rupting him ; " by my saul, our Secretary kens that point of king- 
 craft, called refusing, better than we do, and will look at nothing 
 but what he likes himsell — I think I wad make a better Secretary 
 to him than he to me. — Weel, my lord, you are welcome to London; 
 and, as ye seem an acute and learned youth, I advise ye to turn 
 your neb northward as soon as ye like, and settle yoursell for a 
 while at Saint Andrews, and we will be right glad to hear that you 
 prosper in your studies. — Incumbite revns fortiter" 
 
 While the King spoke thus, he held the petition of the young lord 
 carelessly, like one who only delayed till the supplicant's back was 
 turned, to throw it away, or at least lay it aside to be no more 
 looked at. The petitioner, who read this in his cold and indifferent 
 looks, and in the manner in which he twisted and crumpled 
 together the paper, arose with a bitter sense of anger and disap 
 pointment, made a profound obeisance, and was about to retire 
 hastily. But Lord Huntinglen, who stood by him, checked his 
 intention by an almost imperceptible touch upon the skirt of his 
 cloak, and Nigel, taking the hint, retreated only a few steps from 
 the royal presence, and then made a pause, In the meantime, 
 Lord Huntinglen kneeled before James, in his turn, and said— 
 " May it please your Majesty to remember, that upon one certain 
 occasion you did promise to grant me a boon every year of your 
 sacred life ? " * 
 
 " I mind it weel, man," answered James, " I mind it weel, and 
 good reason why— it was when you unclasped the fause traitor 
 Ruthven's fangs from about our royal throat, and drove your dirk 
 into him like a true subject. We did then, as you remind us, 
 (whilk was unnecessary,) being partly beside ourselves with joy at 
 our liberation, promise we would grant you a free boon every year ; 
 whilk promise, on our coming to menseful possession of our royal 
 faculties, we did confirm, restrictive always and conditionaliter, 
 that your lordship's demand should be such as we, in our royal 
 discretion, should think reasonable." 
 
 " Even so, gracious Sovereign," said the old Earl, " and may I 
 yet farther crave to know if I have ever exceeded the bounds of 
 your royal benevolence ? " 
 
 " By my word, man, no ! " said the King ; " I cannot remember 
 you have asked much for yourself, if it be not a dog, or a hawk, or 
 a buck out of our park at Theobald's, or such like. But to what 
 serves this preface ? " 
 
 " To the boon which I am now to ask of your Grace," said Lord 
 Huntinglen ; "which is, that your Majesty would be pleased, on 
 the instant, to look at the placet of Lord Glenvarloch, and do upon 
 it what your own just and royal nature shall think meet and just, 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 125 
 
 without reference to your Secretjiry or any other of your 
 Council." 
 
 " By my saul, my lord, this is strange," said the King ; " ye are 
 pleading for the son of your enemy ! " 
 
 " Of one who was my enemy till your Majesty made him my 
 friend," answered Lord Huntinglen. 
 
 " Weel spoken, my lord ! " said the King ; " and with a true 
 Christian spirit. And, respecting the Supplicatioa of this young 
 man, I partly guess where the matter lies ; and in plain troth I had 
 promised to George Heriot to be good to the lad— But then, here 
 the shoe pinches. Steenie and Baby Charles cannot abide him — 
 neither can your own son, my lord ; and so, methinks, he had 
 better go down to Scotland before he comes to ill luck by them." 
 
 " My son, an it please your Majesty, so far as he is concerned, 
 shall not direct my doings," said the Earl, " nor any wild-headed 
 young man of them all." 
 
 " Why, neither shall they mine," replied the Monarch ; " by my 
 father's saul, none of them all shall play Rex with me — I will do 
 what I will, and what I aught, like a free King." 
 
 " Your Majesty will then grant me my boon ? " said the Lord 
 Huntinglen. 
 
 " Ay, marry will I— marry will I," said the King; "but follow 
 me this way, man, where we may be more private." 
 
 He led Lord Huntinglen with rather a hurried step through the 
 courtiers, all of whom gazed earnestly on this unwonted scene, as 
 is the fashion of all courts on similar occasions. The King passed 
 into a little cabinet, and bade, in the first moment. Lord Huntinglen 
 lock or bar the door ; but countermanded his direction in the next, 
 saying, — " No, no, no — bread o' life, man, I am a free King— will 
 do what I will and what I should — I am Justus et tenax propositi, 
 man — nevertheless, keep by the door, Lord Huntinglen, in case 
 Steenie should come in with his mad humour." 
 
 " O my poor master ! " groaned the Earl of Huntinglen. " When 
 you were in your own cold country, you had warm:r blood in your 
 veins." 
 
 The King hastily looked over the petition or memorial, every 
 now and then glancing his eye towards the door, and then sinking 
 it hastily on the paper, ashamed that Lord Huntinglen, whom he 
 respected, should suspect him of timidity. 
 
 " To grant the truth," he said, after he had finished his hasty 
 perusal, " this is a hard case ; and harder than it was represented 
 to me, though I had some inkling of it before. And so the lad 
 only wants payment of the siller due from us, in order to reclaim 
 his paternal estate ? But then, Huntinglen, the lad will have other 
 
126 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 debts— and why bifl-den himsell with sae mony acres of barren 
 woodland? let th land gang, man, let the land gang ; Steenie has 
 the promise of it from our Scottish Chancellor— it is the best 
 hunting-ground in Scotland — and Baby Charles and Steenie want 
 to kill a buck there this next year — they maun hae the land— they 
 maun hae the land ; and our debt shall be paid to the young man 
 plack and bawbee, and he may have the spending of it at our 
 Court ; or if he has such an eard hunger, wouns ! man, we'll stuff 
 his stomach with English land, which is worth twice as much, ay, 
 ten times as much, as these accursed hills and heughs, and mosses 
 and muirs, that he is sae keen after." 
 
 All this while the poor King ambled up and down the apartment 
 in a piteous state of uncertainty, which was made more ridiculous 
 by his shambling circular mode of managing his legs, and his 
 ungainly fashion on such occasions of fiddling with the bunches. of 
 ribbons which fastened the lower part of his dress. 
 
 Lord Huntinglen listened with great composure, and answered, 
 "An it please your Majesty, there was an answer yielded by Naboth 
 when Ahab coveted his vineyard — ' The Lord forbid that I should 
 give the inheritance of my fathers unto thee.' " 
 
 "Ey, my lord — ey, my lord!" ejaculated James, while all the 
 colour mounted both to his cheek and nose ; " I hope ye mean not 
 to teach me divinity ? Ye need not fear, my lord, that I will shun 
 to do justice to every man ; and, since your lordship will give me 
 no help to take up this in a more peaceful manner — whilk, methinks, 
 would be better for the young man, as I said before, — why — since 
 it maun be so — 'sdeath, I am a free King, man, and he shall have 
 his.money and redeem his land, and make a kirk and a miln of it, 
 an he will." So saying, he hastily wrote an order on the Scottish 
 Exchequer for the sum in question, and then added, " How they 
 are to pay it, I see not ; but I warrant he will find money on the 
 order among the goldsmiths, who can find it for every one but me. 
 — And now you see, my Lord of Huntinglen, that I am neither an 
 untrue man, to deny you the boon whilk I became bound for, nor 
 an Ahab, to covet Naboth's- vine yard ; nor a mere nose-of-wax, to 
 be twisted this way and that, by favourites and counsellors at their 
 pleasure. I think you will grant now that I am none of 
 those?" 
 
 " You are my own native and noble Prince," said Huntinglen, as 
 he knelt to kiss the royal hand — "just and generous, whenever -"ou 
 listen to the workings of your own heart." 
 
 "Ay, ay," said the King, laughing good-naturedly, as he raised 
 his faithful servant from the ground, " that is what ye all say when 
 I do any thing to please ye. There— there, take the sign-manual, 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 127 
 
 and away with you and this young fellow. I wonder Steenie and 
 Baby Charles have not broken in on us before now." 
 
 Lord Huntinglen hastened from the cabinet, foreseeing a scene 
 at which he was unwilling to be present, but which sometimes 
 occurred when Jamra roused himself so far as to exert his own free- 
 will, of which he boasted so much, in spite of that of his imperious 
 favourite Steenie, as he called the Duke of Buckingham, from a 
 supposed resemblance betwixt his very handsome countenance, 
 and that with which the Italian artists represented the proto-martyr 
 Stephen. In fact, the haughty favourite, who had the unusual 
 good fortune to stand as high in the opinion of the heir apparent as 
 of the existing monarch, had considerably diminished in his respect 
 towards the latter ; and it was apparent, to the more shrewd cour- 
 tiers, that James endured his domination rather from habit, timidity, 
 and a dread of encounterin his stormy passions, than from any 
 heartfelt continuation of regard towards him, whose greatness had 
 been the work of his own hands. To save himself the pain of 
 seeing what was likely to take place on the Duke's return, and to 
 preserve the King from the additional humiliation which the pre- 
 sence of such a witness must have occasioned, the Earl left the 
 cabinet as speedily as possible, having first carefully pocketed the 
 important sign-manual. 
 
 No sooner had he entered the presence-Toom, than he hastily 
 sought Lord Glenvarloch, who had vithdrawn into the embrasure 
 of one of the windows, from the general gaze of men who seemed 
 disposed only to afford him the notice which arises from surprise 
 and curiosity, and, taking him by the arm, without speaking, led 
 him out of the presence-chamber into the first anteroom. Here 
 they found the worthy goldsmitli, who approached them with looks 
 of curiosity, which were checked by the old lord, who said hastily, 
 — " All is well, — Is your barge in waiting ? " Heriot answered in 
 the affirmative. " Then," said Lord Huntinglen, " you shall give 
 m.e a cast in it, as the watermen say, and I, in requital, will give 
 you both your dinner ; for we must have some conversation to- 
 gether." 
 
 They both followed the Earl without speaking, and were in the 
 second anteroom when the important annunciation of the ushers, 
 and the hasty murmur with which all made ample way as the com- 
 pany repeated to each other, — " The Duke — the Duke ! " made 
 them aware of the approach of the omnipotent favourite. 
 
 He entered, that unhappy minion of court favour, sumptuously 
 dressed in the picturesque attire which will live for ever on the 
 canvas of Vandyke, and which marks so well the proud age, when 
 aristocracy, though undermined and nodding to its fall, still, by 
 
128 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 external show and profuse expanse, endeavoured to assert its para- 
 mount superiority over the inferior orders. The handsome and 
 commanding countenance, stately form, and graceful action and 
 manners of the Duke of Buckingham, made him become tliat pic- 
 turesque dress beyond any man of his time. At present, however, 
 his . countenance seemed discomposed, his dress a httle more dis- 
 ordered than became the place, his step hasty, and his voice 
 imperative. 
 
 All marked the angry spot upon his brow, and bore back so sud- 
 denly to make way for him, that the Earl of Huntinglen, who 
 affected no extraordinary haste on the occasion, with his com- 
 panions, who could not, if they would, have decently left him, re- 
 mained as it were by themselves in the middle of the room, and 
 in the very path of the angry favourite. He touched his cap 
 sternly as he looked on Huntinglen, but unbonneted to Heriot, 
 and sunk his beaver, with its shadowy plume, as low as the floor, 
 with a profound air of mock respect. In returning his greeting, 
 which he did simply and unaffectedly, the citizen only said,— 
 Too much courtesy, my lord duke, is often the reverse of kind- 
 ness." 
 
 " I grieve you should think so. Master Heriot," answered the 
 Duke ; " I only meant, by my homage, to claim your protection, 
 sir — your patronage. You are become, I understand, a solicitor of 
 suits — a promoter — an undertaker — a fautor of court suitors of merit 
 and quality, who chance to be pennyless. I trust your bags will 
 bear you out in your new boast." 
 
 " They will bear me the farther, my lord duke," answered the 
 goldsmith, " that my boast is but small." 
 
 " O, you do yourself less than justice, my good Master Heriot," 
 continued the Duke, in the same tone of irony ; " you have a 
 marvellous court-faction, to be the son of an Edinburgh tinker 
 Have the goodness to prefer me to the knowledge of the high-born 
 nobleman who is honoured and advantaged by your patronage." 
 
 " That shall be my task," said Lord Huntinglen, w ith emphasis. 
 " My lord duke, I desire you to know Nigel Olifaunt, Lord Glen- 
 varloch, representative of one of the most ancient and powerful 
 baronial houses in Scotland. — Lord Glenvarloch, I present you to 
 his Grace the Duke of Buckingham, representative of Sir George 
 Villiers, Knight, of Brookesby, in the county of Leicester." 
 
 The Duke coloured still more high as he bowed to Lord Glen- 
 varloch scornfully, a courtesy which the other returned haughtily, 
 and with- restrained indignation. "We know each other, then," 
 said the Duke, after a moment's pause, and as if he had seen 
 something in the young nobleman which merited more serious 
 
THE fortuKks of Nigel. 129 
 
 notice than the bitter raillery with which he had commenced — 
 "we know each other— and you know me, my lord, for your 
 enemy."* 
 
 " I thank you for your plainness, my lord duke," replied Nigel ; 
 " an open enemy is better than a hollow friend." 
 
 " For you, my Lord Huntinglen," said the Duke, " methinks you 
 have but now overstepped the limits of the indulgence permitted to 
 you, as the father of the Prince's friend, and my own." 
 
 " By my word, my lord duke," replied the Earl, " it is easy for 
 any one to outstep boundaries, of the existence of which he was 
 not aware. It is neither to secure my protection nor approbation, 
 that my son keeps such exalted company." 
 
 " O, my lord, we know you, and indulge you," said the Duke ; 
 " you are one of those who presume for a life-long upon the merit 
 of one good action." 
 
 " In faith, my lord, and if it be so," said the old Earl, " I have 
 at least the advantage of such as presume more than I do, without 
 having done any action of merit whatever. But I mean not to 
 j'uarrel with you, my lord — we can neither be friends nor enemies 
 — you have your path, and I have mine." 
 
 Buckingham only repHed by throwing on his bonnet, and shak- 
 ing its lofty plume with a careless and scornful toss of the head. 
 They parted thus ; the Duke walking onwards through the 
 apartments, and the others leaving the palace and repairing to 
 Whitehall stairs, where they embarked on board the barge of the 
 citizen. 
 
 CHAPTER X. ' 
 
 Bid not thy fortune troll upon the wheels 
 Of yonder dancing cubes of mottled bone ; 
 And drown it not, like Egypt's royal harlot. 
 Dissolving her rich pearl in the brimm'd wine- cup. 
 'These are the arts, Lothario, which shrink acres 
 Into brief yards— bring sterling pounds to farthings. 
 Credit to infamy ; and the poor gull. 
 Who might have hved an honour'd, easy life. 
 To ruin, and an unregarded grave. 
 
 The Changes. 
 
 When they were fairly embarked on the Thames, the Earl took 
 from his pocket the Supplication, and, pointing out to George 
 Heriot the royal warrant indorsed thereon, asked him, if it were in 
 
 K 
 
I30 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 due and regular form ? The worthy citizen hastily read it over, 
 thrust forth his hand as if to congratulate the Lord Glenvarloch, 
 then checked himself, pulled out his barnacles, (a present from old 
 David Ramsay,) and again perused the warrant with the most busi- 
 ness-like and critical attention. " It is strictly correct and formal," 
 he said, looking to the Earl of Huntinglen; "and I sincerely 
 rejoice at it." 
 
 " I doubt nothing of its formality," said the Earl ; " the King 
 understands business well, and, if he does not practise it often, it 
 is only because indolence obscures parts which are naturally well 
 qualified for the discharge of affairs. But what is next to be done 
 for our young friend. Master Heriot .■' You know how I am circum- 
 stanced. Scottish lords living at the English Court have seldom 
 command of money ; yet, unless a sum can be presently raised 
 on this warrant, matters standing as you hastily hinted to me, the 
 mortgage, wadset, or whatever it is called, will be foreclosed." 
 
 " It is true," said Heriot, in some embarrassment ; " there is a 
 large sum wanted in redemption — yet, if it is not raised, there will 
 be an expiry of the legal, as our lawyers call it, and the estate will 
 be evicted." 
 
 " My noble — my worthy friends, who have taken up my cause so 
 undeservedly, so unexpectedly," said Nigel, "do not let me be a 
 burden on your kindness. You have already done too much where 
 nothing was merited." 
 
 "Peace, man, peace," said Lord Huntinglen, "and let old 
 Heriot and I puzzle this scent out. He is about to open— hark to 
 him ! " 
 
 " My lord," said the citizen, " the Duke of Buckingham sneers at 
 our city money-bags ; yet they can sometimes open, to prop a 
 falling and a noble house." 
 
 " We know they can," said Lord Huntinglen— " mind not Buck- 
 ingham, he is a Peg-a- Ramsay — and now for the remedy." 
 
 " I partly hinted to Lord Glenvarloch already," said Heriot, "that 
 the redemption money might be advanced upon such a warrant as 
 the present, and I will engage my credit that it can. But then, in 
 order to secure the lender, he must come in the shoes of the credi- 
 tor to whom he advances payment." 
 
 " Come in his shoes ! " replied the Earl ; " Why, what have boots 
 or shoes to do with this matter, my good friend ? " 
 
 " It is a law phrase, my lord. My experience has made me pick 
 up a few of them," said Heriot. 
 
 " Ay, and of better things along with them, Master George," 
 replied Lord Huntinglen ; " but what means it ? " 
 
 "Simply this," resumed the citizen; "that the lender of this 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 131 
 
 money will transact with the holder of the mortgage, or wadset, over 
 the estate of Glenvarloch, and obtain from him such a conveyance 
 to his right as shall leave the lands pledged for the debt, in case 
 the warrant upon the Scottish Exchequer should prove unproduc- 
 tive. I fear, in this uncertainty of public credit, that, without 
 some such counter security, it will be very difficult to find so large 
 a sum." 
 
 " Ho la ! " said the Earl of Huntinglen, " halt there ! a thought 
 strikes me. — What if the new creditor should admire the estate as 
 a hunting-field, as much as my Lord Grace of Buckingham seems 
 to do, and should wish to kill a buck there in the summer season ? 
 It seems to me, that on your plan, Master George, our new friend 
 will be as well entitled to block Lord Glenvarloch out of his inheri- 
 tance as the present holder of the mortgage." 
 
 The citizen laughed. " I will engage," he said, " that the keenest 
 sportsman to whom I may apply on this occasion, shall not have 
 a thought beyond the Lord Mayor's Easter hunt, in Epping-Forest. 
 But your lordship's caution is reasonable. The creditor must be 
 bound to allow Lord Glenvarloch sufficient time to redeem his 
 estate by means of the royal warrant, and must waive in his favour 
 the right of instant foreclosure, which may be, I should think, the 
 more easily managed, as the right of redemption must be exercised 
 in his own name." 
 
 " But where shall we find a person in London fit to draw the 
 necessary writings?" said the Earl. "If my old friend Sir John 
 Skene of Halyards had lived, we should have had his advice ; but 
 time presses, and "• 
 
 " I know," said Heriot, " an orphan lad, a scrivener, that dwells 
 by Temple-Bar ; he can draw deeds both after the English and 
 Scottish fashion, and I have trusted him often in matters of weight 
 and of importance. I will send one of my serving-men for him, 
 and the mutual deeds maybe executed in your lordship's presence ; 
 for, as things stand, there should be no delay." His lordship 
 readily assented ; and, as they now landed upon the private stairs 
 leading down to the river from the gardens of the handsome hotel 
 which he inhabited, the messenger was despatched without loss of 
 time. 
 
 Nigel, who had sat almost stupified while these zealous friends 
 volunteered for him in arranging the measures by which his fortune 
 was to be disembarrassed, now made another eager attempt to force 
 upon them his broken expressions of thanks and gratitude. But he 
 was again silenced by Lord Huntinglen, who declared he would not 
 hear a word on that topic, and proposed instead, that they should 
 take a turn in the pleached alley, or sit upon the stone bench which 
 
 K 2 
 
133 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 overlooked the Thames, until his son's arrival should give the 
 signal for dinner. 
 
 " I desire to introduce Dalgamo and Lord Glenvarloch to each 
 other," he said, " as two who will be near neighbours, and I trust 
 will be more kind ones than their fathers were formerly. There is 
 but three Scots miles betwixt the castles, and the turrets of the 
 one are visible from the battlements of the other." 
 
 The old Earl was silent for a moment, and appeared to muse 
 upon the recollections which the vicinity of the castles had sum- 
 moned up. 
 
 " Does Lord Dalgamo follow the Court to Newmarket next 
 week ? " said Heriot, by way of removing the conversation. 
 
 " He proposes so, I think," answered Lord Huntinglen, relapsed 
 into his reverie for a minute or two, and then addressed Nigel 
 somewhat abruptly — 
 
 " My young friend, when you attain possession of your inheri- 
 tance, as I hope you soon will, I trust you will not add one to the 
 idle followers of the Court, but reside on your patrimonial estate, 
 cherish your ancient tenants, relieve and assist your poor kinsmen, 
 protect the poor against subaltern oppression, and do what our 
 fathers used to do, with fewer lights and with less means than we 
 have." 
 
 "And yet the advice to keep the country," said Heriot, "comes 
 from an ancient and constant ornament of the Court." 
 
 " From an old courtier, indeed," said the Earl, " and the first of 
 my family that could so write himself — my grey beard falls on a 
 cambric ruff, and a silken doublet— my father's descended upon a 
 buff coat and a breastplate. I would not that these days of battle 
 returned ; but I should love well to make the oaks of my old forest 
 of Dalgamo ring once more with halloo, and horn, and hound, 
 and to have the old stone-arched hall return the. hearty shout of 
 my vassals and tenants, as the bicker and the quaigh walked their 
 rounds amongst them. I should like to see the broad Tay once 
 more before I die — not even the Thames can match it, in my 
 mind." 
 
 "Surely, my lord," said the citizen, "all this might be easily 
 done — it costs but a moment's resolution, and the journey of some 
 brief days, and you will be where you desire to be— what is there 
 to prevent you ? " 
 
 " Habits, Master George, habits," replied the Earl, " which to 
 young men are like threads of silk, so lightly are they worn, so 
 soon broken ; but which hang on our old limbs as if time had 
 stiffened them into gyves of iron. To go to Scotland for a brief 
 space were but labour in vain ; and when I think of abiding there 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 133 
 
 I cannot bring myself to leave my old Master, to whom I fancy 
 myself sometimes useful, and whose weal and woe I have shared 
 for so many years'. But Dalgarno shall be a Scottish noble." 
 
 " Has he visited the North ? " said Heriot. 
 
 " He was there last year, and made such a report of the country, 
 that the Prince has expressed a longing to see it." 
 
 " Lord Dalgarno is in high grace with his Highness, and the 
 Duke of Buckingham?" observed the goldsmith. 
 
 "He is so," answered the Earl, — " I pray it may be for the ad- 
 vantage of them all. The Prince is just and equitable in his sen- 
 timents, though cold and stately in his manners, and very obstinate 
 in his most trifling purposes ; and the Duke, noble and gallant, and 
 generous and open, is fiery, ambitious, and impetuous. Dalgarnci 
 has none of these faults, and such as he may have of his own, may 
 perchance be corrected by the society in which he moves. — See, 
 here he comes." 
 
 Lord Dalgarno accordingly advanced from the farther end of the 
 alley to the bench on which his father and his guests were seated, 
 so that Nigel had full leisure to peruse his countenance and figure. 
 He was dressed point-device, and almost to extremity, in the 
 splendid fashion of the time, which suited well with his age, pro- 
 bably about five-and-twenty, with a noble form and fine counte- 
 nance, in which last could easily be traced the manly features of 
 his father, but softened by a more habitual air of assiduous courtesy 
 than the stubborn old Earl had ever condescended to assume 
 towards the world in general. In other respects, his address was 
 gallant, free, and unencumbered either by pride or ceremony — far 
 remote certainly from the charge either of haughty coldness or for- 
 ward impetuosity ; and so far his father had justly freed him from 
 the marked faults which he ascribed to the manners of the Prince 
 and his favourite Buckingham. 
 
 While the old Earl presented his young acquaintance Lord Glen- 
 varloch to his son, as one whom he would have him love and 
 honour, Nigel marked the countenance of Lord Dalgarno closely, 
 to see if he could detect aught of that secret dislike which the King 
 had, in one of his broken expostulations, seemed to intimate, as 
 arising from a clashing of interests betwixt his new friend and the 
 great Buckingham. But nothing of this was visible ; on the con- 
 trary, Lord Dalgarno received his new acquaintance with the open 
 frankness and courtesy which makes conquest at once, when 
 addressed to the feelings of an ingenuous young man. 
 
 It need hardly be told that his open and friendly address met 
 equally ready and cheerful acceptation from Nigel Olifaunt. For 
 many months,, and while a youth not much above two-and-twenty, 
 
134 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 he had been restrained by circumstances from the conversation of 
 his equals. When, on his father's sudden death, he left the Low 
 Countries for Scotland, he had found himself involved, to all 
 appearance inextricably, with the details of the law, all of which 
 threatened to end in the alienation of the patrimony which should 
 support his hereditary rank. His term of sincere mourning, joined 
 to injured pride, and the swelling of the heart under unejfpected and 
 undeserved misfortune, together with the uncertainty attending the 
 issue of his affairs, had induced the young Lord of Glenvarloch to 
 live, while in Scotland, in a very private and reserved manner. 
 How he had passed his time in London, the reader is acquainted 
 with. But this melancholy and secluded course of life was neither 
 agreeable to his age nor to his temper, which was genial and sociable. 
 He hailed, therefore, with sincere pleasure, the approaches which 
 a young man of his own age and rank made towards him ; and, 
 when he had exchanged with Lord Dalgarno some of those words 
 and signals by which, as surely as by those of freemasonry, young 
 people recognise a mutual wish to be agreeable to each other, it 
 seemed as if the two noblemen had been acquainted for some time. 
 
 Just as this tacit intercourse had been established, one of Lord 
 Huntinglen's attendants came down the alley, marshalling onwards 
 a man dressed in black buckram, who followed him with tolerable 
 speed, considering that, according to his sense of reverence and 
 propriety, he kept his body bent and parallel to the horizon from 
 the moment that he came in sight of the company to which he was 
 about to be presented. 
 
 " Who is this, you cuckoldy knave," said the old Lord, who had 
 retained the keen appetite and impatience of a Scottish Baron even 
 during a long alienation from his native country ; " and why does 
 John Cook, with a murrain to him, keep back dinner ? " 
 
 " I believe we are ourselves responsible for this person's intrusion," 
 said George Heriot ; " this is the scrivener whom we desired to 
 see. — Look up, man, and see us in the face as an honest man should, 
 instead of bearing thy noddle charged against us thus like a 
 battering-ram." 
 
 The scrivener did look up accordingly, with the action of an 
 automaton which suddenly obeys the impulse of a pressed spring. 
 But, strange to tell, not even the haste he had made to attend his 
 patron's mandate, a business, as Master Heriot's message expressed, 
 of weight and importance — nay, not even the state of depression in 
 which, out of sheer humility doubtless, he had his head stooped to 
 the earth, from the moment he had trod the demesnes of the Earl 
 of Huntinglen, had called any colour into his countenance. The 
 drops stood on his brow from haste and toil, but his cheek was still 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 13S 
 
 pale and tallow-coloured as before ; nay, what seemed stranger, his 
 very hair, when he raised his head, hung down on either cheek as 
 straight and sleek and undisturbed as it was when we first introduced 
 him to our readers, seated at his quiet and humble desk. 
 
 Lord Dalgarno could not forbear a stifled laugh at the ridiculous 
 and puritanical figure which presented itself like a starved anatomy 
 to the company, and whispered at the same time into Lord Glen' 
 varloch's ear — 
 
 " The devil damn thee black, thou cream-faced loon, 
 Where got'st thou that goose-look ? " 
 
 Nigel was too little acquainted with the English stage, to under- 
 stand a quotation which had already grown matter of common 
 allusion in London. Lord Dalgarno saw that he was not understood, 
 and continued, " That fellow, by his visage, should either be a saint, 
 or a most hypocritical rogue — and such is my excellent opinion of 
 human nature, that I always suspect the worst. But they seem 
 deep in business. Will you take a turn with me in the garden, my 
 lord, or will you remain a member of the serious conclave ? " 
 
 " With you, my lord, most willingly," said Nigel ; and they were 
 turning away accordingly, when George Heriot, with the formality 
 belonging to his station, observed, that, " as their business con- 
 cerned Lord Glenvarloch, he had better remain, to make himself 
 master of it, and witness to it." 
 
 " My presence is utterly needless, my good lord ; — and, my best 
 friend. Master Heriot," said the young nobleman, " I shall under- 
 stand nothing the better for cumbering you with my ignorance in 
 these matters ; and can only say at the end, as I now say at the 
 beginning, that I dare not *ake the helm out of the hand of the 
 kind pilots who have already guided my course within sight of a 
 fair and unhoped-for haven. Whatever you recommend to me as 
 fitting, I shall sign and seal ; and the import of the deeds I shall 
 better learn by a brief explanation from Master Heriot, if he will 
 bestow so much trouble in my behalf, than by a thousand learned 
 words and law terms from this person of skill." 
 
 " He is right," said Lord Huntinglen ; " our young friend is right, 
 in confiding these matters to you and me. Master George Heriot — 
 he has not misplaced his confidence." 
 
 Master George Heriot cast a long look after the two young 
 noblemen, who had now walked down the alley arm-in-arm, and at 
 length said, " He hath not, indeed, misplaced his confidence, as 
 your lordship well and truly says — but, nevertheless, he is not in 
 the right path ; for it behoves every man to become acquainted 
 
136 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 with his own affairs, so soon as he hath any that are worth 
 attending to." 
 
 When he had made this observation, they apphed themselves, 
 with the scrivener, to look into various papers, and to direct in what 
 manner writings should be drawn, which might at once afford 
 sufficient security to those who were to advance the money, and at 
 the same time preserve the right of the young nobleman to redeem 
 the family estate, provided he should obtain the means of doing so, 
 by the expected reimbursement from the Scottish Exchequer, or 
 otherwise. It is needless to enter into those details. But it is not 
 unimportant to mention, as an illustration of character, that Heriot 
 went into the most minute legal details with a precision which 
 showed that experience had made him master even of the intricacies 
 of Scottish conveyancing ; and that the Earl of Huntinglen, though 
 far less acquainted with technical detail, suffered no step of the 
 business to pass over, until he had attained a general but distinct 
 idea of its import and its propriety. 
 
 They seemed to be admirably seconded in their benevolent 
 intentions towards the young Lord Glenvarloch, by the skill and 
 eager zeal of the scrivener, whom Heriot had introduced to this 
 piece of business, the most important which Andrew had ever 
 transacted in his life, and the particulars of which were moreover 
 agitated in his presence between an actual earl, and one whose 
 wealth and character might entitle him to be alderman of his ward, 
 if not to be lord mayor, in his turn. 
 
 While they were thus in eager conversation on business, the good 
 Earl even forgetting the calls of his appetite, and the delay of 
 dinner, in his anxiety to see that the scrivener received proper 
 instructions, and that all was rightly weighed and considered, 
 before dismissing him to engross the necessary deeds, the two young 
 men walked together on the terrace which overhung the river, and 
 talked on the topics which Lord Dalgarno, the eldest, and the most 
 experienced, thought most likely to interest his new friend. 
 
 These naturally regarded the pleasures attending a court life ; 
 and Lord Dalgarno expressed much surprise at understanding that 
 Nigel proposed an instant return to Scotland. 
 
 " You are jesting with me," he said. " All the Court rings — it is 
 needless to mince it — with the extraordinary success of your suit — 
 against the highest interest, it is said, now influencing the horizon 
 at Whitehall. Men think of you— talk of you — fix their eyes on 
 you — ask each other, who is this young Scottish lord, who has 
 stepped so far in a single day ? They augur, in whispers to each 
 other, how high and how far you may push your fortune— and all 
 that you design to make of it, is, to return to Scotland, eat raw oat- 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 137 
 
 meal cakes, baked upon a peat-fire, have your hand shaken by 
 every loon of a blue-bonnet who chooses to dub you cousin, though 
 your relationship comes by Noah ; drink Scots twopenny ale, eat 
 half-starved red-deer venison, when you can kill it, ride upon a 
 galloway, and be called my right honourable and maist worthy 
 lord." 
 
 " There is no great gaiety in the prospect before me, I confess," 
 said Lord Glenvarloch, " even if your father and good Master Heriot 
 should succeed in putting my affairs on some footing of plausible 
 hope. And yet I trust to do something for my vassals, as my 
 ancestors before me, and to teach my children, as I have myself 
 been taught, to make some personal sacrifices, if they be necessary, 
 in order to maintain with dignity the situation in which they are 
 placed by Providence." 
 
 Lord Dalgarno, after having once or twice stifled his laughter 
 during his speech, at length broke out into a fit of mirth, so hearty 
 and so resistless, that, angry as he was, the call of sympathy swept 
 Nigel along with him, and, despite of himself, he could not forbear 
 to join in a burst of laughter, which he thought not only causeless, 
 but almost impertinent. 
 
 He soon recollected himself, however; and said, in a tone 
 qualified to allay Lord Dalgarno's extreme mirth, " This is all well, 
 my lord ; but how am I to understand your merriment ? " Lord 
 Dalgarno only answered him with redoubled peals of laughter, and 
 at length held by Lord Glenvarloch's cloak, as if to prevent his 
 falling down on the ground, in the extremity of his convulsion. 
 
 At length, while Nigel stood half abashed, half angry, at becom- 
 ing thus the subject of his new acquaintance's ridicule, and was 
 only restrained from expressing his resentment against the son, by 
 a sense of the obligations he owed the father, Lord Dalgarno 
 recovered himself, and spoke in a half-broken voice, his eyes still 
 running with tears. " I crave your pardon, my dear Lord Glen- 
 varloch — ten thousand times do I crave your pardon. But that last 
 picture of rural dignity, accompanied by your grave and angry 
 surprise at my laughing at what would have made any court-bred 
 hound laugh, that had but so much as bayed the moon once from 
 the court-yard at Whitehall, totally overcame me. Why, my liefest 
 and dearest lord, you, a young and handsome fellow, with high 
 birth, a title, and the name of an estate, so well received by the 
 King at your first starting, as makes your further progress scarce 
 matter of doubt, if you know how to improve it — for the King has 
 already said you are a ' braw lad, and well studied in the more 
 humane letters ' — you, too, whom all the women, and the very 
 marked beauties of the court, desire to see, because you cam? from 
 
138 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 Leyden, were born in Scotland, and have gained a hard-contested 
 suit in England — you, I say, with a person like a prince, an eye of 
 fire, and a wit as quick, to think of throwing your cards on the 
 table when the game is in your very hand, running back to the 
 frozen north, and marrying — let me see— a tall, stalking, blue-eyed, 
 fair-skinned, bony wench, with eighteen quarters in her scutcheon, 
 a sort of Lot's wife, newly descended from her pedestal, and with 
 her to shut yourself up in your tapestried chamber ! Uh, gad ! — 
 Swouns, I shall never survive the idea ! " 
 
 It is seldom that youth, however high-minded, is able, from 
 mere strength of character and principle, to support itself against 
 the force of ridicule. Half angry, half mortified, and, to say 
 truth, half ashamed of his more manly and better purpose, Nigel 
 was unable, and flattered himself it was unnecessary, to play the 
 part of a rigid moral patriot, in presence of a young man whose 
 current fluency of language, as well as his experience in the highest 
 circles of society, gave him, in spite of Nigel's better and firmer 
 thoughts, a temporary ascendency over him. He sought, there- 
 fore, to compromise the matter, and avoid farther debate, by frankly 
 owning, that, if to return to his own country were not his choice, it 
 was at least a matter of necessity. " His affairs," he said, "were 
 unsettled, his income precarioug." 
 
 " And where is he whose affairs are settled, or whose income is 
 less than precarious, that is to be found in attendance on the 
 Court ? " said Lord Dalgarno ) " all are either losing or winning. 
 Those who have wealth, come hither ta get rid of it, while the 
 happy gallants who, like you and I, dear Glenvarloch, have little or 
 none, have every chance to be sharers in their spoils." 
 
 " I have no ambition of that sort," said Nigel, " and, if I had, 1 
 must tell you plainly. Lord Dalgarno, I have not the means to do 
 so. I can scarce as yet call the suit I wear my own ; I owe it, and 
 I do not blush to say so, to the friendship of yonder good 
 man." 
 
 " I will not laugh again, if I can help it," said Lord Dalgarno. 
 " But, Lord ! that you should have gone to a wealthy goldsmith for 
 your habit — ^why, I could have brought you to an honest, confiding 
 tailor, who should have furnished you with half-a-dozen, merely for 
 love of the little word, 'lordship,' which you place before your 
 name;— and then your goldsmith, if he be really a friendly gold- 
 smith, should have equipped you with such a purse of fair rose- 
 nobles as would have bought you thrice as many suits, or done 
 better things for you." 
 
 " I do not understand these fashions, my lord," said Nigel, his 
 displeasure mastering his shame ; " were I to attend the Court of 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 139 
 
 my Sovereign, it should be when I could maintain, without shifting 
 or borrowing, the dress alid retinue which my rank requires.' 
 
 " Which my rank requires !" said Lord DalgarnOj repeating his 
 last words j " that, now, is as good as if my father had spoke it. I 
 fancy you would love to move to Court like him, followed by a 
 round score of old blue-bottles, with white heads and red noses, 
 with bucklers and broadswords, which their hands, trembling 
 betwixt age and strong waters, can make no use of— as many huge 
 silver badges on their arms, to show whose fools they are, as would 
 furnish forth a court cupboard of plate — rogues fit for nothing but to 
 fill our antechambers with the flavour of onions and genievre — pah ! " 
 
 " The poor knaves !" said Lord Glenvarloch ; "they have served 
 your father, it may be, in the wars. What would become of them 
 were he to turn them off?" 
 
 " Why, let them go to the hospital," said Dalgarno, " or to the 
 bridge-end, to sell switches. The king is a better man than my 
 father, and you see those who have served in his wars do so eveiy 
 day ; or, when their blue coats were well worn out, they would make 
 rare scarecrows. Here is a fellow, now, comes down the walk ; 
 the stoutest raven dared not come within a, yard of that copper 
 nose. I tell you, there is more service, as you will soon see, in my 
 valet of the chamber, and such a lither lad as my page Lutin, than 
 there is in a score of these old memorials of the Douglas wars,* 
 where they cut each other's throats foir the chance of finding twelve 
 pennies Scots on the person of the slain. Marry, my lord, to 
 make amends, they will eat mouldy victuals, and drink stale ale, as 
 if their bellies were puncheons. — But the dinner-bell is going to 
 sound— hark, it is clearing its rusty throat, with a preliminary 
 jowl. That is another clamorous relic of antiquity, that, were I 
 master, should soon be at the bottom of the Thames. How the 
 foul fiend can it interest the peasants and mechanics in the Strand, 
 to know that the Earl of Huntinglen is sitting down to dinner? 
 But my father looks our way — we must not be late for the grace, or 
 we shall be in tiis-gra.ce, if you will forgive a quibble which would 
 have made his Majesty laugh. You will find us all of a piece, and, 
 having been accustomed to eat in saucers abroad, I am ashamed 
 you should witness our larded capons, our mountains of beef, and 
 oceans of brewis, as large as Highland hills and lochs ; but you 
 shall see better cheer to-morrow. Where lodge you ? I will call 
 for you. I must be your guide through the peopled desert, to 
 certain enchanted lands, which you will scarce discover without 
 chart and pilot. Where lodge you ? " 
 
 " I will meet you in Paul's," said Nigel, a good deal embarrassed, 
 " at any hour you please to name." 
 
140 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 " O, you would be private," said the young lord ; " Nay, fear not 
 me— I will be no intruder. But we have attained this huge larder 
 of flesh, fowl, and fish. I marvel the oaken boards groan not 
 under it." 
 
 They had indeed arrived in the dining-parlour of the mansion, 
 where the table was superabundantly loaded, and where the number 
 of attendants, to a certain extent, vindicated the sarcasms of the 
 young nobleman. The chaplain, and Sir Mungo Malagrowther, 
 were of the party. The latter complimented Lord Glenvarloch 
 upon the impression he had made at Court. " One would have 
 thought ye had brought the apple of discord in your pouch, my 
 lord, or that you were the very fire-brand of whilk Althea was 
 delivered, and that she had lain-in in a barrel of gunpowder ; for 
 the King, and the Prince, and the Duke, have been by the lugs 
 about ye, and so have many more, that kendna before this blessed 
 day that there was such a man living on the face of the earth." 
 
 " Mind your victuals, Sir Mungo," said the Earl ; " they get 
 cold while you talk." 
 
 " Troth, and that needsna, my lord," said the knight ; '' your 
 lordship's dinners seldom scald one's mouth' — the serving-men are 
 turning auld, like oursells, my lord, and it is far between the kitchen 
 and the ha'." 
 
 With this little explosion of his spleen. Sir Mungo remained 
 satisfied, until the dishes were removed, when, fixing his eyes on 
 the brave new doublet of Lord Dalgarno, he complimented him on 
 his economy, pretending to recognise it as the same which his 
 father had worn in Edinburgh in the Spanish ambassador's time. 
 Lord Dalgarno, too much a man of the world to be moved by any- 
 thing from such a quarter, proceeded to crack some nuts with 
 great deliberation, as he replied, that the doublet was in some sort 
 his father's, as it was likely to cost him fifty pounds some day soon. 
 Sir Mungo forthwith proceeded in his own way to convey this 
 agreeable intelligence to the Earl, observing, that his son was a 
 better maker of bargains than his lordship, for he had bought a 
 doublet as rich as that his lordship wore when the Spanish ambas- 
 sador was at Holyrood, and it had cost him but fifty pounds Scots ; 
 — " that was no fool's bargain, my lord." 
 
 " Pounds sterling, if you please, Sir Mungo," answered the Earl, 
 calmly ; " and a fool's bargain it is, in all the tenses. Dalgarno 
 was a fool when he bought — I will iDe a fool when I pay — and you, 
 Sir Mungo, craving your pardon, are a fool in prcBsenti, for speak- 
 ing of what concerns you not." 
 
 So saying, the Earl addressed himself to the serious business of 
 the table, and s?nt the wine arpvind with a profusion which 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 141 
 
 increased the hilarity, but rather threatened the temperance, of the 
 company, until their jovialty was interrupted by the annunciation 
 that the scrivener had engrossed such deeds as required to b? 
 presently executed. 
 
 George Heriot rose from the table, observing, that wine-cups 
 and legal documents were unseemly neighbours. The Earl askec 
 the scrivener, if they had laid a trencher and set a cup for him ir 
 the buttery? and received the respectful answer, that Heaver 
 forbid he should be such an ungracious beast as to eat or drink 
 until his lordship's pleasure was performed. 
 
 " Thou shalt eat before thou goest," said Lord Huntinglen ; "and 
 I will have thee try, moreover, whether a cup of sack cannot brin|' 
 some colour into these cheeks of thine. It were a shame to my 
 household, thou shouldst glide out into the Strand after such a 
 spectre-fashion as thou now wearest.— Look to it, Dalgarno, for 
 the honour of our roof is concerned." 
 
 Lord Dalgarno gave directions that the man should be attended 
 to. Lord Glenvarloch and the citizen, in the meanwhile, signed 
 and interchanged, and thus closed a transaction, of which the 
 principal party concerned understood little, save that it was under 
 the management of a zealous and faithful friend, who undertook, 
 that the money should be forthcoming, and the estate released 
 from forfeiture, by payment of the stipulated sum for which it stood 
 pledged, and that at the term of Lambmas, and at the hour of 
 noon, and beside the tomb of the Regent Earl of Murray, in the 
 High Kirk of Saint Giles, at Edinburgh, being the dav and place 
 assigned for such redemption.* 
 
 When this business was transacted, the old Earl would fain have 
 renewed his carouse ; but the citizen, alleging the importance of 
 the deeds he had about him, and the business he had to transact 
 betimes the next morning, not only refused to return to table, but 
 carried with him to his barge Lord Glenvarloch, who might, 
 perhaps, have been otherwise found more tractable. 
 
 When they were seated in the boat, and fairly once more afloat 
 in the river, George Heriot looked back seriously on the mansion 
 they had left — " There live," he said, " the old fashion and the new. 
 The father is like a noble old broadsword ; but harmed with rust 
 from neglect and inactivity ; the son is your modern rapier, well- 
 mounted, fairly gilt, and fashioned to the taste of the time — and it 
 is time must evince if the metal be as good as the show. God 
 grant it prove so, says an old friend to the family." 
 
 Nothing of consequence passed betwixt them, until Lord Glen- 
 varloch, landing at Paul's Wharf, took leave of his friend the 
 citizen, and retired to his own apartment ; where his attendant, 
 
142 THE FORTUNES Of NIGEL. 
 
 Richie, not a little elevated with the events of the day, and with 
 the hospitality of Lord Huntinglen's housekeeping, gave a most 
 splendid account of them to the buxom Dame Nelly, who rejoiced 
 to hear that the sun at length was shining upon what Richie called 
 the right side of the hedge. 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 You are not for the manner nor the times. 
 They have their vices now most like to virtues ; 
 You cannot know them apart by any difference, 
 They we*- the same clothes, eat the same meat — 
 Sleep i' the self-same beds, ride in those coaches. 
 Or very like four horses in a coach. 
 As the best men and women. 
 
 Ben Jon son. 
 
 On the following morning, while Nigel, his breakfast finished, 
 was thinking how he should employ the day, there was a little 
 bustle upon the stairs which attracted his attention, and presently 
 entered Dame Nelly, blushing like scarlet, and scarce able to bring 
 out — " A young nobleman, sir — no one less," she added, drawing 
 her hand slightly over her lips, " would be so saucy — a young 
 nobleman, sir, to wait on you ! " 
 
 And she was followed into the little cabin by Lord Dalgarno, 
 gay, easy, disembarrassed, and apparently as much pleased to 
 rejoin his new acquaintance as if he had found him in the apart- 
 ments of a palace. Nigel, on the contrary, (for youth is slave to 
 such circumstances,) was discountenanced and mortified at being 
 surprised by so splendid a gallant in a chamber, which, at the 
 moment the elegant and high-dressed cavalier appeared in it, 
 seemed to' its inhabitant, yet lower, narrower, darker, and meaner 
 than it had ever shown before. He would have made some apology 
 for the situation, but Lord Dalgarno cut him short — 
 
 " Not a word of it," he said, " not a single word — I know why 
 you ride at anchor here — but I can keep counsel — so pretty a 
 hostess would recommend worse quarters." 
 
 " On my word— on my honour," said Lord Glenvarloch 
 
 " Nay, nay, make no words of the matter," said Lord Dalgarno ; 
 " I am no tell-tale, nor shall I cross your walk ; there is game 
 enough in the forest, thank Heaven, and I can strike a doe for 
 myself." 
 
THE FORTUNES OP NIGEL. 143 
 
 All this he said in so significant a manner, and the explanation 
 which he had adopted seemed to put Lord Glenvarloch's gallantry 
 on so respectable a footing, that Nigel ceased to try to undeceive 
 him ; and less ashamed, perhaps, (for such is human weakness,) 
 of supposed vice than of real poverty, changed the discourse to 
 something else, and left poor Dame Nelly's reputation and his 
 own at the mercy of the young courtier's misconstruction. 
 
 He offered refreshments with some hesitation. Lord Dalgarno 
 had long since breakfasted, but had just come from playing a set 
 of tennis, he said, and would willingly taste a cup of the pretty 
 hostess's single beer. This was easily procured, was drunk, was 
 commended, and, as the hostess failed not to bring the cup herself, 
 Lord Dalgarno profited by the opportunity to take a second and 
 more attentive view of her, and then gravely drank to her husband's 
 health, with an almost imperceptible nod to Lord Glenvarloch. 
 Dame Nelly was much honoured, smoothed her apron down with 
 her hands, and said — " Her John was greatly and truly honoured 
 by their lordships — he was a kind, painstaking man for his family, 
 as was in the alley, or indeed, as far north as Paul's Chain.", 
 
 She would have proceeded probably to state the difference 
 betwixt their ages, as the only alloy to their nuptial happiness ; 
 but her lodger, who had no mind to be farther exposed to his gay 
 friend's raillery, gave her, contrary to his wont, a signal to leave 
 the room. 
 
 Lord Dalgarno looked after her, then looked at Glenvarloch, 
 shook his head, and repeated the well-known lines— 
 
 " My lord, beware of jealousy — 
 It is the green-eyed monster which doth make 
 The meat it feeds on." 
 
 " But come," he said, changing his tone, " I know not why I should 
 worry you thus — I who have so many follies of my own, when I 
 should rather make excuse for being here at all, and tell you where* 
 fore I came." 
 
 So saying, he reached a seat, and placing another for Lord 
 Glenvarloch, in spite of his anxious haste to anticipate this act of 
 courtesy, he proceeded in the same tone of easy familiarity : — 
 
 " We are neighbours, my lord, and are just made known to each 
 other. Now, I know enough of the dear North, to be well aware 
 that Scottish neighbours must be either dear friends or deadly 
 enemies — must either walk hand-in-hand, or stand sword-point to 
 sword-point; so I choose the hand-in-hand, unless you should 
 reject my proffer." 
 
14 1 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 " How were it possible, my lord," said Lord Glenvarloch, " to 
 refuse what is offered so frankly, even if your father had not been 
 a second father to me ? "—And, as he took Lord Dalgairno's hand, 
 he added—" I have, I think, lost no time, since, during one day's 
 attendance at Court, I have made a kind friend and a powerful 
 enemy." 
 
 " The friend thanks you," replied Lord Dalgarno, "for your just 
 opinion ; but, my dear Glenvarloch— or rather, for titles are too 
 formal between us of the better file — what is your Christian 
 name ? " 
 
 " Nigel," replied Lord Glenvarloch. 
 
 " Then we will be Nigel and Malcolm to each other,'' said his 
 visitor, " and my lord to the plebeian world around us. But I was 
 about to ask you whom you supposed your enemy?" 
 
 "No less than the all-powerful favourite, the great Duke of 
 Buckingham." 
 
 " You dream ! What could possess you with such an opinion ?" 
 said Dalgarno. 
 
 " He told me so himself," replied Glenvarloch ; " and, in so 
 doing, dealt frankly and honourably with me." 
 
 " O, you know him not yet," said his companion ; " the Duke is 
 moulded of an hundred noble and fiery qualities, that prompt him, 
 like a generous horse, to spring aside in impatience at the least 
 obstacle to his forward course. But he means not what he says in 
 such passing heats — I can do more with him, I thank Heaven, than 
 most who are around him ; you shall go visit him with me, and you 
 will see how you shall be received." 
 
 " I told you, my lord," said Glenvarloch firmly, and with some 
 haughtiness, "the Duke of BuckingTiam, without the least offence, 
 declared himself my enemy in the face of the Court ; and he shall 
 retract that aggression as publicly as it was given, ere I will make 
 the slightest itdvance towards him." 
 
 " You would act becomingly in every other case," said Lord Dal- 
 garno, " but here you are wrong. In the court horizon, Bucking- 
 ham is Lord of the Ascendant, and as he is adverse or favouring, 
 so sinks or rises the fortunes of a suitor. The King would bid 
 you remember your Phasdrus, 
 
 Arripiens geminas, ripis cedentibuSj oUas— 
 
 and SO forth. You are the vase of earth ; beware of knocking 
 yourself against the vase of iron." 
 
 " The vase of earth," said Glenvarloch, " will avoid the encounter, 
 by getting ashore out of the current — I mean to go no more to 
 Court." 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 143 
 
 " 0, to Court you necessarily must go ; you will find your Scottish 
 suit move ill without it, for there is both patronage and favour 
 necessary to enforce the sign-manual you have obtained. Of that 
 we will speak rnore hereafter ; but tell me in the meanwhile, my 
 dear Nigel, whether you did not wonder to see me here so 
 early?" 
 
 "I am surprised that you could find me out ii, this obscure 
 corner," said Lord Glenvarloch. 
 
 " My page Lutin is a very devil for that sort of discovery," replied 
 Lord Dalgarno ; " I have but to say, ' Goblin, I would know 
 where he or she dwells,' and he guides me thither as if by art 
 magic." 
 
 " I hope he waits not now in the street, my lord," said Nigel ; 
 " I will send my servant to seek him." 
 
 " Do not concern yourself— he is by this time," said Lord Dal- 
 garno, "playing at hustle-cap and chuck-farthing with the most 
 blackguard imps upon the wharf, unless he hath foregone his old 
 customs." 
 
 " Are you not afraid," said Lord Glenvarloch, " that in such com- 
 pany his morals may become depraved." 
 
 " Let his company look to their own," answered Lord Dalgarno, 
 coolly ; " for it will be a company of real fiends in which Lutin 
 cannot teach more mischief than he can learn : he is, I thank the 
 gods, most thoroughly versed in evil for his years. I am spared the 
 trouble of looking after his moraUties, for nothing can make them 
 either better or worse." 
 
 " I Wonder you can answer this to his parents, my lord," said 
 Nigel. 
 
 " I wonder where I should find his parents," replied his com- 
 panion, " to render an account to them." 
 
 "He maybe an orphan," said Lord Nigel; "but surely, being 
 a page in your lordship's family, his parents must be of rank." 
 
 " Of as high rank as the gallows could exalt them to," replied 
 Lord Dalgarno, with the same indifference ; " they were both 
 hanged, I believe— at least the gipsies, from whom I bought him 
 five years ago, intimated as much to me.— You are surprised at 
 this, now. But is it not better that, instead of a lazy, conceited, 
 whey-faced slip of gentility, to whom, in your old-world idea of the 
 matter, I was bound to stand Sir Pedagogue, and see that he 
 washed his hands and face, said his prayers, learned his accidens, 
 spoke no naughty words, brushed his hat, and wore his best 
 doublet only of Sunday,— that, instead of such a Jackey Goodchild, 
 I should have something like this ? " 
 
 He whistled shrill and clear, and the page he spoke of darted 
 
146 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 into the room, almost with the effect of an actual apparition. From 
 his height he seemed but fifteen, but, from his face, might be two 
 or even three years older, very neatly made, and richly dressed ; 
 with a thin bronzed visage, which marked his gipsy descent, and a 
 pair of sparkling black eyes, which seemed almost to pierce through 
 those whom he looked at. 
 
 " There he is," said Lord Dalgarno, " fit for every element- 
 prompt to execute every command, good, bad, or indifferent- 
 unmatched in his tribe, as rogue, thief, and liar." 
 
 " All which qualities," said the undaunted page, " have each in 
 turn stood your lordship in stead." 
 
 " Out, you imp of Satan ! " said his master ; " vanish— begone— 
 or my conjuring rod goes about your ears." The boy turned, and 
 disappeared as suddenly as he had entered. " You see," said Lord 
 Dalgarno, " that, in choosing my household, the best regard I can 
 pay to gentle blood, is to exclude it from my service — that very 
 gallows-bird were enough to corrupt a whole antechamber of pages, 
 though they were descended from Kings and Kaisers." * 
 
 " I can scarce think that a nobleman should need the offices of 
 such an attendant as your goblin," said Nigel ; "you are but jest- 
 ing with my inexperience.'' 
 
 " Time will show whether I jest or not, my dear Nigel," replied 
 Dalgarno ; " in the meantime, I have to propose to you to take the 
 advantage of the flood-tide, to run up the river for pastime ; and at 
 noon I trust you will dine with me." 
 
 Nigel acquiesced in a plan which promised so much amusement ; 
 and his new friend and he, attended by Lutin and Moniplies, who 
 greatly resembled, when thus associated, the conjunction of a bear 
 and a monkey, took possession of Lord Dalgarno's wherry, which, 
 with its badged watermen, bearing his lordship's crest on their 
 arms, lay in readiness to receive them. The air was delightful 
 upon the river ; and the lively conversation of Lord Dalgarno 
 added zest to the pleasures of the little voyage. He could not only 
 give an account of the various public buildings and noblemen's 
 houses which they passed in ascending the Thames, but knew how 
 to season his information with abundance of anecdote, political 
 innuendo, and personal scandal ; if he had not very much wit, he 
 was at least completely master of the fashionable tone, which in 
 that time, as in ours, more than amply supplies any deficiency of 
 the kind. 
 
 It was a style of conversation entirely new to his companion, as 
 was the world which Lord Dalgarno opened to his observation ; 
 and it is no wonder that Nigel, notvidthstanding his natural good 
 sense and high spirit, admitted, more readily than seemed consis- 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 147 
 
 tent with either, the tone of authoritative instruction wliich his new 
 friend assumed towards him. There would, indeed, have been 
 some difficulty in making a stand. To attempt a high and stubborn 
 tone of morality, in answer to the light strain of Lord Dalgarno's 
 conversation, which kept on the frontiers between jest and earnest, 
 would have seemed pedantic and ridiculous ; and every attempt 
 which Nigel made to combat his companion's propositions, by rea- 
 soning as jocose as his own, only showed his inferiority in that gay 
 species of controversy. And it must be owned, besides, though 
 internally disapproving much of what he heard, Lord Glenvarloch, 
 young as he was in society, became less alarmed by the language 
 and manners of his new associate, than in prudence he ought to 
 have been. 
 
 Lord Dalgarno was unwilling to startle his proselyte, oy insist- 
 ing upon any topic which appeared particularly to jar with his 
 habits or principles ; and he blended his mirth and his earnest so 
 dexterously, that it was impossible for Nigel to discover how far he 
 was serious in his propositions, or how far they flowed from a wild 
 and extravagant spirit of raillery. And, ever and anon, those flashes 
 of spirit and honour crossed his conversation, which seemed to 
 intimate, that, when stirred to action by some adequate motive. 
 Lord Dalgarno would prove something very different from the 
 court-haunting and ease-loving voluptuary, which he was pleased 
 to represent as his chosen character. 
 
 As they returned down the river, Lora Glenvarloch remarked, 
 that the boat passed the mansion of Lord Huntinglen, and noticed 
 the circumstance to Lord Dalgarno, observing, that he thought 
 they were to have dined there. " Surely no," said the young 
 nobleman, " I have more mercy on you than to gorge you a second 
 time with raw beef and canary wine. I propose something better 
 for you, I promise you, than such a second Scythian festivity. 
 And as for my father, he proposes to dine to-day with my grave, 
 ancient Earl of Northampton, whilome that celebrated putter-down 
 of pretended prophesies. Lord Henry Howard."* 
 
 " And do you not go with him ? " said his companion. 
 
 " To what purpose ? " said Lord Dalgarno. " To hear his wise 
 lordship speak musty politics in false Latin, which the old fox 
 always uses, that he may give the learned Majesty of England an 
 opportunity of correcting his sUps in grammar ? That were a rare 
 employment ! " 
 
 " Nay," said Lord Nigel, " but out of respect, to wait on my lord 
 your father." 
 
 " My lord my father," replied Lord Dalgarno, " has blue-bottle 
 enough to wait on him, and can well dispense with such a butterfly 
 
 L 2 
 
148 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 as myself. He can lift the cup of sack to his head without my 
 assistance ; and, should the said paternal head turn something 
 giddy, there be men enough to guide his right honourable lordship 
 to his lordship's right honourable couch. — Now, do not stare at 
 me, Nigel, as if my words were to sink the boat with us. I love 
 my father— I love him dearly — and I respect him, too, though I 
 respect not many things ; a trustier old Trojan never belted a broad- 
 sword by a loop of leather. But what then ? He belongs to the 
 old world, I to the new. He has his follies, I have mine ; and the 
 less either of us sees of the other's peccadilloes, the greater will be 
 the honour and respect — that, I think, is the proper phrase — I say, 
 the respect in which we shall hold each other. Being apart, each 
 of us is himself, such as nature and circumstances have made him ; 
 but, couple us up too closely together, you will be sure to have in 
 your leash either an old hypocrite or a young one, or perhaps both 
 the one and t'other." 
 
 As he spoke thus, the boat put into the landing-place at Black- 
 friars. Lord Dalgarno sprung ashore, and, flinging his cloak and 
 rapier to his page, recommended to his companion to do the like. 
 " We are coming among press of gallants," he said ; " and, if we 
 walk thus mufHed, we shall look like your tawny-visaged Don, 
 who wraps him close in his cloak, to conceal the defects of his 
 doublet." 
 
 " I have Known many an honest man do that, if it please your 
 lordship," said Richie Moniplies, who had been watching for an 
 opportunity to intrude himself on the conversation, and probably 
 remembered what had been his own condition, in respect to cloak 
 and doublet, at a very recent period. 
 
 Lord Dalgarno stared at him, as if surprised at his assurance ; 
 but immediately answered, " You may have known many things, 
 friend ; but, in the meanwhile, you do not know what principally 
 concerns your master, namely, how to carry his cloak, so as to 
 show to advantage the gold-laced seams, and the lining, of sables. 
 See how Lutin holds the sword, with the cloak cast partly over it, 
 yet so as to set off the embossed hilt, and the silver work of the 
 mounting. — Give your familiar your sword, Nigel," he continued, 
 addressing Lord Glenvarloch, " that he may practise a lesson in an 
 art so necessary." 
 
 " Is it altogether prudent," said Nigel, unclasping his weapon, 
 and giving it to Richie, " to walk entirely unarmed ? " 
 
 " And wherefore not ? " said his companion. " You are thinking 
 now of Auld Reekie, as my father fondly calls your good Scottish 
 capital, where there is such bandying of private feuds and public 
 factions, that a man of any note shall not cross your High Street 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 149 
 
 twice, without endangering his life thrice.* Here, sir, no brawling 
 in the street is permitted. Your bull-headed citizen takes up the 
 case so soon as the sword is drawn, and clubs is the word." 
 
 " And a hard word it is," said Richie, " as my brain-pan kens at 
 this blessed moment." 
 
 " Were I your master, sirrah," said Lord Dalgarno, " I would 
 make your brain-pan, as you call it, boil over, were you to speak s. 
 word in my presence before you were spoken to." 
 
 Richie murmured some indistinct answer, but took the hint, and 
 ranked himself behind his master, along with Lutin, who failed not 
 to expose his new companion to the ridicule of the passers-by, by 
 mimicking, as often as he could do so unobserved by Richie, his 
 stiff and upright stalking gait and discontented physiognomy. 
 
 " And tell me now, my dear Malcolm," said Nigel, " where we 
 are bending our course, and whether we shall dine at an apartment 
 of yours ? " 
 
 " An apartment of mine — yes, surely," answered Lord Dalgarno, 
 "you shall dine at an apartment of mine, and an apartment of 
 yours, and of twenty gallants besides ; and where the board shall 
 present better cheer, better wine, and better attendance, than if our 
 whole united exhibitions went to maintain it. We are going to the 
 most noted ordinary of London." 
 
 "That is, in common language, an inn, or a tavern," said 
 Nigel. 
 
 "An inn, or a tavern, my most green and simple friend ! " ex- 
 claimed Lord Dalgarno. " No, no— these are places where greasy 
 citizens take pipe and pot, where the knavish pettifoggers of the 
 law spunge on their most unhappy victims — where Templars crack 
 jests as empty as their nuts, and where small gentry imbibe such 
 thin potations, that they get dropsies instead of getting drunk. 
 An ordinary is a late invented institution, sacred to Bacchus and 
 Comus, where the choicest noble gallants of the time meet with 
 the first and most ethereal wits of the age, — where the wine is the 
 i^ery soul of the choicest grape, refined as the genius of the poet, 
 md ancient and generous as the blood of the nobles. And then 
 [he fare is something beyond your ordinary gross terrestrial food ! 
 Sea and land are ransacked to supply it ; and the invention of six 
 ingenious cooks kept eternally upon the rack to make their art hold 
 pace with, and if possible enchance, the exquisite quahty of the 
 materials." 
 
 " By all which rhapsody," said Lord Glenvarloch, " I can only 
 understand, as I did before, that we are going to a choice tavern, 
 where we shall be handsomely entertained, on paying probably as 
 handsome a reckoning." 
 
ISO THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 " Reckoning ! '' exclaimed Lord Dalgarno in the same tone as 
 before, " perish the peasantly phrase ! What profanation ! Monsieur 
 le Chevaher de Beaujeu, pink of Paris and flower of Gascony— he 
 who can tell the age of his wine by the bare smell, who distils his 
 sauces in an alembic by the aid of LuUy's philosophy,— who carves 
 with such exquisite precision, that he gives to noble knight and 
 squire the portion of the pheasant which exactly accords with his 
 rank — nay, he who shall divide a becafico into twelve parts with 
 such scrupulous exactness, that of twelve guests not one shall have 
 the advantage of the other in a hair's breadth, or the twentieth part 
 of a drachm, yet you talk of him and of a reckoning in the same 
 breath ! Why, man, he is the well-known and general referee in 
 all matters affecting the mysteries of Passage, Hazard, In and In, 
 Penneeck, and Verquire, and whatnot— why, Beaujeu is King of the 
 Card-pack, and Duke of the Dice-box — he call a reckoning like a 
 green-aproned, red-nosed son of the vulgar spigot ! O, my dearest 
 Nigel, what a word you have spoken, and of what a person ! That 
 you know him not, is your only apology for such blasphemy ; and 
 yet I scarce hold it adequate, for to have been a day in London 
 and not to know Beaujeu, is a crime of its own kind. But you 
 shall know him this blessed moment, and shall learn to hold 
 yourself in horror for the enormities you have uttered." 
 
 " Well, but mark you," said Nigel, " this worthy chevalier keeps 
 not all this good cheer at his own cost, does he ? " 
 
 " No, no," answered Lord Dalgarno ; " there is a sort of cere- 
 mony which my chevalier's friends and intimates understand, but 
 with- which you have no business at present. There is, as majesty 
 might say, a symbolum to be disbursed — in other words, a mutual 
 exchange of courtesies takes place betwixt Beaujeu and his guests. 
 He makes them a free present of the dinner and wine, as often as 
 they choose to consult their own felicity by frequenting his house 
 at the hour of noon, and they, in gratitude, make the chevalier a 
 present of a Jacobus. Then you must know, that, besides Comus 
 and Bacchus, that princess of sublunary affairs, the Diva Fortuna, 
 is frequently worshipped at Beaujeu's, and he, as officiating high- 
 riest, hath, as in reason he should, a considerable advantage from 
 a share of the sacrifice." 
 
 " In other words," said Lord Glenvarloch, " this man keeps a 
 gaming-house." 
 
 " A house in which you may certainly game," said Lord Dal- 
 garno, " as you may in your own chamber, if you have a mind ; 
 nay, I remember old Tom Tally played a hand at put for a wager 
 with Quinze le Va, the Frenchman, during morning prayers in 
 Saint Paul's ; the morning was misty, and the parson drowsy, and 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL 151 
 
 the whole audience consisted of themselves and a blind woman, 
 and so they escaped detection." 
 
 " For all this, Malcolm," said the young lord, gravely, " I can- 
 not dine with you to-day, at this same ordinary." 
 
 " And wherefore, in the name of Heaven, should you draw back 
 from your word ? " said Lord Dalgarno. 
 
 " I do not retract my word, Malcolm ; but I am bound, by an 
 early promise to my father, never to enter the doors of a gaming- 
 house." 
 
 " I tell you this is none," said Lord Dalgarno ; " it is but, in 
 plain terms, an eating-house, arranged on civiller terms, and 
 frequented by better company, than others in this town ; and if 
 some of them do amuse themselves with cards and hazard, they 
 are men of honour, and who play as such, and for no more than 
 they can well afford to lose. It was not, and could not be, such 
 houses that your father desired you to avoid. Besides, he might 
 as well have made you swear you would never take the accommo- 
 dation of an inn, tavern, eating-house, or place of public reception 
 of any kind ; for there is no such place of public resort but where 
 your eyes may be contaminated by the sight of a pack of pieces of 
 painted pasteboard, and your ears profaned by the rattle of those 
 little spotted cubes of ivory. The difference is, that where we go, 
 we may happen to see persons of quality amusing themselves with 
 a game ; and in the ordinary houses you will meet bullies and 
 sharpers, who will strive either to cheat or to swagger you out of 
 your money." 
 
 " I am sure you would not willingly lead me to do wh is 
 wrong," said Nigel ; " but my father had a horror of games 
 of chance, religious 1 believe, as well as prudential. He judged 
 from I know not what circumstance, a fallacious one I should 
 hope, that I had a propensity to such courses, and I have told you 
 the promise which he exacted from me," 
 
 " Now, by my honour," said Dalgarno, " what you have said 
 affords the strongest reason for my insisting that you go with 
 me. A man who would shun any danger, should first become 
 acquainted with its real bearing and extent, and that in the 
 company of a confidential guide and guard. Do you think I 
 myself game ? Good faith, my father's oaks grow too far from 
 London, and stand too fast rooted in the rocks of Perthshire, for 
 me to troll them down with a die, though I have seen whole forests 
 go down like nine-pins. No, no^these are sports for the wealthy 
 Southron, not for the poor Scottish noble. The place is an eating- 
 house, and as such you and I will use it. If others use it to 
 game in, it is their fault, but neither that of the house nor ours." 
 
IS3 THE' FORTUNES OF NIGEI.. 
 
 Unsatisfied with this reasoning, Nigel still insisted upon the 
 promise he had giveE to his father, until his companion appeared 
 rather displeased, and disposed to impute to him injurious and un- 
 handsome suspicions. Lord Glenvarloch could not stand this 
 change of tone : He recollected that much was due from him to 
 Lord Dalgarno, on account of his father's ready and efficient 
 friendship, and something also on account of the frank manner in 
 which the young man himself had oifered him his intimacy. He 
 had no reason to doubt his assurances, that the house where they 
 were about to dine did not fall under the description of places to 
 which his father's prohibition referred ; and finally, he was strong 
 in his own resolution to resist every temptation to join in games 
 of chance. He therefore pacified Lord Dalgarno, by intimating 
 his wilhngness to go along with him, and, the good humour of the 
 young courtier instantaneously returning, he again ran on in a 
 grotesque and rodomontade account of the host, Monsieur de 
 Beaujeu, which he did not conclude until they had reached the 
 temple of Hospitality over which that eminent professor pre- 
 sided. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 ■ This is the very barn-yard, 
 
 Where muster daily the prime cocks o' the game, 
 Ruffle their pinions, crow till they are hoarse. 
 And spar about a barleycorn. Here too chickens. 
 The callow, unfledged brood of forward folly. 
 Learn first to rear the crest, and aim the spur, 
 And tune their note like full-plumed Chanticleer. 
 
 The Sear-Garden. 
 
 The Ordinary, now an ignobie sound, was, in the days of James, 
 a new institution, as fashionable among the youth of that age as the 
 first-rate modern club-houses are amongst those of the present day. 
 It differed chiefly, in being open to all whom good clothes and good 
 assurance combined to introduce there. The company usually 
 dined together at an hour fixed, and the manager of the establish- 
 ment presided as master of the ceremonies. 
 
 Monsieur Le Chevalier, (as he-qualified himself,) Saint Priest de 
 Beaujeu, was a sharp, thin Gascon, about sixty years old, banished 
 from his own country, as he said, on account of an affair of honour, 
 in which he had the misfortune to kill his antagonist, though the 
 best swordsman in the south of France. His pretensions to quality 
 were supported by a feathered hat, a long rapier, and a suit of em- 
 
THE FORTUNES OF KiGEL, 153 
 
 broidered taffeta, not much the worse for wear, in the extreme 
 fashion of the Parisian court, and fluttering like a Maypole with 
 many knots of ribbon, of which it was computed he bore at least 
 five hundred yards about his person. But, notwithstanding this 
 profusion of decoration, there were many who thought Monsieur le 
 Chevalier so admirably calculated for his present situation, that 
 nature could never have meant to place him an inch above it. It 
 was, however, part of the amusemeiit of the place, for Lord Dal- 
 garno and other young men of quality to treat Monsieur de Beaujeu 
 with a great deal of mock ceremony, which being observed by the 
 herd of more ordinary and simple gulls, they paid him, in clumsy 
 imitation, much real deference. The Gascon's natural forwardness 
 being much enhanced by these circumstances, he was often guilty 
 of presuming beyond the limits of his situation, and of course had 
 sometimes the mortification to be disagreeably driven back into 
 them. 
 
 When Nigel entered the mansion of this eminent person, which 
 had been but of late the residence of a great Baron of Queen 
 Elizabeth's court, who had retired to his manors in the country on 
 the death of that princess, he was surprised at the extent of the 
 accommodation which it afforded, and the number of guests who 
 werl already assembled. Feathers waved, spurs jingled, lace and 
 embroidery glanced everywhere ; and, at first sight at least, it 
 cartainly made good Lord Dalgarno's encomium, who represented 
 the company as composed almost entirely of youth of the first 
 quality. A more close review was not quite so favourable. Several 
 individuals might be discovered who were not exactly at their ease 
 in the splendid dresses which they wore, and who, therefore, might 
 be supposed not habitually familiar with such finery. Again, there 
 were others, whose dress, though on a general view it did not seem 
 inferior to that of the rest of the company, displayed, on being 
 observed more closely, some of those petty expedients, by which 
 vanity endeavours to disguise poverty. 
 
 Nigel had very little time to make such observations, for the 
 entrance of Lord Dalgarno created an immediate bustle and sensa- 
 tion among the company, as his name passed from one mouth to 
 another. Some stood forward to gaze, others stood back to make 
 way —those of his own rank hastened to welcome him — those of 
 inferior degree endeavoured to catch some point of his gesture, or 
 of his dress, to be worn and practised unon a future occasion, as 
 the newest and most authentic fashion. 
 
 The Genius Loci, the ChevaUer himself, was not the last to 
 welcome this prime stay and ornament of his establishment. He 
 came shuffling forward with a hundred apish congis and chers milors, 
 
154 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL, 
 
 to express his happiness at seeing Lord Dalgarno again. — " I hope 
 you do bring back the sun with you, milor — You did carry away 
 the sun and moon from your pauvre Chevalier when you leave him 
 for so long. Pardieu, I beUeVe you take them away in your 
 pockets." 
 
 " That must have been because you left me nothing else in them, 
 Chevalier," answered Lord Dalgarno ; " but Monsieur le Chevalier, 
 I pray you to know my countryman and friend Lord Glenvarloch." 
 
 " Ah, ha ! trhs honor^— Je m'en souviens, — oui. J'ai connu 
 autrefois un Milor Kenfarloque en Ecosse. Yes, I have memory o 
 him — ^le pfere de milor apparemment — we were vera intimate when 
 I was at Oly Root with Monsier de la Motte— I did often play at 
 tennis vit Milor Kenfarloque at L'Abbaie d'Oly Root — ildtoit m6me 
 plus fort que moi — Ah le beaucoup de revers qu'il avoit !— I have 
 memory, too, that he was among the pretty girls— ah, un vrai diable 
 ddchaind— Aha ! I have memory" 
 
 " Better have no more memory of the late Lord Glenvarloch," 
 said Lord Dalgarno, interrupting the Chevalier without ceremony j 
 who perceived that the encomium which he was about to pass on 
 the deceased was likely to be as disagreeable to the son, as it was 
 totally undeserved by the father, who, far from being either a 
 gamester or libertine, as the Chevalier's reminiscences falsely re- 
 presented him, was, on the contrary, strict and severe in his course 
 of life, almost to the extent of rigour. 
 
 "You have the reason, milor," answerea the Chevalier, "you 
 have the right — Qu'est ce que nous avons h faire avec le terns 
 passd ? — the time 'passed did belong to our fathers — our anc^tres — 
 very well — ^the time present is to us — they have their pretty tombs, 
 with their memories and armorials, all in brass and marbre — we 
 have the petits plats exquis, and the soupe-a-Chevalier, which I 
 will cause to mount up immediately." 
 
 So saying, he made a pirouette on his heel, and put his attendants 
 in motion to place dinner on the table. Dalgarno laughed, and, 
 observing his young friend looked grave, said to hira, in a tone of 
 reproach—" Why, what *— you are not gull enough to be angry 
 with such an ass as that ? " 
 
 "I keep my anger, 1 trust, for better purposes," said Lord 
 Glenvarloch ; " but I confess I was moved to hear such a fellow 
 mention my father's name— and you, too, who told me this was no 
 gaming-house, talked to him of having left it with emptied 
 pockets." 
 
 " Pshaw, man ! " said Lord Dalgarno, " I spoke but according to 
 the trick of the time ; besides, a man must set a piece or two 
 sometimes, or he would be held a cuUionly niggard. But here 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL, 153 
 
 comes dinner, and we will see whether you like the Chevalier's good 
 chger better than his conversation." 
 
 Dinner was announced accordingly, and the two friends, being 
 seated in the most honourable station at the board, were cere- 
 moniously attended to by the Chevalier, who did the honours,, of 
 his table to them and to the other guests, and seasoned the whole 
 with his agreeable conversation. The dinner was really excellent, 
 in that piquant style of cookery which the French had already 
 introduced, and which the home-bred young men of England, 
 when they aspired to the rank of connoisseurs and persons of taste, 
 were under the necessity of admiring. The wine was also of the 
 first quality, and circulated in great variety, and no less abundance. 
 The conversation among so many young men was, of course, light, 
 lively, and amusing ; and Nigel, whose mind had been long de- 
 pressed by anxiety and misfortune, naturally found himself at ease, 
 and his spririts raised and animated. 
 
 Some of the company had real wit, and could use it both politely 
 and to advantage ; others were cox-cotnbs, and were laughed at 
 without discovering it ; and, again, others were originals, who 
 seemed to have no objection that the company should be amused 
 with their folly instead of their wit. And almost all the rest who 
 played any prominent part in the conversation, had either the real 
 tone of good society which belonged to the period, or the jargon 
 which often passes current for it. 
 
 In short, the company and conversation was so agreeable, that 
 Nigel's rigour was softened by it, even towards the master of cere- 
 monies, and he listened with patience to various details which the 
 Chevalier de Beaujeu, seeing, as he said, that Milor's taste lay for 
 the " curieux and I'utile," chose to address him in particular, on the 
 subject of cookery. To gratify, at the same time, the taste for an- 
 tiquity, which he somehow supposed that his new guest possessed, 
 he launched out in commendation of the great artists of former days, 
 particularly one whom he had known in his youth, " Maitre de Cuisine 
 to the Mardchal Strozzi — trhs bon gentilhomme pourtant ; " who had 
 maintained his master's table with twelve covers every day during 
 the long and severe blockade of le petit Leyth, although he had 
 nothing better to place on it than the quarter of a carrion-horse 
 now and then, and the grass and weeds that grew on the ramparts. 
 " Despardieux c'dtoit un homme superbe ! With on tistle-head, 
 and a nettle or two, he could make a soupe for twenty guests — an 
 haunch of a little puppy-dog made a roti des plus excellens ; but his 
 coup de maitre was when the rendition — what you call the surrender, 
 took place and appened ; and then, dieu me damme, he made out 
 of the hind-quarter of one salted horse, forty-five converts ; that the 
 
iS5 THE FORTai«IES OF NIGEL. 
 
 English and Scottish officers and nobility, who had the honour to 
 dine with Monseigneur upon the rendition, could not tell what the 
 devil any one of them were made upon at all."* 
 
 The good wine had by this time gone so merrily round, and had 
 such genial effect on the guests, that those of the lower end of the 
 table, who had hitherto been listeners, began, not greatly to their 
 own credit, or that of the ordinary, to make innovations. 
 
 "You speak of the siege of Leith," said a tall, raw-boned man, 
 with thick mustaches turned up with a military twist, a broad buff 
 belt, a long rapier, and other outward symbols of the honoured pro- 
 fession, which lives by killing; other people, — " you talk of the •siege 
 of Leith, and I have seen the place— a pretty kind of a hamlet it is, 
 with a plain wall, or rampart, and a pigeon-house or so of a tower at 
 every angle. Uds daggers and scabbards, if a leaguer of our days 
 had been twenty-four hours, not io say so many months, before it, 
 without carrying the place and all its cocklofts, one after another, 
 by pure storm, they would have deserved no better grace than the 
 Provost-Marshal gives when his noose is reeved." 
 
 " Saar,'' said the Chevalier, " Monsieur le Capitaine, I vas not at 
 the siege of the petit Leyth, and I know not what you say about 
 the cockloft ; but I will say for Monseigneur de Strozzi, that he 
 understood the grande guerre, and was grand capitaine— plus 
 grand — that is more great, it may be, than some of the capitaines 
 of Angleterre, who do speak very loud — tenez. Monsieur, car c'est 
 
 a vous 
 
 I" 
 
 " O Monsieur," answered the swordsman, " we know the French- 
 man will fight well behind his barrier of stone, or when he is armed 
 with back, breast, and pot." 
 
 " Pot ! " exclaimed the Chevalier, " what do you mean by pot- 
 do you mean to insult me among my noble guests ? Saar, I have 
 done my duty as a pauvre gentilhomme under the Grand Henri 
 Quatre, both at Courtrai and Yvry, and, ventre saint gris ! we had 
 neither pot nor marmite, but did always charge in our shirt." 
 
 "Which refutes another base scandal," said Lord Dalgarno, 
 laughing, "alleging that linen was scarce among the French 
 gentlemen-at-arm s." 
 
 " Gentlemen out at arms and elbows both, you mean, my lord," 
 said the Captain, from the bottom of the table. " Craving your 
 lordship's pardon, I do know something of these same gens- 
 d'armes." 
 
 " We will* spare your knowledge at present, captain, and save 
 your modesty at the same time the trouble of telling us how that 
 knowledge was acquired," answered Lord Dalgarno, rather con- 
 temptuously. 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 157 
 
 " I need not speak of it, my lord," said the man of war ; " the world 
 knows it — all, perhaps, but the men of mohair— the poor sneaking 
 citizens of London, who would see a man of valour eat his very hilts 
 for hunger, ere they would draw a farthing from their long purses 
 to relieve them. O, if a band of the honest fellows I have seen 
 were once to come near that cuckoo's nest of theirs ! " 
 
 " A cuckoo's nest ! — and that said of the city of London ! " said a 
 gallant who sat on the opposite side of the table, and who, wearing 
 a splendid and fashionable dress, seemed yet scarce ar'home in it — 
 " I will not brook to hear that repeated." * 
 
 " What ! " said the soldier, bending a most terrific frown from a 
 pair of broad black eyebrows, handling the hilt of his weapon with 
 one hand, and twirling with the other his huge mustaches ; " will 
 you quarrel for your city ? " 
 
 " Ay, marry, will I," replied the other. " I am a citizen, I care 
 not who knows it ; and he who shall speak a word in dispraise of 
 the city, is an ass and a peremptory gull, and I will break his pate, 
 to teach him sense and manners." 
 
 The company, who probably had their reasons for not valuing the 
 captain's courage at the high rate which he himself put upon it, 
 were much entertained at the manner in which the quarrel was 
 taken up by the indignant citizen ; and they exclaimed on all sides, 
 "Well rung. Bow-bell !" — " Well crowed, the cock of Saint 
 Paul's ! "— " Sound a charge there, or the soldier will mistake his 
 signals, and retreat when he should advance." 
 
 " You mistake me, gentlemen," said the captain, looking round 
 with an air of dignity. " I will but enquire whether this cavaliero 
 citizen is of rank and degree fitted to measure swords with a man 
 of action ; (for, conceive me, gentlemen, it is not with every one 
 that I can match myself without loss of reputation ;) and in that 
 case he shall soon hear from me honourably, by way of cartel." 
 
 " You shall feel me most dishonourably in the way of cudgel," 
 said the citizen, starting up, and taking his sword, which he had 
 laid in a corner. " Follow me." 
 
 " It is my right to name the place of combat, by all the rules of 
 the sword," said the captain; "and I do nominate the Maze, in 
 Tothill-Fields, for place— two gentlemen, who shall be indifferent 
 judges, for witnesses ;— and for time— let me say this day fortnight, 
 at daybreak." 
 
 "And I," said the citizen, " do nominate the bowling-alley behind 
 the house for place, the present good company for witnesses, and 
 for time the present moment," 
 
 So saying, he cast on his beaver, struck the soldier across the 
 shoulders with his sheathed sword, and ran down stairs. The 
 
158 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 captain showed no instant alacrity to follow him ; yet, at last, 
 roused by the laugh and sneer around him, he assured the com- 
 pany, that what he did, he would do deliberately, and, assuming 
 his hat, which he put on with the air of Ancient Pistol, he descended 
 the stairs to the place of combat, where his more prompt adversary 
 was already stationed, with his sword unsheathed. Of the company, 
 all of whom seemed highly delighted with the approaching fray, 
 some ran to the windows which overlooked the bowling-alley, and 
 others followed the combatants down stairs. Nigel could not 
 help asking Dalgarno whether he would not interfere to prevent 
 mischief. 
 
 " It would be a crime against the public interest," answered his 
 friend; "there can no mischief happen between two such originals, 
 which will not be a positive benefit to society, and particular to the 
 Chevalier's estabhshment, as he calls it. I have been as sick of 
 that captain's "buff belt, and red doublet, for this month past, as 
 e'er I was of aught ; and now I hope this bold linendraper will 
 cudgel the ass out of that filthy lion's hide. See, Nigel, see the 
 gallant citizen has ta'en his ground about a bowl's-cast forward, in 
 the midst of the alley — the very model of a hog in armour. Behold . 
 how he prances with his manly foot, and brandishes his blade, 
 much as if he were about to measure forth cambric with it.— See, 
 they bring on the reluctant soldado, and plant him opposite to his 
 fiery antagonist, twelve paces still dividing them — Lo, the captain 
 draws his tool, but, like a good general, looks over his shoulder to 
 secure his retreat, in case the worst come on't. — Behold the valiant 
 shopkeeper stoops his head, confident, doubtless, in the civic 
 helmet with which his spouse has fortified his skull — Why, this is 
 the rarest of sport. By Heaven, he will run a tilt at him like 
 a ram." 
 
 It was even as Lord Dalgarno had anticipated ; for the citizen, 
 who seemed quite serious in his zeal for combat, perceiving that the 
 man of war did not advance towards him, rushed onwards with as 
 much good fortune as courage, beat down the captain's guard, and, 
 pressing on, thrust, as it seemed, his sword clear through the body 
 of his antagonist, who, with a deep groan, measured his length on 
 the ground. A score of voices cried to the conqueror, as he stood 
 fixed in astonishment at his own feat, " Away, away with you !— 
 fly, fly— fly by the back door !— get into the Whitefriars, or cross 
 the water to the Bankside,} while we keep off the mob and the 
 constables.". And the conqueror, leaving his vanquished foeman on 
 the ground, fled accordingly, with all speed. 
 
 "By Heaven," said Lord Dalgarno, "I coula never have 
 believed that the fellow would have stood to receive a thrust— 
 

 v^ 
 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 159 
 
 he lias certainly been arrested by positive terror, and lost the 
 use of his limbs. See, they are raising him." 
 
 Stiff and stark seemed the corpse of the swordsman, as one or 
 two of the guests raised him from the ground ; but, when they 
 began to open his waistcoat to search for the wound which no- 
 where existed, the man of war collected his scattered spirits, and, 
 conscious that the ordinary was no longer a stage on which to 
 display his valour, took to his heels as fast as he could run, pursued 
 by the laughter and shouts of the company. 
 
 "By my honour," said Lord Dalgarno, "he takes the same 
 course with his conqueror. I trust in Heaven he will overtake him, 
 and then the valiant citizen will suppose himself haunted by the 
 ghost of him he has slain." 
 
 " Despardieux, milor," said the Chevaher, " if he had stayed one 
 moment, he should have had a torchon — what you call a dishclout, 
 pinned to him for a piece of shroud, to show he be de ghost of 
 one grand fanfaron." 
 
 " In the meanwhile," said Lord Dalgarno, " you will oblige us. 
 Monsieur le Chevalier, as well as maintain your own honoured 
 reputation, by letting your drawers receive the man-at-arms with a 
 cudgel, in case he should venture to come this way again." 
 
 "Ventre saint gris, milor," said the Chevalier, "leave that to 
 me. — Begar, the maid shall throw the wash-sud upon the grand 
 poltroon ! " 
 
 When they had laughed sufficiently at this ludicrous occurrence, 
 the party began to divide themselves into little knots — some took 
 possession of the alley, late the scene of combat, and put the 
 field to its proper use of a bowling-ground, and it soon resounded 
 with all the terms of the game, as " run, run — rub, rub — hold bias, 
 you infernal trundling timber ! " thus making good the saying, that 
 three things are thrown away in a bowlipg-green, namely, time, 
 money, and oaths. 
 
 In the house, many of the gentlemen betook themselves to cards 
 or dice, and parties were formed at Ombre, at Basset, at Gleek, at 
 Primero, and other games then in fashion ; while the dice were 
 used at various games, both with and without the tables, as Hazard, 
 In-and-in, Passage, and so forth. The play, however, did not 
 appear to be extravagantly deep ; it was certainly conducted with 
 great decorum and fairness ; nor did there appear any thing to 
 lead the younger Scotchman in the least to doubt his companion's 
 assurance, that the place was frequented by men of rank and 
 quality, and that the recreations they adopted were conducted upon 
 honourable principles. 
 
 Lord Dalgarno neither had proposed play to his friend, nor 
 
i6o THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 joined in the amusement himself, but sauntered from one table to 
 another, remarking the luck of the different players, as well as their 
 capacity to avail themselves of it, and exchanging conversation 
 with the highest and most respectable of the guests. At length, 
 as if tired of what in modern phrase would have been termed 
 lounging, he suddenly remembered that Burbage was to act Shak- 
 speare's King Richard, at the Fortune, that afternoon, and that he 
 could not give a stranger in London, like Lord Glenvarloch, a 
 higher entertainment than to carry him to that exhibition ; " unless, 
 indeed," he added, in a whisper, " there is a paternal interdiction 
 of the theatre as well as of the ordinary." 
 
 " I never heard my father speak of stage-plays," said Lord Glen- 
 varloch, " for they are shows of a modern date, and unknown in 
 Scotland. Yet, if what I have heard to theit prejudice be true, I 
 doubt much whether he would have approved of them." 
 
 " Approved of them ! " exclaimed Lord Dalgarno— " why, George 
 Buchanan wrote tragedies, and his pupil, learned and wise as him- 
 self, goes to see them, so it is next door to treason to abstain ; and 
 the cleverest men in England write for the stage, and the prettiest 
 women in London resort to the playhouses, and I have a brace of 
 nags at the door which will carry us along the streets like wildfire, 
 and the ride will digest our venison and ortolans, and dissipate the 
 fumes ot the wine, and so let's to 'horse — Godd'en to you, gentle- 
 men— Godd'en, Chevalier de la Fortune.'' 
 
 Lord Dalgarno's grooms were in attendance with two horses, 
 and the young men mounted, the proprietor upon a favourite barb, 
 and Nigel upon a high-dressed jennet, scarce less beautiful. As 
 they rode towards the theatre, Lord Dalgarno endeavoured to 
 discover his friend's opinion of the company to which he had 
 introduced him, and to combat the exceptions which he might 
 suppose him to have taken. " And wherefore lookest thou sad," 
 he said, " my pensive neophyte ? Sage son of the Alma Mater of 
 Low-Dutch learning, what aileth thee ? Is the leaf of the living 
 world which we have turned over in company, less fairly written 
 than thou hadst been taught to expect ? Be comforted, and pass 
 over one little blot or two ; thou wilt be doomed to read through 
 many a page, as black as Infamy, with her sooty pinion, can make 
 them. Remember, most immaculate Nigel, that we are in London, 
 not Leyden— that we are studying life, not lore. Stand buff against 
 the reproach of thine over-tender conscience, man, and when thou 
 summest up, like a good arithmetician, the actions of the day, 
 before you balance the account upon your pillow, tell the accusing 
 spirit, to his brimstone beard, that if thine ears have heard the 
 clatter of the devil's bones, thy hand hath not trowled them— that 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. i6i 
 
 if thine eye hath seen the brawHng of two angry boys, thy blade 
 hath not been, bared in their fray." 
 
 " Now, all this may be wise and witty,", replied Nigel ; " yet I 
 own I cannot think but that your lordship, and other men of good 
 quality with whom we dined, might have chosen a place of 
 meeting free .from the intrusion of bullies, and a better master of 
 your ceremonial than yonder foreign adventurer." 
 
 " All shall be amended, Sancte Nigelle, when thou shalt come 
 forth a new Peter the Hermit, to preach a crusade against dicing, 
 drabbing, and company-keeping. We will meet for dinner in Saint 
 Sepulchre's Church ; v^e will dine in the chancel, drink our flask 
 in the vestry, the parson shall draw every cork, and the clerk say 
 amen to every health. Come, man, cheer up, and get rid of this 
 sour and unsocial humour. Credit me, that the Puritans who 
 object to us the follies and the frailties incident to human nature, 
 have themselves the vices of absolute devils, privy malice and 
 backbiting hypocrisy, and spiritual pride in all its presumption. 
 There is much, too, in life which we must see, were it only to learn 
 to shun it. Will Shakspeare, who lives after death, and who is 
 presently to afford thee such pleasure as none but himself can 
 confer, has described the gallant Falconbridge as calling that 
 
 -' a bastard to the time. 
 
 That doth not smack of observation ; 
 Which, though I will not practise to deceive. 
 Yet, to avoid deceit, I mean to learn.' 
 
 But here we are at the door of the Fortune, where we shall have 
 matchless Will speaking for himself. — Goblin, and you other lout, 
 leave the horses to the grooms, and make way for us through 
 the press." 
 
 They dismounted, and the assiduous efforts of Lutin, elbowing, 
 bullying, and proclaiming his master's name and title, made way 
 through a crowd of murmuring citizens, and clamorous appren- 
 tices, to the door, where Lord Dalgarno speedily procured a brace 
 of stools upon the stage for his companion and himself, where, 
 seated among other gallants of the same class, they had an oppor- 
 tunity of displaying their fair dresses and fashionable manners, 
 while they criticised the piece during its progress ; thus forming, 
 at the same time, -a conspicuous part of the spectacle, and an 
 important proportion of the audience. 
 
 Nigel Olifaunt was too eagerly and deeply absorbed in the 
 interest of the scene, to be capable of playing his part as became 
 the place where he was seated. He felt all the magic of that 
 
 M 
 
i62 THE, FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 sorcerer, who had displayed, within the paltry circle of a wooden 
 booth, the long wars of York and Lancaster, compelling the 
 heroes of either line to stalk across the scene in language and 
 fashion as they lived, as if the grave had ■ given up the dead for 
 the amusement and instruction of the living. Burbage,* esteemed 
 the best Richard until Garrick arose, played the tyrant and 
 usurper with such truth and liveliness, that when the Battle of 
 Bosworth seemed concluded by his death, the ideas of reality 
 and- deception were strongly contending in Lord Glenvarloch's 
 imagination, and it required him to rouse himself from his 
 reverie, so strange did the proposal at first sound when his 
 companion declared King Richard should sup with them at the 
 Mermaid. 
 
 They were joined, at the same time, by a small party of the 
 gentlemen with whom they had dined, which they recruited by 
 inviting two or three of the most accomplished wits and poets, 
 who seldom failed to attend the Fortune Theatre, and were even 
 but too ready to conclude a day of amusement with a night of 
 pleasure. Thither the whole party adjourned, and betwixt fertile 
 cups of sack, excited spirits, and the emulous wit of their lively 
 companions, seemed to realize the joyous boast of one of Ben 
 Jonson's contemporaries, when reminding the bard of 
 
 " Those lyric feasts. 
 Where men such clusters had, 
 As made them nobly wild, not mad ; 
 
 While yet each verse of thine 
 Outdid the meat, outdid the frolic wine." 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 Let the proud salmon gorge the featheiM hook. 
 Then strike, and then you have him — He will wince ; 
 Spin out your line that it shall whistle from you 
 Some twenty yards or so, yet you shall have him — 
 Marry ! you must have patience — the stout rock 
 Which is his trust, hath edges something sharp ; 
 And the deep pool hath ooze and sludge enough 
 To mar your fishing — 'less you are more careful. 
 
 Albion, or the Double Kings. 
 
 It is seldom that a day of pleasure, upon review, seems alto- 
 gether so exquisite as the partaker of the festivity may have felt it 
 while passing over him. Nigel Olifaunt, at least, did not feel it so, 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 163 
 
 and it required a visit from his new acquaintance, Lord Dalgarno, 
 to reconcile him entirely to himself. But this visit took place early 
 after breakfast, and his friend's discourse was prefaced with a 
 question. How he liked the company of the preceding evening.? 
 
 " Why, excellently well," said Lord Glenvarloch ; " only I should 
 have liked the wit better had it seemed to How more freely. Every 
 man's invention seemed on the stretch, and each extravagant 
 simile seemed to set one half of your men of wit into a brown study 
 to produce something which should out-herod it." 
 
 "And wherefore not.'" said Lord Dalgarno, "or what are these 
 fellows fit for, but to play the intellectual gladiators before us ? He 
 of them who declares himself recreant, should, d— n him, be re- 
 stricted to muddy ale, and the patronage of the waterman's 
 company. I promise you, that many a pretty fellow has been 
 mortally wounded with a quibble or a carwitchet at the Mermaid, 
 and sent from thence, in a pitiable estate, to Wit's hospital in the 
 Vintry, where they languish to this day amongst fools and 
 aldermen." 
 
 " It may be so," said Lord Nigel ; " yet I could swear by my 
 honour, that last night I seemed to be in company with more than 
 one man whose genius and learning ought either to have placed him 
 higher in our company, or to have withdrawn him altogether from 
 a scene, where, sooth to speak, his part seemed unworthily sub- 
 ordinate." 
 
 " Now, out upon your tender conscience,'' said Lord Dalgarno ; 
 " and the fico for such outcasts of Parnassus ! Why, these are the 
 very leavings of that noble banquet of pickled herrings and Rhenish, 
 which lost London so many of her principal wit-mongers and bards 
 of misrule. What would you have said had you seen Nash or Green, 
 when you interest yourself about the poor mimes you supped with 
 last night ? Suffice it, they had their drench and their doze, and 
 they drank and slept as much as may save them from any nece- 
 cessity of eating till evening, when, if they are industrious, they will 
 find patrons or players to feed them.* For the rest of their wants, 
 they can be at no loss for cold water while the New River head 
 holds good ; and your doublets of Parnassus are eternal in 
 duration." 
 
 " Virgil and Horace had more efficient patronage," said Nigel. 
 
 "Ay," replied his countryman, "but these fellows are neither 
 Virgil nor Horace ; besides, we have other spirits of another sort, 
 to whom I will introduce you on some early occasion. Our Swan 
 of Avon hath sung his last ; but we have stout old Ben, with as 
 much learning and genius as ever prompted the treader of sock and 
 buokin, It is not, however, of him I irrean now to speak ; but I 
 
 M 2 
 
1^4 THE FORTUNES OP NIGEL. 
 
 come to pray you, of dear love, to row up with me as far as Richmond, 
 where two or three of the gallants whom you saw yesterday, mean 
 to give music and syllabubs to a set of beauties, with some curious 
 bright eyes among them— such, I promise you, as might win an 
 astrologer from his worship of the galaxy. My sister leads the bevy, 
 to whom I desire to present you. She hath her admirers at Court ; 
 and is regarded, though I might dispense with sounding her praise, 
 as one of the beauties of the time." 
 
 There was no refusing an engagement, where the presence of the 
 party invited, late so low in his own regard, was demanded by a 
 lady of quality, one of the choice beauties of the time. Lord Glen- 
 varloch accepted, as was inevitable, and spent a lively day among 
 the gay and the fair. He was the gallant in attendance, for the day, 
 upon his friend's sister, the beautiful Countess of Blackchester, 
 who aimed at once at superiority in the realms of fashion, of power, 
 and of wit. 
 
 She was, indeed, considerably older than her brother, and had 
 probably completed her six lustres ; but the deficiency in extreme 
 youth was more than atoned for, in the most precise and curious ac- 
 curacy in attire, an early acquaintance with every foreign mode, and 
 a peculiar gift in adapting the knowledge which she acquired, to her 
 own particular features and complexion. At Court, she knew as well 
 as any lady in the circle, the precise tone, moral, political, learned, or 
 jocose, in which it was proper to answer the Monarch, according 
 to his prevailing humour ; and was supposed to have been very 
 active, by iier personal interest, in procuring her husband a high 
 situation, which the gouty old viscount could never have deserved 
 by any merit of his own commonplace conduct and understanding. 
 
 It was far more easy for this lady than for her brother, to reconcile 
 so young a courtier as Lord Glenvarloch to the customs and habits 
 of a sphere so new to him. In all civilized society, the females of 
 distinguished rank and beauty give the tone to manners, and, 
 through these, even to morals. Lady Blackchester, had, besides, 
 interest either in the Court, or over the Court, (for its source could 
 not be well traced,) which created friends, and overawed those who 
 might have been disposed to play the part of enemies. 
 
 At one time, she was understood to be closely leagued with the 
 Buckingham family, with whom her brother still maintained a great 
 intimacy ; and, although some coldness had taken place betwixt the 
 Countess and the Duchess of Buckingharn, so that they were little 
 seen together, and the former seemed considerably to have with- 
 drawn herself into privacy, it was whispered, that Lady Black- 
 chester's interest with the great favourite was not diminished in 
 consequence of her breach with this lady. 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 165 
 
 Our accounts of the private Court intrigues of that period, and 
 of the persons to whom they were intrusted, are not full enough 
 to enable us to pronounce upon the various reports which arose 
 out of the circumstances we have detailed. It is enough to say, 
 that Lady Blackchester possessed great influence on the circle 
 around her, both from her beauty, her abilities, and her reputed 
 talents for Court intrigue ; and that Nigel Olifaunt was not long of 
 experiencing its power, as he became a slave in some degree to that 
 species of habit, which carries so many men into a certain society 
 at a certain hour, without expecting or receiving any particular 
 degree of gratification, or even amusement- 
 
 His life for several weeks may be thus described. The ordinary 
 was no bad introduction to the business of the day ; and the young 
 lord quickly found, that if the society there was not always irre- 
 proachable, stiU it formed the most convenient and agreeable 
 place of meeting with the fashionable parties, with whom he 
 visited Hyde Park, the theatres, and other places of public resort, 
 or joined the gay and glittering circle which Lady Blackchester had 
 assembled around her. Neither did he entertain the same scrupu- 
 lous horror which led him originally even to hesitate entering into 
 a place where gaming was permitted ; but, on the contrary, began 
 to admit the idea, that as there could be no harm in beholding such 
 recreation when only indulged in to a moderate degree, so, from a 
 parity of reasoning, there could be no objection to joining in it, always 
 under the same restrictions. But the young lord was a Scotsman, 
 habituated to early reflection, and totally unaccustomed to any 
 habit which inferred a careless risk or profuse waste of money. 
 Profusion was not his natural vice, or one likely to be acquired in 
 the course of his education ; and, in all probability, while his father 
 anticipated with noble horror the idea of his son approaching the 
 gaming-table, he was more startled at the idea of his becoming a 
 gaining than a losing adventurer. The second, according to his 
 principles, had a termination, a sad one indeed, in the loss of 
 temporal fortune — the first quaUty went on increasing the evil which 
 he dreaded, and perilled at once both body and soul. 
 
 However the old lord might ground his apprehension, it was 
 so far verified by his son's conduct, that, from an observer of 
 the various games of chance which he witnessed, he came, by 
 degrees, by moderate hazards, and small bets or wagers, to take a 
 certain interest in them. Nor could it be denied, that his rank and 
 expectations entitled him to hazard a few pieces (for his game went 
 no deeper) against persons, who, from the readiness with which 
 they staked their money, might be supposed well able to afford to 
 lose it. 
 
166 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEI-. 
 
 It chanced, or, perhaps, according to the common belief, his evil 
 genius had so decreed, that Nigel's adventures were remarkably 
 successful. He was temperate, cautious, cool-headed, had a strong 
 memory, and a ready power of calculation ; was, besides, of a daring 
 and intrepid character, one upon whom no one that had looked even 
 slightly, or spoken to though but hastily, would readily have ventured 
 to practise any thing approaching to trick, or which required to be 
 supported by intimidation. While Lord Glenvarloch chose to play, 
 men played with him regularly, or, according to the phrase, upon 
 the square ; and, as he found his luck change, or wished to hazard 
 his good fortune no farther, the more professed votaries of fortune, 
 who frequented the house of Monsieur le Chevalier de Saint Priest 
 Beaujeu, did not venture openly to express their displeasure at his 
 rising a winner. But when this happened repeatedly, the gamesters 
 murmured amongst themselves equally at the caution and the 
 success of the young Scotsman ; and he became far from being a 
 popular character among their society. 
 
 It was no slight inducement to the continuance of this most evil 
 habit, when it was once in some degree acquired, that it seemed to 
 place Lord Glenvarloch, haughty as he naturally was, beyond the 
 necessity of subjecting himself to farther pecuniary obligations, 
 which his prolonged residence in London must otherwise have 
 rendered necessary. He had to solicit from the ministers certain 
 forms of office, which were to render his sign-manual effectually 
 useful ; and these, though they could not be denied, were delayed 
 in such a manner, as to lead Nigel to believe there was some secret 
 opposition, which occasioned the demur in his business. His own 
 impulse was, to have appeared at Court a second time, with the 
 King's sign-manual in his pocket, and to have appealed to his 
 Majesty himself, whether the delay of the pubUc officers ought to 
 render his royal generosity unavailing. But the Lord Huntinglen, 
 that good old peer, who had so frankly interfered in his behalf on 
 a former occasion, and whom he occasionally visited, greatly dis- 
 suaded him from a similar adventure, and exhorted him quietly to 
 await the deliverance of the ministers, which should set him free 
 from dancing attendance in London. 
 
 Lord Dalgarno joined his father in deterring his young friend 
 from a second attendance at Court, at least till he was reconciled 
 with the Duke of Buckingham — " a matter in which," he said, ad- 
 dressing his father, " I have offered my poor assistance, without 
 being able to prevail on Lord Nigel to make any — not even the least 
 — submission to the Duke of Buckingham." 
 
 " Bymy faith, and I hold the laddie to be in the right on't,Malcolm !'' 
 answered the stout old Scots-lord.—" What right hath Buckingham, 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 167 
 
 or, to speak plainly, the son of Sir George Villiers, to expect homage 
 and fealty from one more noble than himself by eight quarters ? ' I 
 heard him myself, on no reason that I could perceive, term Lord 
 Nigel his enemy ; and it will never be by my counsel that the lad 
 speaks soft word to him, till he recalls the hard one." 
 
 "That is precisely my advice to Lord Glenvarloch," answered 
 Lord Dalgarno ; " but then you will admit, my dear father, that it 
 would be the risk of extremity for our friend to return into the 
 presence, the Duke being his enemy — better to leave it with me to 
 take off the heat of the distemperature, with which some pickthanks 
 have persuaded the Duke to regard our friend." 
 
 " If thou canst persuade Buckingham of his error, Malcolm," said 
 his father, " for once I will say there hath been kindness and 
 honesty in Court service. I have oft told your sister and yourself, 
 that in the general I esteem it as lightly as may be." 
 
 " You need not doubt my doing my best in Nigel's case," an- 
 swered Lord Dalgarno ; " but you must think, my dear father, I 
 must needs use slower and gentler means than those by which you 
 became a favourite twenty years ago." 
 
 " By my faith, I am afraid thou wilt," answered his father. — " I 
 tell thee, Malcolm, I would sooner wish myself in the grave, than 
 doubt thine honesty or honour ; yet somehow it hath chanced, 
 that honest, ready service, hath not the same acceptance at Court 
 which it had in my younger time — and yet you rise there." 
 
 " O, the time permits not your old-world service," said Lord 
 Dalgarno ; " we have now no daily insurrections, no nightly attempts 
 at assassination, as were the fashion in the Scottish Court. Your 
 prompt and uncourteous sword-in-hand attendance on the Sovereign 
 is no longer necessary, and would be as unbeseeming as your old- 
 fashioned serving-men, with their badges, broadswords, and bucklers, 
 would be at a court-masque. Besides, father, loyal haste hath its 
 inconveniences. I have heard, and from loyal lips too, that when 
 you struck your dagger into the traitor Ruthven, it was with such 
 little consideration, that the point ran a quarter of an inch into the 
 royal buttock. The king never talks of it but he rubs the injured part, 
 and quotes his ' infandum - - - - renovare dolorem' But this comes 
 of old fashions, and of wearing a long Liddesdale whinger instead of 
 a poniard of Parma. Yet this, my dear father, you call prompt and 
 vahant service. The King, I am told, could not sit upright for a 
 fortnight, though all the cushions in Falkland were placed in his 
 chair of state, and the Provost of Dunfermline's borrowed to the 
 boot of all." 
 
 " It is a lie," said the old Earl, " a false lie, forge it who list ! — It 
 is true I wore a dagger of service by my side, and not a bodkin like 
 
i68 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 yours, to pick one's teeth withal— and for prompt service— Odds 
 nouns ! it should be prompt to be useful, when kings are crying 
 treason and murder with the screech of a half-throttled hen. But 
 you young courtiers know nought of these matters, and are little 
 isetter than the green geese they bring over from the Indies, whose 
 only merit to their masters is to repeat their own words after them 
 —a pack of mouthers, and flatterers, and ear-wigs. — Well, I am old 
 and unable to mend, else I would break all off, and hear the Tay 
 once more flinging himself over the Campsie Linn." 
 
 " But there is your dinner-bell, father," said Lord Dalgarno, 
 
 which, if the venison I sent you prove seasonable, is at least as 
 sweet a sound." 
 
 " Follow me, then, youngsters, if you list," said the old Earl ; and 
 strode on from the alcove in which this conversation was held, 
 towards the house, followed by the two young men. 
 
 In their private discourse, Lord Dalgarno had little trouble in 
 dissuading Nigel from going immediately to Court ; while, on the 
 other hand, the offers he made him of a previous introduction to 
 the Duke of Buckingham, were received by Lord Glenvarloch with 
 a positive and contemptuous refusal. His friend shrugged his 
 shoulders, as one who claims the merit of having given to an 
 obstinate friend the best counsel, and desires to be held free of the 
 consequences of his pertinacity. 
 
 As for the father, his table indeed, and his best liquor, of which 
 he was more profuse than necessary, were at the command of his 
 young friend, as well as his best advice and assistance in the pro- 
 secution of his affairs. But Lord Huntinglen's interest was more 
 apparent than real ; and the credit he had acquired by his gallant 
 defence of the King's person, was so carelessly managed by himself, 
 and so easily eluded by the favourites and ministers of the Sovereign, 
 that, except upon one or two occasions, when the King was in some 
 measure taken by surprise, as in the case of Lord Glenvarloch, 
 the royal bounty was never efficiently extended, either to himself or 
 to his friends. 
 
 " There never was a man," said Lord Dalgarno, whose shrewder 
 knowledge of the English Court saw where his father's deficiency 
 lay, " that had it so perfectly in his power to have made his way to 
 the pinnacle of fortune as my poor father. He had acquired a 
 right to build up the staircase, step by step, slowly and surely, 
 letting every boon, which he begged year after year, become in its 
 turn the resting-place for the next annual grant. But your fortunes 
 shall not shipwreck upon the same coast, Nigel," he would con- 
 clude. ".If I have fewer means of influence than my father has, or 
 rather had, till he threw them away for butts of sack, hawks, 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 169 
 
 hounds, and such carrion, I can, far better than he, hiiprove that 
 which I possess ; and that, my dear Nigel, is all engaged in your 
 behalf. Donot be surprised or offended that you now see me less 
 than formerly : The stag-hunting is commenced, and the Prince 
 looks that I shall attend him more frequently. I must also main- 
 tain my attendance on the Duke, that I may have an opportunity 
 of pleading your cause when occasion shall permit." 
 
 " I have no cause to plead before the Duke," said Nigel, gravely ; 
 " I have said so repeatedly." 
 
 " Why, I meant the phrase no otherwise, thou churlish and sus- 
 picious disputant," answered Dalgarno, " than as I am now plead- 
 ing the Duke's cause with thee. Surely I only mean to claim 
 a share in our royal master's favourite benediction, BmH 
 pacificiP 
 
 Upon several occasions. Lord Glenvarloch's conversations, both 
 with the old Earl and his son, took a similar turn, and had a like 
 conclusion. He sometimes felt as if, betwixt the one and the 
 other, not to mention the more unseen and unboasted, but scarce 
 less certain influence of Lady Blackchester, his affair, simple as it 
 had become, might have been somehow accelerated. But it was 
 equally impossible to doubt the rough honesty of the father, and 
 the eager and officious friendship of Lord Dalgarno ; nor was it 
 easy to suppose that the countenance of the lady, by whom he was 
 received with such distinction, would be wanting, could it be 
 effectual in his service. 
 
 Nigel was further sensible of the truth of what Lord Dalgarno 
 often pointed out, that the favourite being supposed to be his 
 enemy, every petty officer, through whose hands his affair must 
 necessarily pass, would desire to make a merit of throwing ob- 
 stacles in his way, which he could only surmount by steadiness and 
 patience, unless he preferred closing the breach, or, as Lord 
 Dalgarno called it, making his peace with the Duke of Bucking- 
 ham. 
 
 Nigel might, and doubtless, would, have had recourse to the 
 advice of his friend George Heriot upon this occasion, having 
 found it so advantageous formerly ; but the only time he saw him 
 after their visit to Court, he found the worthy citizen engaged in 
 hasty preparation for a journey to Paris, upon business of great im- 
 portance in the way of his profession, and by an especial com- 
 mission from the Court and the Duke of Buckingham, which was 
 hkely to be attended with considerable profit. The good man 
 smiled as he named the Duke of Buckingham. He had been, he 
 said, pretty sure that his disgrace in that quarter would not be 
 of long duration. 
 
170 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 Lord Glenvarloch expressed himself rejoiced at their reconciha- 
 tion, observing, that it had been a most painful reflection to him, 
 that Master Heriot should, in his behalf, have incurred the dis- 
 like, and perhaps exposed himself to the ill offices, of so powerful 
 a favourite. 
 
 " My Lord," said Heriot, " for your father's son I would do 
 much ; and yet, truly, if I know myself, I would do as much and 
 risk as much, for the sake of justice, in the case of a much more 
 insignificant person, as 1 have ventured for yours. But as we 
 shall not meet for some time, I must commit to your own wisdom 
 the farther prosecution of this matter." 
 
 And thus they took a kind and affectionate leave of each other. 
 
 There were other changes in Lord Glenvarloch's situation, 
 which require to be noticed. His present occupations, and the 
 habits of amusement which he had acquired, rendered his living 
 so far in the city a considerable inconvenience. He may also 
 have become a little ashamed of his cabin on Paul's Wharf, and 
 desirous of being lodged somewhat more according to his quality. 
 For this purpose, he had hired a small apartment near tHe 
 Temple. He was, nevertheless, almost sorry for what he had 
 done, when he observed that his removal appeared to give some 
 pain to John Christie, and a great deal to his cordial and officious 
 landlady. The former, who was grave and saturnine in every 
 thing he did, only hoped that all had been to Lord Glenvarloch's 
 mind, and that he had not left them on account of any unbeseem- 
 ing negligence on their part. But the tear twinkled in Dame 
 Nelly's eye, while she recounted the various improvements she 
 had made in the apartment, of express purpose to render it more 
 convenient to his lordship. 
 
 " There was a great sea-che^t," she said, " had been taken up 
 stairs to the shopman's garret, though it left the poor lad scarce 
 eighteen inches of opening to creep betwixt it and his bed ; and 
 Heaven knew — she did not — ^whether it could ever be brought 
 down that narrow stair again. Then the turning the closet into 
 an alcove, had cost a matter of twenty round shillings ; and to 
 be sure, to any other lodger but his lordship, the'closet was more 
 convenient. There was all the linen, too, which she had bought 
 on purpose — But Heaven's will be done — she was resigned." 
 
 Every body likes marks of personal attachment ; and Nigel, 
 whose heart really smote him, as if in his rising fortunes he 
 were disdaining the lowly accommodations and the civilities of 
 the humble friends which had been but lately actual favours, 
 failed not by every assurance in his power, and Ijy as liberal pay- 
 ment as they could be prevailed upon to accept, to alleviate the 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 171 
 
 soreness of their feelings at his departure ; and a parting kiss from 
 the fair lips of his hostess sealed his forgiveness. 
 
 Richie Moniplies lingered behind his master, to ask whether, in 
 case of need, John Christie could help a canny Scotsman to a 
 passage back to his own country ; and receiving assurance of 
 John's interest to that effect, he said at parting, he would remind 
 him of his promise soon. — " For," said he, " if my lord is not 
 weary of this London life, I ken one that is, videlicet, mysell ; and 
 I am weel determined to see Arthur's Seat again ere I am many 
 weeks older." 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 Bingo, why. Bingo ! hey, boy — here, sir, here — 
 He's gone and off, but he'll be home before us ; — 
 'Tis the most wayward cur e'er mumbled bone. 
 Or dogg'd a master's footstep. — Bingo loves me 
 Better than ever beggar loved his alms ; 
 Yet, when he takes such humour, you may coax 
 Sweet Mistress Fantasy, your worship's mistress, 
 Out of her sullen moods, as soon as Bingo. 
 
 The Dominie and his Dog. 
 
 Richie Moniplies was as good as his word. Two or three 
 mornings after the young lord had possessed himself of his new 
 lodgings, he appeared before Nigel, as he was preparing to dress, 
 having left his pillow at an hour much later than had formerly been 
 his custom. 
 
 As Nigel looked upon his attendant, he observed there was a 
 gathering gloom upon his solemn features, which expressed either 
 additional importance, or superadded discontent, or a portion of 
 both. 
 
 " How now," he said, " what is the matter this morning, Richie, 
 that you have made your face so like the grotesque mask on one 
 of the spouts yonder?" pointing to the Temple Church, of which 
 Gothic building they had a view from the window. 
 
 Richie swivelled his head a little to the right with as little 
 alacrity as if he had the crick in his neck, and instantly resum- 
 ing his posture, replied—" Mask here, mask there— it were nae 
 such matters that I have to speak anent." 
 
 " And what matters have you to speak anent, then ? " said his 
 master, whom circumstances had inured to tolerate a good deal of 
 freedom from his attendant. 
 
172 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 " My lord,"— said RicKie, and then stopped to cough and hem, 
 as if what he had to say stuck somewhat in his throat. 
 
 " I guess the mystery," said Nigel, " you want a little money, 
 Richie : will five pieces serve the present turn ? " 
 
 " My lord," said Richie, " I may, it is like, want a trifle of money ; 
 and I am glad at the same time, and sorry, that it is mair plenty 
 with your lordship than formerly." 
 
 " Glad and sorry, man ! " said Lord Nigel, " why, you are read- 
 ing riddles to me, Richie." 
 
 " My riddle will be briefly read," said Richie ; " I come to crave 
 of your lordship your commands for Scotland." 
 
 " For Scotland ! — why, art thou mad, man ? " said Nigel ; " canst 
 thou not tarry to go down with me ? " 
 
 " I could be of little service," said Richie, " since you purpose to 
 hire another page and groom." 
 
 " Why, thou jealous ass," said the young lord, " will not thy load 
 of duty lie the lighter ? — Go, take thy breakfast, and drink thy ale 
 double strong, to put such absurdities out of thy head — I could be 
 angry with thee for thy folly, man — but I remember how thou hast 
 stuck to me in adversity." 
 
 " Adversity, my lord, should never have parted us," said Richie ; 
 " methinks, had the warst come to warst, I could have starved as 
 gallantly as your lordship, or more so, being in some sort used to 
 it ; for, although I was bred at a flesher's stall, I have not through 
 my life had a constant intimacy with coUops." 
 
 " Now, what is the meaning of all this trash .■■ " said Nigel j " or 
 has it no other end than to provoke my patience .'' You know well 
 enough, that, had I twenty serving-men, I would hold the faithful 
 follower that stood by me in my distress the most valued of them 
 all. But it is totally out of reason to plague me with "our solemn 
 capriccios." 
 
 " My lord," said Richie, " in declaring your trust in me, you have 
 done what is honourable to yourself, if I may with humility say so 
 much, and in no way undeserved on my side. Nevertheless, we 
 must part." 
 
 " Body of me, man, why?" said Lord Nigel j " what reason can 
 there be for it, if we are mutually satisfied ? " 
 
 " My lord," said Richie Moniplies, " your lordship's occupations 
 are such as I cannot own or countenance by my presence." 
 
 " How now, sirrah ! " said his master, angrily. 
 
 " Under favour, my lord," replied his domestic, " it is unequal 
 deaUng to be equally offended by my speech and by my silence. 
 If you can hear with patience the grounds of my departure, it may 
 be, for aught I know, the better for you here and hereafter— if not, 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGET.. in 
 
 let me have my license of departure in silence, and so no more 
 about it." 
 
 " Go to, sir"! " said Nigel ; " speak out your mind — only 
 remember to whom you speak it," 
 
 "Weel, weel, my lord— I speak it with humility," (never did 
 Richie look with more starched dignity than when he uttered the 
 word ;) " but do you think this dicing and card-shuffling, and 
 haunting of taverns and playhouses, suits your lordship— for I am 
 sure it does not suit me ? " 
 
 "Why, you are not turned precisian or puritan, fool?" said Lord 
 Glenvarloch, laughing, though, betwixt resentment and shame, it 
 cost him some trouble to do so. 
 
 " My lord," replied the follower, " I ken the purport of your 
 query. I am, it may be, a little of a precisian, and I wish to 
 Heaven I was mair worthy of the name ; but let that be a pass- 
 over. — I have stretched the duties of a serving-man as far as my 
 northern conscience will permit. I can give my gude word to my 
 master, or to my native country, when I am in a foreign land, 
 even though I should leave downright truth a wee bit behind me. 
 Ay, and I will take or give a slash with ony man that speaks to the 
 derogation of either. But this chambering, dicing, and play-haunt- 
 ing, is not my element — I cannot draw breath in it — and when I 
 hear of your lordship winning the siller that some poor creature 
 may full sairly miss — ^by my saul, if it wad serve your necessity, 
 rather than you gained it from him, I wad tak a jump over the 
 hedge with your lordship, and cry ' Stand ! ' to the first grazier we 
 met that was coming from Smithfield with the price of his Essex 
 calves in his leathern pouch ! " 
 
 " You are a simpleton," said Nigel, who felt, however, much 
 conscience-struck ; " I never play but for small sums." 
 
 " Ay, my lord," replied the unyielding domestic, " and — still with 
 reverence — it is even sae much the waur. If you played with your 
 equals, there might be like sin, but there wad be mair warldly 
 honour in it. Your lordship kens, or may ken, by experience of 
 your ain, whilk is not as yet mony weeks auld, that small sums can 
 ill be missed by those that have nane larger ; and I maun e'en be 
 plain with you, that men notice it of your lordship, that ye play wi' 
 nane but the misguided creatures that can but afford to lose bare 
 stakes." 
 
 " No man dare say so !" replied Nigel, very angrily. " I play 
 with whom I please, but I will only play for what stake I please." 
 
 "That is just what they say, my lord," said the unmerciful 
 Richie, whose natural love of lecturing, as well as his bluntness of 
 feeling, prevented him from having any idea of the pain which he 
 
174 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 was inflicting on his master ; " these are even their own very 
 words. It was but yesterday your lordship was pleased, at that 
 same ordinary, to win from yonder young hafflins gentleman, with 
 the crimson velvet doublet, and the cock's feather in his beaver— 
 him, I mean, who fought with the ranting captain — a matter of five 
 pounds, or thereby. I saw him come through the hall ; and, if he 
 was not cleaned out of cross and pile, I never saw a ruined man in 
 my life." 
 
 " Impossible ! " said Lord Glenvarloch — " Why, who is he ? he 
 looked like a man of substance." 
 
 " All is not gold that glistens, my lord," replied Richie ; " broidery 
 and bullion buttons make bare pouches. And if you ask who he 
 is — maybe I have a guess, and care not to tell." 
 
 " At least, if I have done any such fellow an injury," said the 
 Lord Nigel, " let me know how I can repair it." 
 
 " Never fash your beard about that, my lord,— with reverence 
 always," said Richie,— "he shall be suitably cared after. Think 
 on him but as ane wha was running post to the devil, and got a 
 shouldering from your lordship to help him on his journey. But 
 I will stop him, if reason can ; and so your lordship needs ask nae 
 mair about it, for there is no use in your knowing it, but much the 
 contrair." 
 
 " Hark you, sirrah," said his master, " I have borne with you 
 thus far, for certain reasons ; but abuse my good-nature no farther 
 — and since you must needs go, why, go a God's name, and here 
 is to pay your journey." So saying, he put gold into his hand, 
 which Richie told over, piece by piece, with the utmost accuracy. 
 
 " Is it all right— or are they wanting in weight— or what the 
 devil keeps you, when your hurry was so great five minutes 
 since ? " said the young lord, now thoroughly nettled at the pre- 
 sumptuous precision with which Richie dealt forth his canons of 
 morality. 
 
 " The tale of coin is complete," said Richie, with the most 
 imperturbable gravity ; " and, for the weight, though they are sae 
 scrupulous in this town,, as make mouths at a piece that is a 
 wee bit light, or that has been cracked within the ring, my sooth, 
 they will jump at them in Edinburgh like a cock at a grosart. Gold 
 pieces are not so plenty there, the mair the pity ! " 
 
 " The more is your folly, then," said Nigel, whose anger was 
 only momentary, " that leave the land where there is enough of 
 them." 
 
 " My lord," said Richie, " to be round with you, the grace of God 
 is better than gold pieces. When Goblin, as you call yonder Mon- 
 sieur Lutin,— and you might as well call him Gibbet, since that is 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 17S 
 
 what he is like to end in, — shall recommend a page to you, ye will 
 hear little such doctrine as ye have heard from me. — And if they 
 were my last words," he said, raising his voice, " I would say you 
 are misled, and are forsaking the paths which your honourable 
 father trode in ; and, what is more, you are going — still under cor- 
 rection — to the devil with a dishclout, for ye are laughed at by them 
 that lead you into these disordered bypaths." 
 
 "Laughed at!" said Nigel, who, like others of his age, was 
 more sensible to ridicule than to reason — " Who dares laugh at 
 me?" 
 
 " My lord, as sure as I live by bread — nay, more, as I am a true 
 man — and, I think, your lordship never found Richie's tongue bear- 
 ing aught but the truth — unless that your lordship's credit, my 
 country's profit, or, it may be, some sma' occasion of my ain, made 
 it unnecessary to promulgate the haill veritie, — I say then, as I am 
 a true man, when I saw that puir creature come through the ha', 
 at that ordinary, whilk is accurst (Heaven forgive me for swearing !) 
 of God and man, with his teeth set, and his hands clenched, and 
 his bonnet drawn over his brows like a desperate man. Goblin said 
 to me, 'There goes a dunghill chicken, that your master has 
 plucked clean enough ; it will be long ere his lordship ruffle a fea- 
 ther with a cock of the game.' And so, my lord, to speak it out, 
 the lackeys, and the gallants, and more especially your sworn 
 brother, Lord Dalgarno, call you the sparrow-hawk. — I had some 
 thought to have cracked Lutin's pate for the speech, but, after a', 
 the controversy was not worth it." 
 
 "Do they use such terms of me?" said Lord Nigel. "Death 
 and the devil !" 
 
 " And the devil's dam, my lord," answered Richie ; " they are 
 all three busy in London.— And, besides, Lutin and his master 
 laughed at you, my lord, for letting it be thought that— I shame to 
 speak it— that ye were over well with the wife of the decent honest 
 man whose house you but now left, as not sufficient for your new 
 bravery, whereas they said, the licentious scoffers, that you pre- 
 tended to such favour when you had not courage enough for so fair 
 a quarrel, and that the sparrow-hawk was too craven-crested to fly 
 at the wife of a cheesemonger."— He stopped a moment, and look- 
 ing fixedly in his master's face, which was inflamed with shame and 
 anger, and then proceeded. " My lord, I did you justice in my 
 thought, and myself too ; for, thought I, he would have been as 
 deep in that sort of profligacy as in others, if it hadna been Richie's 
 four quarters." 
 
 " What new nonsense have you got to plague me with ? " said 
 Lord Nigel. " But go on, since it is the last time I am to be tor- 
 
176 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 mented with your impertinence, — go on, and make the most of your 
 time." 
 
 " In troth," said Richie, " and so will I even do. And as Heaven 
 
 has bestowed on me a tongue to speak and to advise " 
 
 " Which talent you can by no means be accused of suffering to 
 remain idle," said Lord Glenvarloch, interrupting him. 
 
 " True, my lord," said Richie, again waving his hand, as if to 
 bespeak his master's silence and attention ; " so, I trust, you will 
 think some time hereafter. And, as I am about to leave your ser- 
 vice, it is proper that ye suld know the truth, that ye may consider 
 the snares to which your youth and innocence may be exposed, 
 when aulder and doucer heads are withdrawn from beside you. — 
 There has been a lusty, good-looking- kimmer, of some forty, or 
 bygane, making mony speerings about you, my lord." 
 
 " Well, sir, what did she want with me ? " said Lord Nigel. 
 "At first, my lord," replied his sapient follower, " as she seemed 
 to be a well-fashioned woman, and to take pleasure in sensible 
 company, I was no way reluctant to admit her to my conversa- 
 tion." 
 
 "I dare say not," said Lord Nigel; " nor unwilling to tell her 
 about my private affairs." 
 
 " Not I, truly, my lord," said the attendant ; — "for, though she 
 asked me mony questions about your fame, your fortune, your busi- 
 ness here, and such like, I did not think it proper to tell her alto- 
 gether the truth thereanent." 
 
 " I see no call on you whatever," said Lord Nigel, " to tell the 
 woman either truth or lies upon what she had nothing to do 
 with." 
 
 " I thought so, too, my lord," replied Richie, " and so I told her 
 neither." 
 
 " And what did you tell her, then, you eternal babbler ? " said 
 his master, impatient of his prate, yet curious to know what it was 
 all to end in. 
 
 " I told her," said Richie, " about your warldly fortune, and sae 
 forth, something whilk is not truth just at this time ; but which 
 hath been truth formerly, suld be truth now, and will be truth 
 again, — and that was, that you were in possession of your fair lands, 
 whilk ye are but in right of as yet. Pleasant communing we had 
 on that and other topics, until she showed the cloven foot, begin- 
 ning to confer with me about some wench that she said had a good 
 will to your lordship, and fain she would have spoken with you 
 in particular anent it ; but when I heard of such inklings, I began 
 to suspect she was little better than whew !" — Here he con- 
 cluded his narrative with a low, but very expressive whistle. 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 177 
 
 " And what did your wisdom do in these circumstances ? " said 
 Lord Nigel, who, notwithstanding his former resentment, could now 
 scarcely forbear laughing. 
 
 " I put on a look, my lord," replied Richie, bending his solemn 
 brows, " that suld give her a heart-scald of walking on such 
 errands. I laid her enormities clearly before her, and I threatened 
 her, in sae mony words, that I would have her to the ducking-stool ; 
 and she, on the contrair part, miscawed me for a froward northern 
 tyke — and so we parted never to meet again, as I hope and trust. 
 And so I stood between your lordship and that temptation, which 
 might have been worse than the ordinary, or the playhouse either ; 
 since you wot well what Solomon, King of the Jews, sayeth of the 
 strange woman — for, said I to mysell, we have taken to dicing 
 already, and if we take to drabbing next, the Lord kens what we 
 may land in." 
 
 " Your impertinence deserves correction, but it is the last which, 
 for a time at least, I shall have to forgive — and I forgive it," said 
 Lord Glenvarloch ; " and, since we are to part, Richie, I will say 
 no more respecting your precautions on my account, than that 
 I think you might have left me to act according to my own judg- 
 ment." 
 
 " Mickle better not," answered Richie—" mickle better not ; we 
 are a' frail creatures, and can judge better for ilk ither than in our 
 ain cases. And for me, even myself, saving that case of the Siffli- 
 cation, which might have happened to ony one, I have always 
 observed myself to be much more prudential in what I have done 
 in your lordship's behalf, than even in what I have been able to 
 transact for my own interests whilk last, I have, indeed, always 
 postponed, as in duty I ought." 
 
 " I do believe thou hast," said Lord Nigel, " having ever found 
 thee true and faithful. And since London pleases you so little, I 
 will bid you a short farewell ; and you may go down to Edinburgh 
 until I come thither myself, when I trust you will re-enter into my 
 service." 
 
 "Now, Heaven bless you, my lord," said Richie Moniplies, 
 with uplifted eyes ; " for that word sounds more like grace than 
 ony has come out of your mouth this fortnight.— I give you godd'en, 
 my lord." 
 
 So saying, he thrust forth his immense bony hand, seized on that 
 of Lord Glenvarloch, raised it to his lips, then turned short on his 
 heel, and left the room hastily, as if afraid of showing more emotion 
 than was consistent with his ideas of decorum. Lord Nigel, rather 
 surprised at his sudden exit, called after him to know whether he 
 was sufficiently provided with money j but Richie, shaking his head, 
 
 N 
 
178 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 without making any other answer, ran hastily down stairs, shut the 
 street-door heavily behind him, and was presently seen striding 
 along the Strand. 
 
 His master almost involuntarily watched and distinguished the 
 tall raw-boned figure of his late follower, from the window, for some 
 time, until he was lost among the crowd of passengers. Nigel's 
 reflections were not altogether those of self-approval. It was no 
 good sign of his course of life, (he could not help acknowledging 
 this much to himself,) that so faithful an adherent no longer seemed 
 to feel the same pride in his service, or attachment to his person, 
 which he had formerly manifested. Neither could he avoid expe- 
 riencing some twinges of conscience, while he felt in some degree 
 the charges which Richie had preferred against him, and expe- 
 rienced a sense of shame and mortification, arising from the colour 
 given by others to that, which he himself would have called his 
 caution and moderation in play. He had only the apology, that it 
 had never occurred to himself in this light. 
 
 Then his pride and self-love suggested, that, on the other hand, 
 Richie, with all his good intentions, was little better than a con- 
 ceited, pragmatical domestic, who seemed disposed rather to play 
 the tutor than the lackey, and who, out of sheer love, as he alleged, 
 to his master's person, assumed the privilege of interfering with, 
 and controlling, his actions, besides rendering him ridiculous in the 
 gay world, from the antiquated formahty, and intrusive presump- 
 tion, of his manners. 
 
 Nigel's eyes were scarce turned from the window, when his new 
 landlord entering, presented to him a slip of paper, carefully bound 
 round with a string of flox-silk and sealed — it had been given in, 
 he said, by a woman, who did not stop an instant. The contents 
 harped upon the same string which Richie Moniplies had already 
 jarred. The epistle was in the following words : — 
 
 " For the Right Honourable hands of Lord Glenvarloch, 
 
 " These, from a friend unknown :— 
 "My Lord, 
 "You are trusting to an unhonest friend, and diminishing an 
 honest reputation. An unknown but real friend of your lordship 
 will speak in one word what you would not learn from flatterers in 
 so many days, as should suffice for your utter ruin. He whom you 
 think most true— I say your friend Lord Dalgarno— is utterly false 
 to you, and doth but seek, under pretence of friendship, to mar 
 your fortune, and diminish the good name by which you might 
 mend it. The kind countenance which he shows to you, is more 
 dangerous than the Prince's frown ; even as to gain at Beaujeu's 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 179 
 
 ordinary is more discreditable than to lose. Beware of both.— 
 And this is all from your true but nameless friend, 
 
 " IGNOTO." 
 
 Lord Glenvarloch paused for an instant, and crushed the paper 
 together— then again unfolded and read it with attention— bent his 
 brows— mused for a moment, and then tearing it to fragments, ex- 
 claimed—" Begone for a vile calumny ! But I will watch— I will 
 observe" 
 
 Thought after thought rushed on him ; but, upon the whole, 
 Lord Glenvarloch was so little satisfied with the result of his 
 own reflections, that he resolved to dissipate them by a walk in 
 the Park, and, taking his cloak and beaver, went thither accord- 
 ingly. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 'Twas when fleet Snowball's head was waxen grey, 
 A luckless lev'ret met him on his way. — 
 Who knows not Snowball— he, whose race renown'd 
 Is still victorious on each coursing ground ? 
 Swaffham, Newmarket, and the Roman Camp, 
 Have seen them victors o'er each meaner stamp. — 
 In vain the youngling sought, with doubling wile, 
 The hedge, the hill, the thicket, or the stile. 
 Experience sage the lack of speed supplied. 
 And in the gap he sought, the victim died. 
 So was I once, in thy fair street, Saint James, 
 Through walking cavaliers, and car-borne dames, 
 Descried, pursued, turned o'er again, and o'er, 
 Coursed, coted, mouth'd by an unfeeling bore. 
 
 &c. &c. &c. 
 
 The Park of Saint James's, though enlarged, planted with ver- 
 dant alleys, and otherwise decorated by Charles II., existed in the 
 days of his grandfather, as a public and pleasant promenade ; and, 
 for the sake of exercise or pastime, was much frequented by the 
 better classes. 
 
 Lord Glenvarloch repaired thither to dispel the unpleasant reflec- 
 tions which had been suggested by his parting with his trusty 
 squire, Richie Moniplies, in a manner which was agreeable neither 
 to his pride nor his feelings ; and by the corroboration which the 
 hints of his late attendant had received from the anonymous letter 
 mentioned in the end of the last chapter. 
 
 N 2 
 
i8o THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 There was a considerable number of company in the Park when 
 he entered it, but his present state of mind inducing him to avoid 
 society, he kept aloof from the more frequented walks towards 
 Westminster and Whitehall, and drew to the north, or, as we 
 should now say, the Piccadilly verge of the enclosure, believing he 
 might there enjoy, or rather combat, his own thoughts unmolested. 
 
 In this, however. Lord Glenvarloch was mistaken ; for, as he 
 strolled slowly along with his arms folded in his cloak, and his hat 
 drawn over his eyes, he was suddenly pounced upon by Sir Mungo 
 Malagrowther, who, either shunning or shunned, had retreated, or 
 had been obliged to retreat, to the same less frequented corner of 
 the Park. 
 
 Nigel started when he heard the high, sharp, and querulous 
 tones of the knight's cracked voice, and was no less alarmed when 
 he beheld his tall thin figure hobbling towards him, wrapped in a 
 threadbare cloak, on whose surface ten thousand varied stains 
 eclipsed the original scarlet, and having his head surmounted with 
 a well-worn beaver, bearing a black velvet band for a chain, and a 
 capon's feather for an ostrich plume. 
 
 Lord Glenvarloch would fain have made his escape, but, as our 
 motto intimates, a leveret had as little chance to free herself of an 
 experienced greyhound. Sir Mungo, to continue the simile, ' had 
 long ago learned to run cu7ining, and make sure of mouthing his 
 game. So Nigel found himself compelled to stand and answer the 
 hackneyed question — "What news to-day?" 
 
 " Nothing extraordinary, I believe," answered the young noble- 
 man, attempting to pass on. 
 
 " O, ye are ganging to the French ordinary I believe,'' replied the 
 knight ; " but it is early day yet — we will take a turn in the Park 
 in the meanwhile — it will sharpen your appetite." 
 
 So saying, he quietly slipped his arm under Lord Glenvarloch's, 
 in spite of all the decent reluctance which his victim could exhibit, 
 by keeping his elbow close to his side ; and having fairly grappled 
 the prize, he proceeded to take it in tow. 
 
 Nigel was sullen and silent, in hopes to shake off his unpleasant 
 companion ; but Sir Mungo was determined, that if he did not 
 speak, he should at least hear. 
 
 " Ye are bound for the ordinary, my lord ? " said the cynic ; — 
 " weel, ye canna do better — there is choice company there, and 
 peculiarly selected, as I am tauld, being, dootless, sic as it is 
 desirable that young noblemen should herd withal — and your noble 
 father w&d have been blithe to see you keeping such worshipful 
 society." 
 
 " I believe," said Lord Glenvarloch, thinking himself obliged to 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. i8i 
 
 say something, " that the society is as good as generally can be 
 found in such places, where the door can scarcely be shut against 
 those who come to spend their money." 
 
 " Right, my lord— vera right," said his tormentor, bursting out 
 into a chuckling, but most discordant laugh. " These citizen 
 chuffs and clowns will press in amongst us, when there is but an 
 inch of a door open. And what remedy ?— Just e'en this, that as 
 their cash gies them confidence, we should strip them of it. Flay 
 them, my lord— singe them as the kitchen wench does the rats, 
 and then they winna long to come back again.— Ay, ay— pluck 
 them, plume them— and then the larded capons will not be for 
 flying so high a wing, my lord, among the goss-hawks and sparrow- 
 hawks, and the like." 
 
 And, therewithal. Sir Mungo fixed on Nigel his quick, sharp, 
 grey eye, watching the effect of his sarcasm as keenly as the 
 surgeon, in a delicate operation, remarks the progress of his 
 anatomical scalpel. 
 
 Nigel, however willing to conceal his sensations, could not avoid 
 gratifying his tormentor by wincing under the operation. He 
 coloured with vexation and anger ; but a quarrel with Sir Mungo 
 Malagrowther would, he felt, be unutterably ridiculous ; and he 
 only muttered to himself the words, " Impertinent coxcomb ! " which, 
 on this occasion. Sir Mungo's imperfection of organ did not prevent 
 him from hearing and replying to. 
 
 "Ay, ay — vera true," exclaimed the caustic old courtier — "Im- 
 pertinent coxcombs they are, that thus intrude themselves on the 
 society of their betters ; but your lordship kens how to gar them 
 as gude— ye have the trick on't. — They had a braw sport in the 
 presence last Friday, how ye suld have routed a young shopkeeper, 
 horse and foot, ta'en his spolia opima, and a' the specie he had 
 about him, down to the very silver buttons of his cloak, and sent 
 him to graze with Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon. Muckle 
 honour redounded to your lordship thereby. — We were tauld the 
 loon threw himsell into the Thames in a fit of desperation. There's 
 enow of them behind — there was mair tint on Flodden-edge." 
 
 " You have been told a budget of lies, so far as I am concerned, 
 Sir Mungo," said Nigel, speaking loud and sternly. 
 
 " Vera likely — vera likely," said the unabashed and undismayed 
 Sir Mimgo ; " naething but lies are current in the circle. — So the 
 chield is not drowned then ? — the mair's the pity. — But I never 
 believed that part of the story— a London dealer has mair wit in 
 his anger. I dare swear the lad has a bonny broom-shank in his 
 hand by this time, and is scrubbing the kennels in quest after 
 rusty nails, to help him to begin his pack again. — He has three 
 
i82 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 bairns, they say; they will help him bravely to grope in the 
 gutters. Your good lordship may have the ruining of him again, 
 my lord, if they have any luck in strand-scouring." 
 
 " This is more than intolerable," said Nigel, uncertain whether 
 to make an angry vindication of his character, or to fling the old 
 tormentor from his arm. But an instant's recollection convinced 
 him, that, to do either, would only give an air of truth and con- 
 sistency to the scandals which he began to see were affecting his 
 character, both in the higher and lower circles. Hastily, therefore, 
 he formed the wiser resolution, to endure Sir Mungo's studied 
 impertinence, under the hope of ascertaining, if possible, from 
 what source those reports arose which were so prejudicial to his 
 reputation. 
 
 Sir Mungo, in the meanwhile, caught up, as usual, Nigel's last 
 words, or rather the sound of them, and amplified and interpreted 
 them in his own way. "Tolerable luck!" he repeated; "yes, 
 truly, my lord, I am told that you have tolerable luck, and that ye 
 ken weel how to use that jilting quean. Dame Fortune, like a canny 
 douce lad, willing to warm yourself in her smiles, without exposing 
 yourself to her frowns. And that is what I ca' having luck in a 
 bag." 
 
 " Sir Mungo Malagrowther," said Lord Glenvarloch, turning 
 towards him seriously, "have the goodness to hear me for a 
 moment." 
 
 '■ As weel as I can, my lord — as weel as I can," said Sir Mungo, 
 shaking his head, and pointing the finger of his left hand to his 
 ear. 
 
 " I will try to speak very distinctly," said Nigel, arming himself 
 with patience. " You take me for a noted gamester ; I give you 
 my word that you have not been rightly informed — I am none 
 such. You owe me some explanation, at least, respecting the 
 source from which you have derived such false information." 
 
 " I never heard ye were a great gamester, and never thought or 
 said you were such, my lord," said Sir Mungo, who found it impos- 
 sible to avoid hearing what Nigel said with peculiarly deliberate 
 and distinct pronunciation. " I repeat it— I never heard, said, or 
 thought, that you were a ruffling gamester, — such as they call those 
 of the first head. — Look you, my lord, I call him a gamester, that 
 plays with equal stakes and equal skill, and stands by the fortune 
 of the game, good or bad ; and I call him a ruffling gamester, or 
 ane of the first head, who ventures frankly and deeply upon such a 
 wager. But he, my lord, who has the patience and prudence never 
 to venture beyond small game, such as, at most, might crack the 
 Christmas-box of a grocer's 'prentice, who vies with those that have 
 
THE FORTUNES OF KlGEL. ifj 
 
 little to hazard, and who therefore, having the larger stock, can 
 always rook them by waiting for his good fortune, and by rising 
 from the game when luck leaves him— such a one as he, my lord, I 
 do not call a _g"r.ja^ gamester, to whatever other name he maybe 
 entitled." 
 
 " And such a mean-spirited, sordid wretch, you would infer that 
 I am," replied Lord Glenvarloch ; " one who fears the skilful, and 
 preys upon the ignorant — who avoids playing with his equals, that 
 he may make sure of pillaging his inferiors ? — Is this what I am to 
 understand has been reported of me?" 
 
 " Nay, my lord, you will gain nought by speaking big with me," 
 said Sir Mungo, who, besides that his sarcastic humour was really 
 supported by a good fund of animal courage, had also full reliance 
 on the immunities which he had derived from the broadsword of 
 Sir RuUion Rattray, and the baton of the satellites employed by 
 the Lady Cockpen. " And for the truth of the matter," he con- 
 tinued, " your lordship best knows whether you ever lost more than 
 five pieces at a time since you frequented Beaujeu's — whether you 
 have not most commonly risen a winner — and whether the brave 
 young gallants who frequent the ordinary — I mean those of noble 
 rank, and means conforming — are in use to play upon those 
 terms ? " 
 
 " My father was right," said Lord Glenvarloch, in the bitterness 
 of his spirit ; "and his cursejustly followed me when I first entered 
 that place. There is contamination in the air, and he whose 
 fortune avoids ruin, shall be blighted in his honour and repu- 
 tation." 
 
 Sir Mungo, who watched his victim with the delighted yet wary 
 eye of an experienced angler, became now aware, that if he strained 
 the line on him too tightly, there was every risk of his breaking 
 hold. In order to give him room, therefore, to play, he protested 
 that Lord Glenvarloch " should not take his free speech in inalam 
 partem. If you were a trifle ower sicker in your amusement, my 
 lord, it canna be denied that it is the safest course to prevent 
 farther endangerment of your somewhat- dilapidated fortunes ; and 
 if ye play with your inferiors, ye are relieved of the pain of pouch- 
 ing the siller of your friends and equals ; forbye, that the plebeian 
 knaves have had the advantage, tecum cert&sse, as Ajax Telamon 
 sayeth, aptid Metamorphoseosj and for the like of them to have 
 played with ane Scottish nobleman, is an honest and honourable 
 consideration to compensate the loss of their stake, whilk, I dare 
 say, moreover, maist of the churls can weel afford." 
 
 " Be that as it may. Sir Mungo," said Nigel, " I would fain 
 know"— 
 
l84 THE FORTUNES OF NTGJEL. 
 
 " Ay, ay," interrupted Sir Mungo ; " and, as you say, who cares 
 whether the fat bulls of Bashan can spare it or no ? gentlemen are 
 not to limit their sport for the like of them." 
 
 " I wish to know. Sir Mungo," said Lord Glenvarloch, " in what 
 company you have learned these offensive particulars respect- 
 ing me ? " 
 
 " Bootless — dootless, my lord," said Sir Mungo ; " I have ever 
 heard; and have ever reported, that your lordship kept the best of 
 company in a private way. — There is the fine Countess of Black- 
 chester, but I think she stirs not much abroad since her affair with 
 his Grace of Buckingham ; and there is the gude auld-fashioned 
 Scottish nobleman. Lord Huntinglen, an undeniable man of 
 quality — it is pity but he could keep caup and can frae his head, 
 whilk now and then doth minish his reputation. And there is the 
 gay, young Lord Dalgarno, that carries the craft of grey hairs 
 under his curled love-locks — a fair race they are, father, daughter, 
 and son, all of the same honourable family. I think we needna 
 speak of George Heriot, honest man, when we have nobility in 
 question. So that is the company I have heard of your keeping, 
 my lord, out-taken those of the ordinary." 
 
 " My company has not, indeed, been much more extended than 
 amongst those you mention," said Lord Glenvarloch ; " but, in 
 short" 
 
 " To Court ? " said Sir Mungo, " that was just what I was going to 
 say — Lord Dalgarno says he cannot prevail on ye to come to 
 Court, and that does ye prejudice, my lord — the King hears of you 
 by others, when he should see you in person— I speak in serious 
 friendship, my lord. His Majesty, when you were named in the 
 circle short while since, was heard to say, 'J acta est alea ! — Glen- 
 varlychides is turned dicer and drinker.' — My Lord Dalgarno took 
 your part, and it was e'en borne down by the popular voice of the 
 courtiers, who spoke of you as one who had betaken yourself to 
 living a town life, and risking your baron's coronet amongst the 
 flatcaps of the city." 
 
 " And this was publicly spoken of me," said Nigel, " and in the 
 King's presence ? " 
 
 " Spoken openly ? " repeated Sir Mungo Malagrowther ; " ay, by 
 my troth was it— that is to say, it was whispered privately— whilk 
 is as open promulgation as the thing permitted ; for ye may think 
 the Court is not hke a place where men are as sib as Simmie 
 and his brother, and roar out their minds as if they were at an 
 ordinary." 
 
 " A curse on the Court and the ordinary both ! " cried Nigel, 
 impatiently. 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 185 
 
 " With all my heart," said the knight ; " I have got little by a 
 knight's service in the Court ; and the last time I was at the ordi- 
 nary, I lost four angels." 
 
 " May I pray of you. Sir Mungo, to let me Know," said Nigel, 
 " the names of those who thus make free with the character of one 
 who can be but little known to them, and who never injured any of 
 them?" 
 
 " Have I not told you already," answered Sir Mungo, " that the 
 King said something to that effect — so did the Prince too ; — and 
 such being the case, ye may take it on your corporal oath, that 
 every man in the circle who was not silent, sung the same song as 
 they did." 
 
 " You said but now," replied Glenvarloch, " that Lord Dalgarno 
 interfered in my behalf." 
 
 " In good troth did he," answered Sir Mungo, with a sneer ; " but 
 the young nobleman was soon borne down — by token, he had 
 something of a catarrh, and spoke as hoarse as a roopit raven. 
 Poor gentleman, if he had had his full extent of voice, he would 
 have been as well listened to, dootless, as in a cause of, his ain, 
 whilk no man kens better how to plead to purpose. — And let me 
 ask you, by the way," continued Sir Mungo, " whether Lord Dal- 
 garno has ever introduced your lordship to the Prince or the Duke 
 of Buckingham, either of whom might soon carry through your 
 suit?" 
 
 " I have no claim on the favour of either the Prince or the Duke 
 of Buckingham," said Lord Glenvarloch. — " As you seem to have 
 made my affairs your study, Sir Mungo, although perhaps some- 
 thing unnecessarily, you may have heard that I have petitioned my 
 Sovereign for payment of a debt due to my family. I cannot doubt 
 the King's desire to do justice, nor can I in decency employ the 
 solicitation of his Highness the Prince, or his Grace the Duke of 
 Buckingham, to obtain from his Majesty what either should be 
 granted me as a right, or refused altogether." 
 
 Sir Mungo twisted his whimsical features into one of his most 
 grotesque sneers, as he replied — 
 
 " It is a vera clear and parspicuous position of the case, my 
 lord ; and in relying thereupon, you show an absolute and unim- 
 provable acquaintance with the King, Court, and mankind in 
 general. — But whom" have we got here ? — Stand up, my lord, and 
 make way — by my word of honour, they are the very men we spoke 
 of — talk of the devil, and — humph ! " 
 
 It must be here premised, that, during the conversation, Lord 
 Glenvarloch, perhaps in the hope of shaking himself free of Sir 
 Mungo, had directed their walk towards the more frequented part 
 
i86 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 of the Park ; while the good knight had stuck to him, being totally 
 indifferent which way they went, provided he could keep his talons 
 clutched upon his companion. They were still, hov/ever, at some 
 distance from the livelier part of the scene, when Sir Mungo's 
 experienced eye noticed the appearances which occasioned the 
 latter part of his speech to Lord Glenvarloch. 
 
 A low respectful murmur arose among the numerous groups of 
 persons which occupied the lower part of the Park. They first 
 clustered together, with their faces turned towards Whitehall, then 
 fell back on either hand to give place to a splendid party of gallants, 
 who, advancing from the Palace, came onward through the Park ; 
 all the other company drawing off the pathway, and standing 
 uncovered as they passed. 
 
 Most of these courtly gallants were dressed in the garb which 
 the pencil of Vandyke has made familiar even at the distance of 
 nearly two centuries ; and which was just at this period beginning 
 to supersede the more fluttering and frivolous dress which had 
 been adopted from the French court of Henri Quatre. 
 
 The whole train were uncovered excepting the Prince of Wales, 
 afterwards the most unfortunate of British monarchs, who came 
 onward, having his long curled auburn tresses, and his counte- 
 nance, which, even in early youth, bore a shade of anticipated 
 melancholy, shaded by the Spanish hat and the single ostrich 
 feather which drooped from it. On his right hand was Bucking- 
 ham, whose commanding, and at the same time graceful, deport- 
 ment, threw almost into shade the personal demeanour and majesty 
 of the Prince on whom he attended. The eye, movements, and 
 gestures, of the great courtier, were so composed, so regularly 
 observant of all etiquette belonging to his situation, as to form a 
 marked and strong contrast with the forward gaiety and frivolity by 
 which he recommended himself to the favour of his " dear dad and 
 gossip," King James. A singular fate attended this accomplished 
 courtier, in being at once the reigning favourite of a father and 
 son so very opposite in manners, that, to ingratiate himself with 
 the youthful Prince, he was obliged to compress within the strictest 
 limits of respectful observance the frolicsome and free humour 
 which captivated his aged father. 
 
 It is true, Buckingham well knew the different dispositions both 
 of James and Charles, and had no difficulty in so conducting him- 
 self as to maintain the highest post in the favour of both. It has 
 indeed been supposed, as we before hinted, that the Duke, when 
 he had completely possessed himself of the affections of Charles, 
 retained his hold in those of the father only by the tyranny of 
 custom ; and that James, could he have brought himself to form a 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 187 
 
 vigorous resolution, was, in the latter years of his life especially, 
 not unlikely to have discarded Buckingham from his counsels and 
 favour. But if ever the King indeed meditated such a change, he 
 was too timid, and too much accustomed to the influence which the 
 Duke had long exercised over him, to summon up resolution enough 
 for effecting such a purpose ; and at all events it is certain, that 
 Buckingham, though surviving the master by whom he was raised, 
 had the rare chance to experience no wane of the most splendid 
 court favour during two reigns, until it was at once eclipsed in his 
 blood by the dagger of his assassin Felton. 
 
 To return from this digression : The Prince, with his train, 
 advanced, and were near the place where Lord Glenvarloch and 
 Sir Mungo had stood aside, according to form, in order to give the 
 Prince passage, and to pay the usual marks of respect. Nigel 
 could now remark that Lord Dalgarno walked close behind the 
 Duke of Buckingham, and, as he thought, whispered something in 
 his ear as they came onward. At any rate, both the Prince's and 
 Duke of Buckingham's attention seemed to be directed by some 
 circumstance towards Nigel, for they turned their heads in that 
 direction and looked at him attentively — the Prince with a coun- 
 tenance, the grave, melancholy expression of which was blended 
 with severity ; while Buckingham's looks evinced some degree of 
 scornful triumph. Lord Dalgarno did not seem to observe his 
 friend, perhaps because the sunbeams fell from the side of the walk 
 on which Nigel stood, obliging Malcolm to hold up his hat to 
 screen his eyes. 
 
 As the Prince passed, Lord Glenvarloch and Sir Mungo bowed, 
 as respect required; and the Prince, returning their obeisance 
 with that grave ceremony which paid to every rank its due, but not 
 a tittle beyond it, signed to Sir Mungo to come forward. Com- 
 mencing an apology for his lameness as he started, which he had 
 just completed as his hobbling gait brought him up to the Prince, 
 Sir Mungo lent an attentive, and, as it seemed, an intelligent ear, 
 to questions, asked in a tone so low, that the knight would certainly 
 have been deaf to them had they been put to him by any one under 
 the rank of Prince of Wales. After about a minute's conversation, 
 the Prince bestowed on Nigel the embarrassing notice of another 
 fixed look, touched his hat slightly to Sir Mungo, and walked on. 
 
 " It is even as I suspected, my lord," said Sir Mungo, with an 
 air which he designed to be melancholy and sympathetic, but 
 which, in fact, resembled the grin of an ape when he has mouthed 
 a scalding chestnut — "Ye have back-friends, my lord, that is, 
 unfriends — or, to be plain, enemies — about the person of the 
 Prince." 
 
i83 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 " I am sorry to hear it," said Nigel ; " but I would I knew what 
 they accuse me of." 
 
 " Ye shall hear, my lord," said Sir Mungo, " the Prince's vera 
 words — ' Sir Mungo,' said he, ' I rejoice to see you, and am glad 
 your rheumatic troubles permit you to come hither for exercise.' — 
 I bowed, as in duty bound — ye might remark, my lord, that I did 
 so, whilk formed the first branch of our conversation. — His High- 
 ness then demanded of me, ' if he with whom I stood, was the 
 young Lord Glenvarloch.' I answered, ' that you were such, for 
 his Highness's service ; ' whilk was the second branch. — Thirdly, 
 his Highness, resuming the argument, said, that ' truly he had been 
 told so,' (meaning that he had been told you were that personage,) 
 'but that he could not believe, that the heir of that noble and 
 decayed house could be leading an idle, scandalous, and precarious 
 life, in the eating-houses and taverns of London, while the King's 
 drums were beating, and colours flying in Germany in the cause of 
 the Palatine, his son-in-law.' — I could, your lordship is aware, do 
 nothing but make an obeisance ; and a gracious ' Give ye good- 
 day. Sir Mungo Malagrowther,' licensed me to fall back to your 
 lordship. And now, my lord, if your business or pleasure calls 
 you to the ordinary, or anywhere in the direction of the city — why, 
 have with you ; for, dootless, ye will think ye have tarried lang 
 enough in the Park, as they will likely turn at the head of the walk, 
 and return this way — and you have a broad hint, I think, not to 
 cross the Prince's presence in a hurry." 
 
 " you may stay or go as you please. Sir Mungo," said Nigel, 
 with an expression of calm, but deep resentment ; " but, for my 
 own part, my resolution is taken. I will quit this public walk for 
 pleasure of no man — still less will I quit it like one unworthy to be 
 seen in places of pubhc resort. I trust that the Prince and his 
 retinue will return this way as you expect ; for I will abide. Sir 
 Mungo, and beard them." 
 
 " Beard them ! " exclaimed Sir Mungo, in the extremity of sur- 
 prise,— " Beard the Prince of Wales — the heir-apparent of the 
 kingdoms !— By my saul, you shall beard him yoursell then." 
 
 Accordingly, he was about to leave Nigel very hastily, when, 
 some unwonted touch of good-natured interest in his youth and 
 inexperience, seemed suddenly to soften his habitual cynicism. 
 
 " The devil is in me for an auld fule ! " said Sir Mungo ; " but I 
 must needs concern mysell— I that owe so little either to fortune or 
 my fellow-creatures, must, I say, needs concern mysell— with this 
 springald, whom I will warrant to be as obstinate as a pig pos- 
 sessed with a devil, for it's the cast of his family ; and yet I maun 
 e'en fling away some sound advice on him.— My dainty young 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 189 
 
 Lord Glenvarloch, understand me distinctly, for this is no bairn's- 
 play. When the Prince said sae much to me as I have repeated to 
 you, it was equivalent to a command not to appear again in his 
 presence ; wherefore, take an auld man's advice that wishes you 
 weel, and maybe a wee thing better than he has reason to wish ony 
 body. Jouk, and let the jaw gae by, like a canny bairn — gang 
 hame to your lodgings, keep your foot frae taverns, and your 
 fingers frae the dice-box ; compound your affairs quietly wi' some 
 ane that has better favour than yours about Court, and you will 
 get a round spell of money to carry you to Germany, or elsewhere, 
 to push your fortune. It was a fortunate soldier that made your 
 family four or five hundred years syne, and, if you are brave and 
 fortunate, you may find the way to repair it. But, take my word 
 for it, that in this Court you will never thrive." 
 
 When Sir Mungo had completed his exhortation, in which there 
 was more of sincere sympathy with another's situation, than he 
 had been heretofore known to express in behalf of any one, Lord 
 Glenvarloch replied, " I am obliged to you, Sir Mungo— you have 
 spoken, I think, with sincerity, and I thank you. But in return 
 for your good advice, I heartily entreat you to leave me ; I observe 
 the Prince and his train are returning down the walk, and you 
 may prejudice yourself, but cannot help me, by remaining with 
 me." 
 
 " And that is true," — said Sir Mungo ; " yet, were I ten years 
 younger, I would be tempted to stand by you, and gie them the 
 meeting. But at threescore and upward, men's courage turns 
 cauldrife ; and they that canna win a living, must not endanger the 
 small sustenance of their age. I wish you weel through, my lord, 
 but it is an unequal fight." So saying, he turned and limped away ; 
 often looking back, however, as if his natural spirit, even in its 
 present subdued state, aided by his love of contradiction and of 
 debate, rendered him unwiHing to adopt the course necessary for 
 his own security. 
 
 Thus abandoned by his companion, whose departure he graced 
 with better thoughts of him than those which he bestowed on his 
 appearance, Nigel remained with his arms folded, and reclining 
 against a solitary tree which overhung the path, making up his 
 mind to encounter a moment which he expected to be critical of 
 his fate. But he was mistaken in supposing that the Prince of 
 Wales would either address him, or admit him to expostulation, in 
 such a public place as the Park, He did not remain unnoticed, 
 however, for, when he made a respectful but haughty obeisance, 
 intimating in look and manner that he was possessed of, and 
 undaunted by the unfavourable opinion which the Prince had so 
 
igo THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 lately expressed, Charles returned his reverence with such a frown 
 as is only given by those whose frown is authority and decision. 
 The train passed on, the Duke of Buckingham not even appearing 
 to see Lord Glenvarloch ; while Lord Dalgarno, though no longer 
 incommoded by the sunbeams, kept his eyes, which ^had perhaps 
 been dazzled by their former splendour, bent upon the ground. 
 
 Lord Glenvarloch had difficulty to restrain an indignation, to 
 which, in the circumstances, it would have been madness to have 
 given vent. He started from his recUning posture, and followed 
 the Prince's train so as to keep them distinctly in sight ; which 
 was very easy, as they walked slowly. Nigel observed them keep 
 their road towards the Palace, where the Prince turned at the gate 
 and bowed to the noblemen in attendance, in token of dismissing 
 them, and entered the Palace, accompanied only by the Duke of 
 Buckingham, and one or two of his equerries. The rest of the 
 train, having returned in all dutiful humility the farewell of the 
 Prince, began to disperse themselves through the Park. 
 
 All this was carefully noticed by Lord Glenvarloch, who, as he 
 adjusted his cloak, and drew his sword-belt round so as to bring 
 the hilt closer to liis hand, muttered — " Dalgarno shall explain all 
 this to me, for it is evident that he is in the secret ! " 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 Give way — give way — I must and will have justice. 
 And tell me not of privilege and place ; 
 Where I am injured, there I'll sue redress. 
 Look to it, every one who bars my access ; 
 1 have a heart to feel the injury, 
 A hand to right myself, and, by my honour, 
 That hand shall grasp what grey-beard Law denies me. 
 
 The Chamberlain. 
 
 It was not long ere Nigel discovered Lord Dalgarno advancing 
 towards him in the company of another young man of quality of 
 the Prince's train ; and as they directed their course towards the 
 south-eastern corner of the Park, he concluded they were about to 
 go to Lord Huntinglen's. They stopped, however, and turned up 
 another path leading to the north ; and Lord Glenvarloch con- 
 ceived that this change of direction was owing to their having seen 
 him, and their desire to avoid him. 
 
 Nigel followed them without hesitation by a path which, winding 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 191 
 
 around a thicket ol shrubs and trees, once more conducted him to 
 the less frequented part of the Park. He observed which side of 
 the thicket was taken by Lord Dalgarno and his companion, and 
 he himself, walldng hastily round the other verge, was thus enabled 
 to meet them face to face, 
 
 "Good-morrow, my Lord Dalgarno,'' said Lord Glenvarloch, 
 sternly. 
 
 " Ha ! my friend Nigel," answered Lord Dalgarno, in his usual 
 careless and indifferent tone, " my friend Nigel, with business on 
 his brow? — but you must wait till we meet at Beaujeu's at noon — 
 Sir Ewes Haldimund and I are at present engaged in the Prince's 
 service." 
 
 " If you were engaged in the King's, my Lord," said Lord Glen- 
 varloch, " you must stand and answer me." 
 
 " Hey-day ! " said Lord Dalgarno, with an air of great astonish- 
 ment, " what passion is this ? Why, Nigel, this is King Cambyses' 
 vein !— You have frequented the theatres too much lately— Away 
 with this folly, man ; go, dine upon soup and salad, drink succory- 
 water to cool your blood, go to bed at sun-down, and defy those 
 foul fiends. Wrath and Misconstruction." 
 
 " I have had misconstruction enough among you," said Glenvarloch 
 in the same tone of determined displeasure, " and from you, my Lord 
 Dalgarno, in particular, and all under the mask of friendship." 
 
 " Here is a proper business ! " — said Dalgarno, turning as if 
 to appeal to Sir Ewes Haldimund ; " do you see this angry ruffler, 
 Sir Ewes ? A month since, he dared not have looked one of yonder 
 sheep in the face, and now he is a prince of roisterers, a plucker of 
 pigeons, a controller of players and poets — and in gratitude for my 
 havmg shown him the way to the eminent character which he holds 
 upon town, he comes hither to quarrel with his best friend, if not 
 his only one of decent station." 
 
 "I renounce such hollow friendship, my lord," said Lord Glen- 
 varloch ; " I disclaim the character which, even to my very face, you 
 labour to fix upon me, and ere we part I will call you to a reckoning 
 for it." 
 
 " My lords both," interrupted Sir Ewes Haldimund, " let me 
 remind you that the Royal Park is no place to quarrel in." 
 
 " I will make my quarrel good," said Nigel, who did not know, or 
 in his passion might not have recollected, the privileges of the 
 place, " wherever I find my enemy." 
 
 "You shall find quarrelling enough," replied Lord Dalgarno, 
 calmly, " so soon as you assign a sufficient cause for it. Sir Ewes 
 Haldimund, who knows the Court, will warrant you that I am not 
 backward on such occasions. — But of what is it that you now 
 
192 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 complain, after having experienceo nothing save kindness from me 
 and my family ? " 
 
 " Of your family I complain not," replied Lord Glenvarloch ; 
 " they have done for me all they could, more, far more, than I could 
 fiave expected; but you, my lord, have suffered me, while you 
 called me your friend, to be traduced, where a word of your mouth 
 would have placed my character in its true colours — and hence the 
 injurious message which I just now received from the Prince of 
 Wales. To permit the misrepresentation of a friend, my lord, is 
 to share in the slander." 
 
 " You have been misinformed, my Lord Glenvarloch," said Sir 
 Ewes Haldimund ; " I have myself often heard Lord Dalgarno 
 defend your character, and regret that your exclusive attachment to 
 the pleasures of a London life prevented you paying your duty 
 regularly to the King and Prince." 
 
 " While he himself," said Lord Glenvarloch, " dissuaded me from 
 presenting myself at Court." 
 
 " I will cut this matter short," said Lord Dalgarno, with haughty 
 coldness. " You seemed to have conceived, my lord, that you and 
 I were Pylades and Orestes — a second edition of Damon and 
 Pythias — Theseus and PirithoUs at the least. You are mistaken, 
 and have given the name of friendship to what, on my part, was 
 mere good-nature and compassion for a raw and ignorant country- 
 man, joined to the cumbersome charge which my father gave me 
 respecting you. Your character, my lord, is of no one's drawing, 
 but of your own making. I introduced you where, as in all such 
 places, there was good and indifferent company to be met with — 
 your habits, or taste, made you prefer the worse. Your holy horror 
 at the sight of dice and cards degenerated into the cautious reso- 
 lution to play only at those times, and with such persons, as might 
 ensure your rising a winner — no man can long do so, and continue 
 to be held a gentleman. Such is the reputation you have made for 
 yourself, and you have no right to be angry that I do not contra- 
 dict in society what yourself know to be true. Let us pass on, my 
 lord ; and if you want further explanation, seek some other time 
 and fitter place." 
 
 " No time can be better than the present," said Lord Glenvarloch, 
 whose resentment was now excited to the uttermost by the cold- 
 blooded and insulting manner, in which Dalgarno vindicated 
 himself,— "no place fitter than the place where we now stand. 
 Those of my house have ever avenged insult, at the moment, and 
 on the spot, where it was offered, were it at the foot of the throne.— 
 Lord Dalgarno, you are a villain ! draw and defend yourself." At 
 the same time he unsheathed his rapier. 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. J93 
 
 "Are you mad?" said Lord Dalgarno, stepping back ; "we are 
 in the precincts of the Court ! " 
 
 " The better," answered Lord Glenvarloch ; " I will cleanse them 
 fiom a calumniator and a coward." He then pressed on Lord 
 Dalgarno, and struck him with the ilat of the sword. 
 
 The fray had now attracted attention, and the cry went round, 
 " Keep the peace — keep the peace — swords drawn in the Park !— 
 What, ho ! guards ! — keepers— yeomen rangers ! " and a number of 
 people came rushing to the spot from all sides. 
 
 Lord Dalgarno, wJio had half drawn his sword on receiving the 
 blow, returned it to his scabbard when he observed the crowd 
 thicken, and, taking Sir Ewes Haldimund by the arm, walked hastily 
 away, only saying to Lord Glenvarloch as they left him, " you shall 
 dearly abye this insult — we will meet again." 
 
 A decent-looking elderly man, who observed that Lord Glen- 
 varloch remained on the spot, taking compassion on his youthful 
 appearance, said to him, " Are you aware this is a Star-Chamber 
 business, young gentleman, and that it may cost you your right 
 hand ? — Shift for yourself before the keepers or constables come 
 up — Get into Whitefriars or somewhere, for sanctuary and conceal- 
 ment, till you can make friends or quit the city." 
 
 The advice was not to be neglected. Lord Glenvarloch made 
 hastily towards the issue from the Park by Saint James's Palace, 
 then Saint James's Hospital. The hubbub increased behind him ; 
 and several peace-officers of the Royal Household came up to ap- 
 prehend the delinquent. Fortunately for Nigel, a popular edition of 
 the cause of the affray had gone abroad. It was said that one of the 
 Duke of Buckingham's companions had insulted a stranger gentle- 
 man from the country, and that the stranger had cudgelled him 
 soundly. Afavourite,orthe companion of a favourite, is always odious 
 to John Bull, who has, besides, a partiality to those disputants who 
 proceed, as lawyers term it, par voye dtt fait, and both prejudices 
 were in Nigel's favour. The officers, therefore, who came to ap- 
 prehend him, could learn from the spectators no particulars of his 
 appearance, or information concerning the road he had taken ; so 
 that, for the moment, he escaped being arrested. 
 
 What Lord Glenvarloch heard among the crowd as he passed 
 along, was sufficient to satisfy him, that in his impatient passion 
 he had placed himself in a predicament of considerable danger. 
 He was no stranger to the severe and arbitrary proceedings of the 
 Court of Star-Chamber, especially in cases of breach of privilege, 
 which made it the terror of all men ; and it was no farther back 
 than the Queen's time that the punishment of mutilation had been 
 actually awarded and executed, for some offence of the same kind 
 
 O 
 
194 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 which he had just committed. He had also the comfortable re- 
 flection, that, by his violent quarrel with Lord Dalgarno, he must 
 now forfeit the friendship and good offices of that nobleman's father 
 and sister, almost the only persons of consideration in whom he 
 could claim any interest ; while all the evil reports which had been 
 put in circulation concerning his character, were certain to weigh 
 heavily against him, in a case where much must necessarily depend 
 on the reputation of the accused. To a youthful imagination, the 
 idea of such a punishment as mutilation seems more ghastly than 
 death itself ; and every word which he overheard among the groups 
 which he met, mingled with, or overtook and passed, announced 
 this as the penalty of his offence. He dreaded to increase his pace 
 for fear of attracting suspicion, and more than once saw the ranger's 
 officers so near him, that his wrist tingled as if already under the 
 blade of the dismembering knife. At length he got out of the 
 Park, and had a little more leisure to consider what he was next 
 to do. 
 
 Whitefriars, adjacent to the Temple, then well known by the cant 
 name of Alsatia, had at this time, and for nearly a century after- 
 wards, the privilege of a sanctuary, unless against the writ of the 
 Lord Chief Justice, or of the Lords of the Privy- Council. Indeed, 
 as the place abounded with desperadoes of every description, 
 — bankrupt citizens, ruined gamesters, irreclaimable prodigals, 
 desperate duellists, bravoes, homicides, and debauched profligates 
 of every description, all leagued together to maintain the immunities 
 of their asylum, — it was both difficult and unsafe for the officers 
 of the law to execute warrants emanating even from the highest 
 authority, amongst men whose safety was inconsistent with 
 warrants or authority of any kind. This Lord Glenvarloch well 
 knew ; and odious as the place of refuge was, it seemed the only 
 one where, for a space at least, he might be concealed and secure 
 from the immediate grasp of the law, until he should have leisure 
 to provide better for his safety, or to get this unpleasant matter in 
 some shape accommodated. 
 
 Meanwhile, as Nigel walked hastily forward towards the place of 
 sanctuary, he bitterly blamed himself for suffering Lord Dalgarno 
 to lead him into the haunts of dissipation ; and no less accused his 
 intemperate heat of passion, which now had driven him for refuge 
 into the purlieus of profane and avowed vice and debauchery. 
 
 " Dalgarno spoke but too truly in that," were his bitter reflections ; 
 " I have made myself an evil reputation by acting on his insidious 
 counsels, and neglecting the wholesome admonitions which ought to 
 have claimed implicit obedience from me, and which recommended 
 abstinence even from the slightest approach to evil, But if I escape 
 
.THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 195 
 
 from the perilous labyrinth in which folly and inexperience, as well 
 as violent passions, have involved me, I will find some noble way of 
 redeeming the lustre of a name which was never sullied until I 
 bore it." 
 
 As Lord Glenvarloch formed these prudent resolutions, he entered 
 the Temple Walks, whence a gate at that time opened into White- 
 friars, by which, as by the more private passage, he proposed to 
 betake himself to the sanctuary. As he approached the entrance 
 to that den of infamy, from which his mind recoiled even while in 
 the act of taking shelter there, his pace slackened, while the steep 
 and broken stairs reminded him of the/aci/is ciesce7isus Averiii, and 
 rendered him doubtful whether it were not better to brave the worst 
 which could befall him in the public haunts of honourable men, 
 than to evade punishment by secluding himself in those of avowed 
 vice and profligacy. 
 
 As Nigel hesitated, a young gentleman of the Temple advanced 
 towards him, whom he had often seen, and sometimes conversed 
 with, at the ordinary, where he was a frequent and welcome guest, 
 being a wild young gallant, indifferently well provided with money, 
 who spent at the theatres, and other gay places of public resort, the 
 time which his father supposed he was employing in the study of 
 the law. But Reginald LowestofFe, such was the young Templar's 
 name, was of opinion that little law was necessary to enable him to 
 spend the revenues of the paternal acres which were to devolve upon 
 him at his father's demise, and therefore gave himself no trouble to 
 acquire more of that science than might be imbibed along with the 
 learned air of the region in which he had his chambers. In other 
 respects, he was one of the wits of the place, read Ovid and Martial, 
 aimed at quick repartee and pun, (often very far fetched,) danced, 
 fenced, played at tennis, and performed sundry tunes on the fiddle 
 and French horn, to the great annoyance of old Counsellor Bar- 
 ratter, who lived in the chambers immediately below him. Such 
 was Reginald Lowestoife, shrewd, alert, and well acquainted with 
 the town through all its recesses, but in a sort of disrespectable 
 way. This gallant, now approaching the Lord Glenvarloch, saluted 
 him by name and title, and asked if his lordship designed for the 
 Chevalier's this day, observing it was near noon, and the woodcock 
 would be on the board ere they could reach the ordinary. 
 
 " I do not go there to-day," answered Lord Glenvarloch. 
 
 " Which way, then, my lord ? " said the young Templar, who was 
 perhaps not undesirous to parade a part at least of the street in 
 company with a lord, though but a Scottish one. 
 
 " I — I " — said Nigel, desiring to avail himself of this young man's 
 local knowledge, yet unwilling and ashamed to acknowledge his 
 
 O 2 
 
igS THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 intention to take refuge in so disreputable a quarter, or to describe 
 the situation in which he stood — " I have some curiosity to see 
 VVhitefriars." 
 
 " What ! yourlordship is for a froUc into Alsatia? " said Lowestoffe 
 — " Have with you, my lord — you cannot have a better guide to the 
 infernal regions than myself. I promise you there are bona-robas 
 to be found there — good wine too, ay, and good fellows to drink it 
 with, though somewhat suffering under the frowns of Fortune. But 
 your lordship will pardon me — you are the last of our acquaintance 
 to whom I would have proposed such a voyage of discovery." 
 
 " I am obliged to you, Master Lowestoffe, for the good opinion 
 you have expressed in the observation," said Lord Glenvarloch ; 
 " but my present circumstances may render even a residence of a 
 day or two in the sanctuary a matter of necessity." 
 
 " Indeed ! " said Lowestoffe, in a tone of great surprise ; " I 
 thought your lordship had always taken care not to risk any con- 
 siderable slake — I beg pardon, but if the bones have proved per- 
 fidious, I know just so much law as that a peer's person is sacred 
 from arrest ; and for mere impecuniosity, my lord, better shift can 
 be made elsewhere than in Whitefriars, where all are devouring 
 each other for very poverty." 
 
 "My misfortune has no connection with want of money," said 
 Nigel. 
 
 " Why, then, I suppose," said Lowestoffe, " you have been tilting, 
 my lord, and have pinked your man ; in which case, and with a 
 purse reasonably furnished, you may lie perdu in Whitefriars for a 
 twelvemonth — Marry, but you must be entered and received as a 
 member of their worshipful society, my lord, and a frank burgher 
 of Alsatia — so far you must condescend ; there will be neither peace 
 nor safety for you else." 
 
 " My fault is not in a degree so deadly. Master Lowestoffe," 
 answered Lord Glenvarloch, " as you seem to conjecture — I have 
 stricken a gentleman in the Park, that is all." 
 
 " By my hand, my lord, and you had better have struck your 
 sword through him at Barns Elms," said the Templar. " Strike 
 within the verge of the Court ! You will find that a weighty depen- 
 dence upon your hands, especially if your party be of rank and 
 have favour." 
 
 " I will be plain with you, Master Lowestoffe," said Nigel, " since 
 I have gone thus far. The person whom I struck was Lord 
 Dalgarno, whom you have seen at Beaujeu's." 
 
 " A follower and favourite of the Duke of Buckingham !— It is a 
 most unhappy chance, my lord; but my heart was formed in 
 England, and cannot bear to see a young nobleman borne down, 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 197 
 
 as you are like to be. We converse here greatl.y too open for your 
 circumstances. The Templars would suffer no bailiff to execute 
 a writ, and no gentleman to be arrested for a duel, within their 
 precincts ; but in such a matter between Lord Dalgarno and your 
 lordship, there might be a party on either side. You must away 
 with me instantly to my poor chambers here, hard by, and under- 
 go some little change of dress, ere you take sanctuary ; for else you 
 will have the whole rascal rout of the Friars about you, like crows 
 upon a falcon that strays into their rookery. We must haye you 
 arrayed something more like the natives of Alsatia, or there will be 
 no life there for you." 
 
 While Lowestoffe spoke, he pulled Lord Glenvarloch along with 
 him into his chambers, where he had a handsome library, filled 
 with all the poems and play-books which were then in fashion. 
 The Templar then dispatched a boy, who waited upon him, to 
 procure a dish or two from the next cook's shop ; " and this," he 
 said, " must be your lordship's dinner, with a glass of old sack, of 
 which my grandmother (the heavens requite her '.) sent me a dozen 
 bottles, with charge to use the liquor only with clarified whey, 
 when I felt my breast ache with over study. Marry, we will drink 
 the good lady's health in it, if it is your lordship's pleasure, and 
 you shall see how we poor students eke out our mutton-commons 
 in the hall." 
 
 The outward door of the chambers was barred so soon as the 
 boy had re-entered with the food ; the boy was ordered to keep 
 close watch, and admit no one ; and Lowestoffe, by example and 
 precept, pressed his noble guest to partake of his hospitality. His 
 frank and forward manners, though much differing from the 
 courtly ease of Lord Dalgarno, were calculated to make a favour- 
 able impression ; and Lord Glenvarloch, though his experience of 
 Dalgarno's perfidy had taught him to be cautious of reposing faith 
 in friendly professions, could not avoid testifying his gratitude to 
 the young Templar, who seemed so anxious for his safety and 
 accommodation. 
 
 " You may spare your gratitude any great sense of obligation, 
 my lord," said the Templar. " No doulat I am willing to be of use 
 to any gentleman that has cause to sing Fortune my foe, and 
 particularly proud to serve your lordship's turn ; but I have also an 
 old grudge, to speak heaven's truth, at your opposite. Lord 
 Dalgarno." 
 
 " May I ask upon what account. Master Lowestoffe ? " said Lord 
 Glenvarloch. 
 
 " O, my lord," rephed the Templar, " it was for a hap that 
 ch a need after you left the ordinary, one evening about three weeks 
 
igS THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 since — at least I think you were not by, as your lordship always 
 left us before deep play began— I mean no offence,. but such was 
 your lordship's custom — when there were words between Lord 
 Dalgarno and me concerning a certain game at gleek, and a 
 certain mournival of aces held by his lordship, which went for 
 eight — tib, which went for fifteen — twenty-three in all. Now I held 
 king and queen, being three— a natural towser, making fifteen — 
 and tiddy, nineteen. We vied the ruff, and revied, as your lordship 
 may suppose, till the stake was equal to half my yearly exhibition, 
 fifty as fair yellow canary birds as e'er chirped in the bottom of a 
 green silk purse. Well, my lord, I gained the cards, and lo you ! 
 it pleases his lordship to say that we played without tiddy ; and 
 as the rest stood by and backed him, and especially the shark- 
 ing Frenchman, why, I was obliged to lose more than I shall 
 gain all the season. — So judge if I have not a crow to pluck with 
 his lordship. Was it ever heard there was a game at gleek at the 
 ordinary before, without counting tiddy ? — marry quep upon his 
 lordship ! — every man who comes there with his purse in his 
 hand, is as free to make new laws as he, I hope, since touch pot 
 toucji penny makes every man equal." 
 
 As Master Lowestoffe ran over this jargon of the gaming-table, 
 Lord Glenvarloch was both ashamed and mortified, and felt a 
 severe pang of aristocratic pride, when he concluded in the sweep- 
 ing clause, that the dice, like the grave, levelled those distinguish- 
 ing points of society, to which Nigel's early prejudices clung per- 
 haps but too fondly. It was impossible, however, to object any 
 thing to the learned reasoning of the young Templar, and there- 
 fore Nigel was contented to turn the conversation, by making some 
 enquiries respecting the present state of Whitefriars. There also 
 his host was at home. 
 
 "You know, my lord," said Master Lowestoffe, "that we 
 Templars are a power and a dominion within ourselves, and I am 
 proud to say that I hold some rank in our republic — was treasurer 
 to the Lord of Misrule last year, and am at this present moment 
 in nomination for that dignity myself. In such circumstances, we 
 are under the necessity of maintaining an amicable intercourse 
 with our neighbours of Alsatia, even as the Christian States find 
 themselves often, in mere policy, obliged to make alliance with the 
 Grand Turk, or the Barbary States." 
 
 " I should have imagined you gentlemen of the Temple more 
 independent of your neighbours," said Lord Glenvarloch. 
 
 " You do us something too much honour, my lord," said the 
 Templar ; " the Alsatians and we have some common enemies, 
 and we have, under the rose, some common friends. We arc in 
 
THE fOfeTUNES OF NIGEL. 199 
 
 the use of blocking all bailiffs out of our bounds, and we are 
 powerfully aided by our neighbours, who tolerate not a rag belong- 
 ing to them within theirs. Moreover the Alsatians have — I beg 
 you to understand me — the power of protecting or distressing our 
 friends, male or female, who may be obliged to seek sanctuary 
 within their bounds. In short, the two communities serve each 
 other, though the league is between states of unequal quality, and 
 I may myself say, that I have treated of sundry weighty affairs, 
 and have been a negotiator well approved on both sides. — But 
 hark — hark — what is that ? " 
 
 The sound by which Master Lowestoffe was interrupted, was 
 that of a distant horn, winded loud and keenly, and followed by a 
 faint and remote huzza. 
 
 " There is something doing," said Lowestoffe, " in the White- 
 friars at this moment. That is the signal when their privileges 
 are invaded by tipstaff or bailiff; and at the blast of the horn they 
 all swarm out to the rescue, as bees when their hive is disturbed. 
 — Jump, Jim," he said, calling out to the attendant, " and see 
 what they are doing in Alsatia. — That bastard of a boy," he con- 
 tinued, as the lad, accustomed to the precipitate haste of his 
 master, tumbled rather than ran out of the apartment, and so 
 down stairs, "is worth gold in this quarter — he serves six masters — 
 four of them in distinct Numbers, and you would think him pre- 
 sent like a fairy at the mere wish of him that for the time most 
 needs his attendance. No scout in Oxford, no gip in Cambridge, 
 ever matched him in speed and intelligence. He knows the step 
 of a dun from that of a client, when it reaches the very bottom of 
 the staircase ; can tell the trip of a pretty wench from the step of a 
 bencher, when at the upper end of the court ; and is, take him all 
 in all — But I see your lordship is anxious— May I press another cup 
 of my kind grandmother's cordial, or will you allow me to show you 
 my wardrobe, and act as your valet or groom of the chamber ? " 
 
 Lord Glenvarloch hesitated not to acknowledge that he was 
 painfully sensible of his present situation, and anxious to do what 
 must needs be done for his extrication. 
 
 The good-natured and thoughtless young Templar readily 
 acquiesced, and led the way into his little bedroom, where, from 
 bandboxes, portmanteaus, mail-trunks, not forgetting an old walnut- 
 tree wardrobe, he began to select the articles which he thought 
 more suited effectually to disguise his guest in venturing into the 
 lawless and turbulent society of Alsatia. 
 
*S6 tME FORTUNES OS" NIGEL. 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 Come hither, young one— Mark me ! Thou art now 
 'Mongst men o' the sword, that live by reputation 
 More than by constant income — Single-suited 
 They are, I grant you ; yet each single suit 
 Maintains, on the rough guess, a thousand followers — 
 And they be men, who, hazarding their all, 
 Needful apparel, necessary income, 
 And human body, and immortal soul, 
 Do in the very deed but hazard nothing — 
 So strictly is that ALL bound in reversion ; 
 Clothes to the broker, income to the usurer— 
 And body to disease, and soul to the foul fiend ; 
 Who laughs to see Soldadoes and Fooladoes, 
 Play better than himself his game on earth. 
 
 The Mohocks. 
 
 " Your lordship," said Reginald Lowestoffe, " must be content 
 to exchange your decent and court-beseeming rapier, which I will 
 retain in safe keeping, for this broadsword, with an hundredweight 
 of rusty iron about the hilt, and to wear these huge-paned slops, 
 instead of your civil and maderate hose. We allow no cloak, for 
 your ruffian always walks in cuerpo; and the tarnished doublet of 
 bald velvet, with its discoloured embroider)', and — I grieve to 
 speak it — a few stains from the blood of the grape, will best suit 
 the garb of a roaring boy. I will leave you to change your suit 
 for an instant, till I can help to truss you." 
 
 Lowestoffe retired, while slowly, and with hesitation, Nigel 
 obeyed his instructions. He felt displeasure and disgust at the 
 scoundrelly disguise which he was under the necessity of assum- 
 ing ; but, when he considered the bloody consequences which law 
 attached to this rash act of violence, the easy and indifferent 
 temper of James, the prejudices of his son, the overbearing in- 
 fluence of the Duke of Buckingham, which was sure to be thrown 
 into the scale against him ; and, above all, when he reflected that 
 he must now look upon the active, assiduous, and insinuating 
 Lord Dalgarno, as a bitter enemy, reason told him he was in a 
 situation of peril which authorized all honest means, even the most 
 unseemly in outward appearance, to extricate himself from so 
 dangerous a predicament. 
 
 While he was changing his dress, and musing on these particu- 
 lars, his friendly host re-entered the sleeping apartment— "Zounds !" 
 he said, " my lord, it was well you went not straight into that 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 201 
 
 same Alsatia of ours at the time you proposed, for the hawks have 
 stooped upon it. Here is Jem come back with tidings, that he 
 saw a pursuivant there with a privy-council warrant, and half a 
 score of yeomen assistants, armed to the teeth, and the horn which 
 we heard was sounded to call out the posse of the Friars. Indeed, 
 when old Duke Hildebrod saw that the quest was after some one 
 of whom he knew nothing, he permitted, out of courtesy, the man- 
 catcher to search through his dominions, quite certain that they 
 would take little by their motions ; for Duke Hildebrod is a most 
 judicious potentate. — Go back, you bastard, and bring us word 
 when all is quiet." 
 
 " And who may Duke Hildebrod be ?" said Lord Glenvarloch. 
 
 " Nouns ! my lord," said the Templar, " have you lived so long 
 on the town, and never heard of the valiant, and as wise and politic 
 as valiant, Duke Hildebrod, grand protector of the liberties of 
 Alsatia? I thought the man had never whirled a die but was 
 familiar with his fame." 
 
 " Yet I have never heard of him. Master Lowestofife," said Lord 
 Glenvarloch ; " or, what is the same thing, I have paid no atten- 
 tion to aught that may have passed in conversation respecting 
 him." 
 
 " Why, then," said Lowestoffe — " but, first, let me have the 
 honour of trussing you. Now, observe, I have left several of the 
 points untied, of set purpose ; and if it please you to let a small 
 portion of your shirt be seen betwixt your doublet and the band of 
 your upper stock, it will have so much the more rakish effect, and 
 will attract you respect in Alsatia, where linen is something scarce. 
 Now, I tie some of the points carefully asquint, for your ruffianly 
 gallant never appears too accurately trussed — so." 
 
 "Arrange it as you will, sir," said Nigel ; " but let me hear at 
 least something of the conditions of the unhappy district into which, 
 with other wretches, I am compelled to retreat." 
 
 " Why, my lord," replied the Templar, " our neighbouring state 
 of Alsatia, which the law calls the Sanctuary of Whitefriars, has 
 had its mutations and revolutions like greater kingdoms ; and, 
 being in some sort a lawless, arbitrary government, it follows, of 
 course, that these have been more frequent than our own better 
 regulated commonwealth of the Templars, that of Gray's Inn, and 
 other similar associations, have had the fortune to witness. Our 
 traditions and records speak of twenty revolutions within the last 
 twelve years, in which the aforesaid state has repeatedly changed 
 from absolute despotism to republicanism, not forgetting the inter- 
 mediate stages of oligarchy, limited monarchy, and even gyno- 
 cracy ; for I myself remember Alsatia governed for nearly nine 
 
202 THE FORTUNES OF NISEL. 
 
 months by an old fishwoman. Then it fell under the dominion 
 of a broken attorney, who was dethroned by a reformado captain, 
 who, proving tyrannical, was deposed by a hedge-parson, who was 
 succeeded, upon resignation of his power, by Duke Jacob Hilde- 
 brod, of that name the first, whom Heaven long preserve." 
 
 "And is this potentate's government," said Lord Glenvarloch, 
 forcing himself to take some interest in the conversation, " of a 
 despotic character ? " 
 
 " Pardon me, my lord," said the Templar ; " this said sovereign 
 is too wise to incur, like many of his predecessors, the odium of 
 wielding so important an authority by his own sole will. He has 
 established a council of state, who regularly meet for-their morn- 
 ing's draught at seven o'clock ; convene a second time at eleven 
 for their ante-meridiem, or whet : and, assembling in solemn con- 
 clave at the hour of two afternoon, for the purpose of consulting for 
 the good of the commonwealth, are so prodigal of their labour in 
 the service of the state, that they seldom separate before midnight. 
 Into this worthy senate, composed partly of Duke Hildbrod's pre- 
 decessors in his high office, whom he has associated with him to 
 prevent the envy attending sovereign and sole authority, I must 
 presently introduce your lordship, that they may admit you to the 
 immunities of the Friars, and assign you a place of residence." 
 
 "Does their authority extend to such regulation ?" said Lord 
 Glenvarloch. 
 
 " The council account it a main point of their privileges, my 
 lord," answered Lowestoffe ; " and, in fact, it is one of the most 
 powerful means by which they support their authority. For, when 
 Duke Hildebrod and his senate find a topping householder in the 
 Friars becomes discontented and factious, it is but assigning him, 
 for a lodger, some fat bankrupt, or new residenter, whose circum- 
 stances require refuge, and whose purse can pay for it, and the 
 malecontent becomes as tractable as a lamb. As for the poorer 
 refugees, they let them shift as they can ; but the registration of 
 their names in the Duke's entry-book, and the payment of garnish 
 conforming to their circumstances, is never dispensed with ; and 
 the Friars would be a very unsafe residence for the stranger who 
 should dispute these points of jurisdiction." 
 
 " Well, Master Lowestofife," said Lord Glenvarloch, " I must be 
 controlled by the circumstances which dictate to me this state of 
 concealment— of course, I am desirous not to betray my name and 
 rank." 
 
 " It will be highly advisable, my lord," said Lowestoffe ; " and is 
 a case thus provided for in the statutes of the republic, or mon- 
 archy, or whatsoever you call it,— He who desires that no questions 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 203 
 
 shall be asked him concerning his name, cause of refuge, and the 
 like, may escape the usual interrogations upon payment of double 
 the garnish otherwise belonging to his condition. Complying with 
 this essential stipulation, your lordship may register yourself as 
 King of Bantam if you will, for not a question will be asked of you. 
 — But here comes our scout, with news of peace and tranquillity. 
 Now, I will go with your lordship myself, and present you to 
 the council of Alsatia, with all the influence which I have over 
 them as an office-bearer in the Temple, which is not slight ; for 
 they have come halting off upon all occasions when we have taken 
 part against them, and that they well know. The time is propiti- 
 ous, for as the council is now met in Alsatia, so the Temple walks 
 are quiet. Now, my lord, throw your cloak about you, to hide 
 your present exterior. You shall give it to the boy at the foot of 
 the stairs that go down to the Sanctuary ; and as the ballad says 
 that Queen Eleanor sunk at Charing- Cross and rose at Queenhithe, 
 so you shall sink a nobleman in the Temple Gardens, and rise an 
 Alsatian at Whitefriars." 
 
 They went out accordingly, attended by the little scout, traversed 
 the gardens, descended the stairs, and at the bottom the young 
 Templar exclaimed, — " And now let us sing, with Ovid, 
 
 ' In nova fert animus mutatas dicere formas ' — 
 
 Off, off, ye lendings ! " he continued, in the same vein. " Via, the 
 curtain that shadowed Borgia ! — But how now, my lord .' " he con- 
 tinued, when he observed Lord Glenvarloch was really distressed 
 at the degrading change in his situation, " I trust you are not 
 offended at my rattling folly ? I would but reconcile you to your 
 present circumstances, and give you the tone of this strange place. 
 Come, cheer up ; I trust it will only be your residence for a very 
 few days." 
 
 Nigel was only able to press his hand, and reply in a whisper, 
 " I am sensible of your kindness. I know I must drink the cup 
 which my own folly has filled for me. Pardon me, that, at the first 
 taste, I feel its bitterness." 
 
 Reginald Lowestoffe was bustlingly officious and good-natured ; 
 but, used to live a scrambling, rakish course of life himself, he had 
 not the least idea of the extent of Lord Glenvarloch's mental 
 sufferings, and thought of his temporary concealment as if it were 
 merely the trick of a wanton boy, who plays at hide-and-seek with 
 his tutor. With the appearance of the place, too, he was familiar 
 — but on his companion it produced a deep sensation. 
 
 The ancient Sanctuary at Whitefriars lay considerably lower 
 
204 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 than the elevated terraces and gardens of the Temple, and was 
 therefore generally involved in the damps and fogs arising from 
 the Thames. The brick buildings by which it was occupied, 
 crowded closely on each other, for, in a place so rarely privileged, 
 every foot of ground was valuable ; but, erected in many cases by 
 persons whose funds were inadequate to their speculations, the 
 houses were generally insufficient, and exhibited the lamentable 
 signs of having become ruinous while they were yet new. The wail- 
 ing of children, the scolding of their mothers, the miserable exhi- 
 bition of ragged linens hung from the windows to dry, spoke the 
 wants and distresses of the wretched inhabitants; while the sounds 
 of complaint were mocked and overwhelmeei in the riotous shouts, 
 oaths, profane songs, and boisterous laughter, that issued from the 
 alehouses and taverns^ which, as the signs indicated, were equal in 
 number to all the other houses ; and, that the full character of the 
 place might be evident, several faded, tinselled, and painted 
 females, looked boldly at the strangers from their open lattices, or 
 more modestly seemed busied with the cracked flower-pots, filled 
 with mignonette and rosemary, which were disposed in front of the 
 windows, to the great risk of the passengers. 
 
 " Semi-reducta Venus," said the Templar, pointing to one of 
 these nymphs, who seemed afraid of observation, and partly con- 
 cealed herself behind the casement, as she chirped to a miserable 
 blackbird, the tenant of a wicker prison, which hung outside on 
 the black brick wall. — " I know the face of yonder waistcoateer," 
 continued the guide ; " and I could wager a rose-noble, from the 
 posture she stands in, that she has clean head-gear, and a soiled 
 nightrail. — But here come two of the male inhabitants, smoking 
 like moving volcanoes ! These are roaring blades, whom Nicotia 
 and Trinidado serve, I dare swear, in lieu of beef and pudding ; for 
 be it known to you, my lord, that the King's counter-blast against 
 the Indian weed will no more pass current in Alsatia, than will his 
 writ of capias.'^ 
 
 As he spoke, the two smokers approached ; shaggy, uncombed 
 ruffians, whose enormous mustaches were turned back over their 
 ears, and mingled with the wild elf-locks of their hair, much of 
 which was seen under the old beavers which they wore aside upon 
 their heads, while some straggling portion escaped through the 
 rents of the hats aforesaid. Their tarnished plush jerkins, large 
 slops, or trunk-breeches, their broad greasy shoulder-belts, and 
 discoloured scarfs, and, above all, the ostentatious manner in which 
 the one wore a broadsword, and the other an extravagantly long 
 rapier and poniard, marked the true Alsatian bully, then, and for a 
 hundred years afterwards, a well-known character. 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 205 
 
 " Tour out," said the one ruffian to the other ; " tour the bien 
 mort twiring at the gentry cove ! " * 
 
 " I smell a spy," replied the other, looking at Nigel. " Chalk 
 him across the peepers with your cheery." t 
 
 " Bing avast, bing avast ! " replied his companion ; " ypn other 
 is rattling Reginald Lowestoffe of the Temple — I know him ; he is 
 a good boy, and free of the province." 
 
 So saying, and enveloping themselves in another thick cloud of 
 smoke, they went on without farther greeting. 
 
 " Crasso in acre 1 " said the Templar. " You hear what a cha- 
 racter the impudent knaves give me ; but, so it serves your lord- 
 ship's turn, I care not. — And, now, let me ask your lordship what 
 name you will assume, for we are near the ducal palace of Duke 
 Hildebrod." 
 
 "I will be called Grahame," said Nigel; "it wasmy mother's name.'' 
 
 " Grime," repeated the Templar, " will suit Alsatia well enough 
 — both a grim and grimy place of refuge." 
 
 " I said Grahame, sir, not Grime," said Nigel, something shortly, 
 and laying an emphasis on the vowel — for few Scotsmen under- 
 stand raillery upon the subject of their names. 
 
 " I beg pardon, my lord," answered the undisconcerted punster ; 
 " but Graam will suit the circumstance, too — it signifies tribulation 
 in the High Dutch, and your lordship must be considered as a man 
 under trouble." 
 
 Nigel laughed at the pertinacity of the Templar ; who, proceed- 
 ing to point out a sign representing, or believed to represent, a dog 
 attacking a bull, and running at his head, in the true scientific 
 style of onset, — " There," said he, '• doth faithful Duke Hildebrod 
 deal forth laws, as well as ale and strong waters, to his faithful 
 Alsatians. Being a determined champion of Paris Garden, he has 
 chosen a sign corresponding to his habits ; and he deals in giving 
 drink to the thirsty, that he himself may drink without paying, and 
 receive pay for what is drunken by others. — Let us enter the ever- 
 open gate of this second Axylus." 
 
 As they spoke, they entered the dilapidated tavern, which was, 
 nevertheless, more ample in dimensions, and less ruinous, than 
 many houses in the same evil neighbourhood. ■ Two or three hag- 
 gard, ragged drawers, ran to and fro, whose looks, like those of 
 owls, seemed only adapted for midnight, when other creatures 
 sleep, and who by day seemed bleared, stupid, and only half awake. 
 Guided by one of these blinking Ganymedes they entered a room, 
 where the feeble rays of the sun were almost wholly eclipsed by 
 volumes of tobacco-smoke, rolled from the tubes of the company, 
 while out of the cloudy sanctuary arose the old chant of— 
 
2o5 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 " Old Sir Simon the King, 
 And old Sir Simon the King, 
 With his malmsey nose, 
 And his ale-dropped hose. 
 And sing hey ding-a-ding-ding." 
 
 Duke Hildebrod, who himself condescended to chant this ditty 
 to his loving subjects, was a monstrously fat old man, with only 
 one eye ; and a nose which bore evidence to the frequency, strength, 
 and depth of his potations. He wore a murrey-coloured plush 
 jerkin, stained with the overflowings of the tankard, and much the 
 worse for wear, and unbuttoned at bottom for the ease of his 
 enormous paunch. Behind him lay a favourite bull-dog, whose 
 round head and single black glancing eye, as well as the creature's 
 great corpulence, gave it a burlesque resemblance to its master. 
 
 The well-beloved counsellors who surrounded the ducal throne, 
 incensed it with tobacco, pledged its occupier in thick, clammy ale, 
 and echoed back his choral songs, were Satraps worthy of such a 
 Soldan. The buff jerkin, broad belt, and long sword of one, 
 showed him to be a Low Country soldier, whose look of scowling 
 importance, and drunken impudence, were designed to sustain his 
 title to call himself a Roving Blade. It seemed to Nigel that he 
 had seen this fellow somewhere or other. A hedge-parson, or 
 buckle-beggar, as that order of priesthood has been irreverently 
 termed, sat on the Duke's left, and was easily distinguished by his 
 torn band, flapped hat, and the remnants of a rusty cassock. 
 Beside the parson sat a most wretched and meagre-looking old 
 man, with a threadbare hood of coarse kersey upon his head, and 
 buttoned about his neck, while his pinched features, lilce those of 
 old Daniel, were illuminated by 
 
 ' an eye, 
 
 Through the last look of dotage still cunning and sly.' 
 
 On his left was placed a broken attorney, who, from some mal- 
 practices, had been struck from the roll of practitioners, and who 
 had nothing left of his profession, excepting its roguery. One or 
 two persons of less figure, amongst whom there was one face, 
 which, like that of the soldier, seemed not unknown to Nigel, 
 though he could not recollect where he had seen it, completed the 
 council-board of Jacob Duke Hildebrod. 
 
 The strangers had full time to observe all this ; for his grace the 
 Duke, whether irresistibly carried on by the full tide of harmony, 
 or whether to impress the strangers with a proper idea of his con- 
 sequence, chose to sin^ his ditty to an end before addressing them, 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 207 
 
 though, during the whole time, he closely scrutinized them with his 
 single optic. 
 
 When Duke Hildebrod had ended his song, he informed his 
 Peers that a worthy officer of the Temple attended them, and com- 
 manded the captain and parson to abandon their easy chairs in 
 behalf of the two strangers, whom he placed on his right and left 
 hand. The worthy representatives of the army and the church of 
 Alsatia went to place themselves on a crazy form at the bottom of 
 the table, which, ill calculated to sustain men of such weight, gave 
 way under them, and the man of the sword and man of the gown 
 were rolled over each other on the floor, amidst the exulting shouts 
 of the company. They arose in wrath, contending which should vent 
 his displeasure in the loudest and deepest oaths, a strife in which 
 the parson's superior acquaintance with theology enabled him 
 greatly to excel the captain, and were at length with difficulty 
 tranquillized by the arrival of the alarmed waiters with more stable 
 chairs, and by a long draught of the cooling tankard. When this 
 commotion was appeased, and the strangers courteously accommo- 
 dated with flagons, after the fashion of the others present, the Duke 
 drank prosperity to the Temple in the most gracious manner, toge- 
 ther with a cup of welcome to Master Reginald Lowestofife ; and, 
 this courtesy having been thankfully accepted, the party honoured 
 prayed permission to call for a gallon of Rhenish, over which he 
 proposed to open his business. 
 
 The mention of a liquor so superior to their usual potations had 
 an instant and most favourable effect upon the little senate ; and 
 its immediate appearance might be said to secure a favourable 
 reception of Master Lowestoffe's proposition, which, after a round 
 or two had circulated, he explained to be the admission of his 
 friend Master Nigel Grahame to the benefit of the sanctuary and 
 other immunities of Alsatia, in the character of a grand com- 
 pounder ; for so were those termed who paid a double fee at their 
 matriculation, in order to avoid laying before the senate the 
 peculiar cirnumstances which compelled them to take refuge 
 there. 
 
 The worthy Duke heard the proposition with glee, which glit- 
 tered in his single eye ; and no wonder, as it was a rare occur- 
 rence, and of peculiar advantage to his private revenue. Ac- 
 cordingly, he commanded his ducal register to be brought him, a 
 huge book, secured with brass clasps like a merchant's ledger, and 
 whose leaves, stained with wine, and slabbered with tobacco 
 juice, bore the names probably of as many rogues as are to be 
 found in the Calendar of Newgate. 
 
 Nigel was then directed to lay down two nobles as his ransom, 
 
2o8 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 and to claim privilege by reciting the following doggerel, verses, 
 which were dictated to him by the Duke : — 
 
 " Your suppliant, by name 
 Nigel Grahame, 
 In fear of mishap 
 From a shoulder-tap ; 
 And dreading a claw 
 From the talons of law, 
 
 That are sharper than briers ; 
 His freedom to sue, 
 And rescue by you — 
 Through weapon and wit. 
 From warrant and writ, 
 From bailiff's hand, 
 From tipstaff's wand. 
 
 Is come hither to Whitefriars." 
 
 As Duke Hildebrod with a tremulous hand began to make the 
 entry, and had already, with superfluous generosity, spelled Nigel 
 with two g's instead of one, he was interrupted by the parson * 
 This reverend gentleman had been whispering for a minute or two, 
 not with the captain, but with that other individual, who dwelt 
 imperfectly, as we have already mentioned, in Nigel's memory, and 
 being, perhaps, still something malecontent on account of the late 
 accident, he now requested to be heard before the registration took 
 place. 
 
 " The person," he said, " who hath now had the assurance to 
 propose himself as a candidate for the privileges and immunities 
 of this honourable society, is, in plain terms, a beggarly Scdt, and 
 we have enough of these locusts in London already — if we admit 
 such palmer-worms and caterpillars to the Sanctuary, we shall 
 soon have the whole nation." 
 
 "We are not entitled to enquire," said Duke Hildebrod, 
 " whether he be Scot, or French, or English ; seeing he has 
 honourably laid down his garnish, he is entitled to our protec- 
 tion." 
 
 " Word of denial, most Sovereign Duke," replied the parson, 
 " I ask him no questions— his speech bewrayeth him-^he is a 
 Galilean — and his garnish is forfeited forliis assurance in coming 
 within this our realm ; and I call on you, Sir Duke, to put the 
 laws in force against him ! " 
 
 The Templar here rose, and was about to interrupt the deli- 
 berations of the court, when the Duke gravely assured him that 
 he should be heard in behalf of his friend, so soon as the council 
 had finished their deliberations. 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 201) 
 
 The attorney next rose, and, intimating that he was to speak 
 to the point of law, said — "It was easy to be seen that this 
 gentleman did not come here in any civil case, and that he 
 believed it to be the story they had already heard of, concern- 
 ing a blow given within the verge of the Park — that the Sanc- 
 tuary would not bear out the offender in such case — and that 
 the queer old Chief would send down a broom which should 
 sweep the streets of Alsatia from the Strand to the Stairs ; and 
 it was even policy to think what evil might come to their republic, 
 by sheltering an alien in such circumstances." 
 
 The captain, who had sat impatiently while these opinions were 
 expressed, now sprang on his feet with the vehemence of a cork 
 bouncing from a bottle of brisk beer, and, turning up his mustaches 
 with a martial air, cast a glance of contempt on the lawyer and 
 churchman, while he thus expressed his opinion. 
 
 " Most noble Duke Hildebrod ! When I hear such base, skel- 
 dering, coistril propositions come from the counsellors of your 
 grace, and when I remember the Huffs, the Mums, and the Tity- 
 retu's by whom your grace's ancestors and predecessors were 
 advised on such occasions, I begin to think the spirit of action is 
 as dead in Alsatia as in my old grannam ; and yet who thinks so 
 thinks a lie, since I will find as many roaring boys in the Friars as 
 shall keep the liberties against all the scavengers of Westminster. 
 And, if we should be overborne for a turn, death and darkness ! 
 have we not time to send the gentleman off by water, either to 
 Paris Garden or to the bankside ? and, if he is a gallant of true 
 breed, will he not make us full amends for all the trouble we have? 
 Let other societies exist by the law, I say that we brisk boys of the 
 Fleet live in spite of it ; and thrive best when we are in right 
 opposition to sign and seal, writ and warrant, sergeant and tipstaff, 
 catchpoll and bum-bailey." 
 
 This speech was followed by a murmur of approbation, and 
 Lowestoffe, striking in before the favourable sound had subsided, 
 reminded the Duke and his council how much the security of their 
 state depended upon the amity of the Templars, who, by closing 
 their gates, could at pleasure shut against the Alsatians the com- 
 munication betwixt the Friars and the Temple, and that as they 
 conducted themselves on this occasion, so would they secure or 
 lose the benefit of his interest with his own body, which they knew 
 not to be inconsiderable. " And, in respect of my friend being a 
 Scotsman and alien, as has been observed by the reverend divine 
 and learned lawyer, you are to consider," said Lowestoffe, " for 
 what he is pursued hither — why, for giving the bastinado, not to an 
 Englishman, but to one of his own countrymen. And for my own 
 
210 TttE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 simple part," he continued, touching Lord Glenvarloch at the same 
 time, to make him understand he spoke but in jest, " if all the Scots 
 in London were to fight a Welch main, and kill each other to a 
 man, the survivor would, in my humble opinion, be entitled to 
 our gratitude, as having done a most acceptable service to poor 
 Old England." 
 
 A shout of laughter and applause followed this ingenious apology 
 for the client's state of ahenage ; and the Templar followed up his 
 plea with the following pithy proposition :— " I know well," said he, 
 " it is the custom of the fathers of this old and honourable repub- 
 lic, ripely and well to consider all their proceedings over a proper 
 allowance of Uquor ; and far be it from me to propose the breach 
 of so laudable a custom, or to pretend that such an affair as the 
 present can be well and constitutionally considered during the dis- 
 cussion of a pitiful gallon of sack. But, as it is the same thing to 
 this hohourable conclave whether they drink first and determine 
 aiterwards, or whether they determine first and drink afterwards, 1 
 propose your grace, with the advice of your wise and potent sena- 
 tors, shall pass your edict, granting to mine honourable friend the 
 immunities of the place, and assigning him a lodging, according to 
 your wise forms, to which he will presently retire, being somewhat 
 spent with this day's action ; whereupon I will presently order you 
 a rundlet of Rhenish, with a corresponding quantity of neats'" 
 tongues and pickled herrings, to make you all as glorious as 
 George-a- Green. " 
 
 This overture was received with a general shout of applause, 
 which altogether drowned the voice of the dissidents, if any there 
 were amongst the Alsatian senate who could have resisted a pro- 
 posal so popular. The words of, kind heart ! noble gentleman ! 
 generous gallant ! flew from mouth to mouth ; the inscription of 
 the petitioner's name in the great book was hastily completed, and 
 the oath administered to him by the worthy Doge. Like the Laws 
 of the Twelve Tables, of the ancient Cambro- Britons, and other 
 primitive natiops, it was couched in poetry, and ran as follows : — 
 
 " By spigot and barrel. 
 
 By bilboe and buff ; 
 Thou art sworn to the quarrel 
 
 Of the blades of the huff. 
 For Whitefriars and its claims 
 
 To be champion or martyr. 
 And to fight for its dames 
 
 Like a Knight of the Garter." 
 
 l^igel felt, and indeed exhibited, some disgust at this mummery j 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 21I 
 
 but, the Templar reminding him that he was too far advanced to 
 draw back, he repeated the words, or rather assented as they were 
 repeated by Duke Hildebrod, who concluded the ceremony by 
 allowing him the privilege of sanctuary, in the following form of 
 prescriptive doggerel : — 
 
 " From the touch of the tip. 
 
 From the Wight of the warrant, 
 From the watchmen who skip 
 
 On the Harman Beck's errand ; 
 From the bailiff's cramp speech, 
 
 That makes man a thrall, 
 I charm thee from each. 
 
 And I charm thee from all. 
 Thy freedom's complete 
 
 As a Blade of the Huff. 
 To be cheated and cheat, 
 
 To be cuff 'd and to cuff ; 
 To stride, swear, and swagger, 
 To drink till you stagger, 
 
 To stare and to stab. 
 And to brandish your dagger 
 
 In the cause of your drab ; 
 To walk wool-ward in winter, 
 
 Drink brandy, and smoke, 
 And ^o fresco in summer 
 
 For want of a cloak ; 
 To eke out your living 
 
 By the wag of your elbow, 
 By fulham and gourd. 
 
 And by baring of bilboe ; 
 To live by your shifts. 
 
 And to swear by your honour, 
 Are the freedom and gifts 
 
 Of which I am the donor." * 
 
 This homily beipg performed, a dispute arose concerning the 
 special residence to be assigned the new brother of the Sanctuary ; 
 for, as the Alsatians held it a maxim in their commonwealth, that 
 ass's milk fattens, there was usually a competition among the 
 inhabitants which should have the managing, as it was termed, of 
 a new member of the society. 
 
 The Hector who had spoken so warmly and critically in Nigel's 
 behalf, stood out now chivalrously in behalf of a certain Blowse- 
 linda, or Bonstrops, who had, it seems, a room to hire, once the 
 occasional residence of Slicing Dick of Paddington, who lately 
 suffered at Tyburn, and whose untimely exit had been hitherto 
 
 P 2 
 
212 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 mourned by the damsel in solitary widowhood, after the fashion of 
 the turtle-dove. 
 
 The captain's interest was, however, overruled, in behalf of the 
 old gentleman in the kersey hood, who was believed, even at his 
 extreme age, to understand the plucking of a pigeon, as well, or 
 better, than any man of Alsatia. 
 
 This venerable personage was an usurer of some notoriety, 
 called Trapbois, and had very lately done the state considerable 
 service in advancing a subsidy necessary to secure a fresh importa- 
 tion of liquors to the Duke's cellars, the wine-merchant at the 
 Vintry being scrupulous to deal with so great a man for any 
 thing but ready money. 
 
 When, therefore, the old gentleman arose, and, with much 
 coughing, reminded the Duke that he had a poor apartment to let, 
 the claims of all others were set aside, and Nigel was assigned to 
 Trapbois as his guest. 
 
 No sooner was this arrangement made, than Lord Glenvarloch 
 expressed to Lowestoffe his impatience to leave this discreditable 
 assembly, and took his leave with a careless haste, which, but for 
 the rundlet of Rhenish wine that entered just as he left the apart- 
 ment, might have been taken in bad part. The young Templar 
 accompanied his friend to the house of the old usurer, with the 
 road to which he and some other youngsters about the Temple 
 were even but too well acquainted. On the way, he assured 
 Lord Glenvarloch that he was going to the only clean house in 
 Whitefriars ; a property which it owed solely to the exertions of 
 the old man's only daughter, an elderly damsel, ugly enough to 
 frighten sin, yet likely to be wealthy enough to tempt a puritan, 
 so soon as the devil had got her old dad for his due. As 
 Lowestoffe spoke thus, they knocked at the door of the house, 
 and the sour, stern countenance of the female by whom it was 
 opened, fully confirmed aU that the Templar had said of the 
 hostess She heard, with an ungracious and discontented air, 
 the young Templar's information, that the gentleman, his com- 
 panion, was to be her father's lodger, muttered something about 
 the trouble it was likely to occasion, but ended by showing the 
 stranger his apartment, which was better than could have been 
 augured from the general appearance of the place, and much 
 larger in extent than that which he had occupied at Paul's Wharf, 
 though inferior to it in neatness. 
 
 Lowestoffe, having thus seen his friend fairly installed in his new 
 apartment, and having obtained for him a note of the rate at 
 which he could be accommodated with victuals from a neighbour- 
 ing cook's shop, now took his leave, offering, at the same time, to 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 213 
 
 send the whole, or any part of Lord Glenvarloch's baggage, from 
 his former place of residence to his new lodging. Nigel men- 
 tioned so few articles, that the Templar could not help observing, 
 that his lordship, it would seem, did not intend to enjoy his new 
 privileges long. 
 
 " They are too little suited to my habits ana taste, that I should 
 do so," replied Lord Glenvarloch. 
 
 " You may change your opinion to-morrow,'' said Lowestoffe ; 
 " and so I wish you good even. To-morrow I will visit you 
 betimes." 
 
 The morning came, but, instead of the Templar, it brought only 
 a letter from him. The epistle stated, that Lowestoffe's visits to 
 Alsatia had drawn down the animadversions of some crabbed old 
 pantaloons among the benchers, and that he judged it wise not to 
 come hither at present, for fear of attracting too much attention to 
 Lord Glenvarloch's place of residence. He stated, that he had 
 taken measures for the safety of his baggage, and would send him, 
 by a safe hand, his money-casket, and what articles he wanted. 
 Then followed some sage advices, dictated by Lowestoffe's ac- 
 quaintance with Alsatia and its manners. He advised him to 
 keep the usurer in the most absolute uncertainty concerning the 
 state of his funds — never to throw a main with the captain, who 
 was in the habit of playing dry-fisted, and paying his losses with 
 three vowels ; and, finally, to beware of Duke Hildebrod, who 
 was as sharp, he said, as a needle, though he had no more 
 eyes than are possessed by that necessary implement of female 
 industry. 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 Mother. What ! Dazzled by a flash of Cupid's mirror, 
 With which the boy, as mortal urchins wont, 
 Flings back the sunbeam in the eye of passengers — 
 Then laughs to see them stumble ! 
 
 Daughter. Mother ! no — 
 It was a lightning-flash which dazzled me. 
 And never shall these eyes see true again. 
 
 Beef and Pudding. — An old English Comedy. 
 
 It is necessary that we should leave our hero Nigel for a time, 
 although in a situation neither safe, comfortable, nor creditable, in 
 order to detail some particulars which ha^'e immediate connexion 
 with his fortunes. 
 
214 *rHE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 It was but the third day after he had been forced to take refuge 
 in the house of old Trapbois, the noted usurer of Whitefriars, com- 
 monly called Golden Trapbois, when the pretty daughter of old 
 Kamsay, the watchmaker, after having piously seen her father finish 
 his breakfast, (from the fear that he might, in an abstruse fit of 
 thought, swallow the saltcellar instead of a crust of the brown loaf,) 
 set forth from the house as soon as he was again plunged into the 
 depth of calculation, and, accompanied only by that faithful old 
 drudge, Janet, the Scots laundress, to whom her whims were laws, 
 made her way to Lombard Street, and disturbed, at the unusual 
 hour of eight in the morning. Aunt Judith, the sister of her worthy 
 godfather. 
 
 The venerable maiden received her young visitor with no great 
 complacency ; for, naturally enough, she had neither the same ad- 
 miration of her very pretty countenance, nor allowance for her 
 foolish and girlish impatience of temper, which Master George 
 Heriot entertained. Still Mistress Margaret was a favourite of her 
 brother's, whose will was to Aunt Judith a supreme law ; and she 
 contented herself with asking her untimely visitor "what she 
 made so early with her pale, chitty face, in the streets of London ?" 
 
 " I would speak with the Lady Hermione," answered the almost 
 breathless girl, while the blood ran so fast to her face as totally to 
 remove the objection of paleness which Aunt Judith had made to 
 her complexion. 
 
 ' With the Lady Hermione ? " said Aunt Judith — " with the Lady 
 Hermione .' and at this time in the morning, when she will scarce 
 see any of the family, even at seasonable hours ? You are crazy, 
 you silly wench, or you abuse the indulgence which my brother and 
 the lady have shown to you." 
 
 " Indeed, indeed I have not," repeated Margaret, struggling to 
 retain the unbidden tear which seemed ready to burst out on the 
 slightest occasion. " Do but say to the lady that your brother's 
 god-daughter desires earnestly to speak to her, and I know she will 
 not refuse to see me." 
 
 Aunt Judith bent an earnest, suspicious, and inquisitive glance 
 on her young visitor. " You might make me your secretary, my las- 
 sie," she said, " as well as the Lady Hermione. I am older, and 
 better skilled to advise. I live more in the world than one who 
 shuts herself up within four rooms, and I have the better means to 
 assist you." 
 
 " O ! no— no— no," said Margaret, eagerly, and with more earnest 
 sincerity than complaisance ; " there are some things to which you 
 cannot adwse me. Aunt Judith. It is a case— pardon me, my dear 
 aunt— a case beyond your counsel." 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 213 
 
 " I am glad on't, maiden," said Aunt Judith, somewhat angrily ; 
 "for I think the follies of the young people of this generation 
 would drive mad an old brain like mine. Here you come on the 
 viretot, through the whole streets of London, to talk some nonsense 
 to a lady, who scarce sees God's sun, but when he shines on a brick 
 wall. But I will tell her you are here." 
 
 She went away, and shortly returned with a dry — " Mistress 
 Margaret, the lady will be glad to see you ; and that's more, my 
 young madam, than you had a right to count upon." 
 
 Mistress Margaret hung her head in silence, too much perplexed 
 by the train of her own embarrassed thoughts, for attempting either 
 to conciliate Aunt Judith's kindness, or, which on other occasions 
 would have been as congenial to her own humour, to retaliate on 
 her cross-tempered remarks and manner. She followed Aunt 
 Judith, therefore, in silence and dejection, to the strong oaken door 
 which divided the Lady Hermione's apartments from the rest of 
 George Heriot's spacious house. 
 
 At the door of this sanctuary it is necessary to pause, in order 
 to correct the reports with which Richie Moniplies had filled his 
 master's ear, respecting the singular appearance of that lady's 
 attendance at prayers, whom we now own to be by name the Lady 
 Hermione. Some part of these exaggerations had been communi- 
 cated to the worthy Scotsman by Jenkin Vincent, who was well 
 experienced in the species of wit which has been long a favourite 
 in the city, under the names of cross-biting, giving the dor, bam- 
 boozling, cramming, hoaxing, humbugging, and quizzing ; for which 
 sport Richie Moniplies, with his solemn gravity, totally unappre- 
 hensive of a joke, and his natural propensity to the marvellous, 
 formed an admirable subject. Farther ornaments the tale had 
 received from Richie himself, whose tongue, especially when oiled 
 with good liquor, had a considerable tendency to amplification, and 
 who failed not, while he retailed to his master all the wonderful 
 circumstances narrated by Vincent, to add to them many conjec- 
 tures of his own, which his imagination had over-hastily converted 
 into facts. 
 
 Yet the life which the Lady Hermione had led for two years, 
 during which she had been the inmate of George Heriot's house, was 
 so singular, as almost to sanction many of the wild reports which 
 went abroad. The house which the worthy goldsmith inhabited, 
 had in former times belonged to a powerful and wealthy baronial 
 family, which, during the reign of Henry VHL, terminated in a 
 dowager lady, very wealthy, very devout, and most unalienably 
 attached to the Catholic faith. The chosen friend of the Honour- 
 able Lady Foljambe was the Abbess of Saint Roque's Nunnery, 
 
ai6 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 like herself a conscientious, rigid, and devoted Papist. When the 
 house of Saint Roque was despotically dissolved by ihtfiat of the 
 impetuous monarch, the Lady Foljambe received her friend into 
 her spacious mansion, together with two vestal sisters, who, like 
 their Abbess, were determined to follow the tenor of their vows, 
 instead of embracing the profane liberty which the Monarch's will 
 had thrown in their choice. For their residence, the Lady Foljambe 
 contrived, with all secrecy— for Henry might not have relished her 
 interference— to set apart a suite of four rooms, with a little closet 
 fitted up as an oratory, or chapel ; the whole apartments fenced by 
 a strong oaken door to exclude strangers, and accommodated with 
 a turning wheel to receive necessaries, according to the practice of 
 all nunneries. In this retreat the Abbess of Saint Roque and her 
 attendants passed many years, communicating only with the Lady 
 Foljambe, who, in virtue of their prayers, and of the support she 
 afforded them, accounted herself little less than a saint on earth. 
 The Abbess, fortunately for herself, died before her munificent 
 patroness, who lived deep in Queen Elizabeth's time, ere she was 
 summoned by fate. 
 
 The Lady Foljambe was succeeded in this mansion by a sour 
 fanatic knight, a distant and collateral relation, who claimed the 
 same merit for expelling the priestess of Baal, which his predecessor 
 had founded on maintaining the votaresses of Heaven. Of the 
 two unhappy nuns, driven from their ancient refuge, one went 
 beyond sea ; the other, unable from old age to undertake such a 
 journey, died under the roof of a faithful Catholic widow of low 
 degree. Sir Paul Crambagge, having got rid of the nuns, spoiled 
 the chapel of its ornaments, and had thoughts of altogether de- 
 stroying the apartments, until checked by the reflection that the 
 operation would be an unnecessary expense,; since he only inhabited 
 three rooms of the large mansion, and had not therefore the slightest 
 occasion for any addition to its accommodations. His son proved 
 a waster and a prodigal, and from him the house was bought by 
 our friend George Heriot, who, finding, like Sir Paul, the house 
 more than sufficiently ample for his accommodation, left the Fol- 
 jambe apartments, or Saint" Roque's rooms, as they were called, in 
 the state in which he found them. 
 
 About two years and a half before our history opened, when 
 Heriot was absent upon an expedition to the Continent, he sent 
 special orders to his sister and his cash-keeper, directing that the 
 Foljambe apartments should be fitted up handsomely, though 
 plainly, for the reception of a lady, who would make them her 
 residence for some time ; and who would live more or less with 
 his- own family according to her pleasure. He also directed, 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 217 
 
 that the necessary repairs should be made with secrecy, and that 
 as httle should be said as possible upon the subject of his letter. 
 
 When the time of his return came nigh, Aunt Judith and the 
 household were on the tenter-hooks of impatience. Master George 
 came, as he had intimated, accompanied by a lady, so eminently 
 beautiful, that, had it not been for her extreme and uniforrh pale- 
 ness, she might have been reckoned one of the loveliest creatures 
 on earth. She had with her an attendant, or humble companion, 
 whose business seemed only to wait upon her. This person, a 
 reserved woman, and by her dialect a foreigner, aged about fifty, 
 was called by the lady, Monna Paula, and by Master Heriot, and 
 others. Mademoiselle Pauhne. She slept in the same room with 
 her patroness at night, ate in her apartment, and was scarcely ever 
 separated from her during the day. 
 
 These females took possession of the nunnery of the devout 
 Abbess, and, without observing the same rigorous seclusion, 
 according to the letter, seemed wellnigh to restore the apartments 
 to the use to which they had been originally designed. The new 
 inmates lived and took their meals apart from the rest of the 
 family. With the domestics, Lady Hermione, for so she was 
 termed, held no communication, and Mademoiselle Pauline only 
 such as was indispensable, which she dispatched as briefly as pos- 
 sible. Frequent and liberal largesses reconciled the servants to 
 this conduct ; and they were in the habit of observing to each 
 other, that to do a service for Mademoiselle Pauline, was like find- 
 ing a fairy treasure. 
 
 To Aunt Judith the Lady Hermione was kind and civil, but their 
 intercourse was rare ; on which account the elder lady felt some 
 pangs both of curiosity and injured dignity. But she knew her 
 brother so well, and loved him so dearly, that his will, once 
 expressed, might be truly said to become her own. The worthy 
 citizen was not without a spice of the dogmatism which grows on 
 the best disposition, when a word is a law to all around. Master 
 George did not endure to be questioned by his family, and, when 
 he had generally expressed his will, that the Lady Hermione should 
 live in the way most agreeable to her, and that no enquiries 
 should be made concerning her history, or her motives for 
 observing such strict seclusion, his sister well knew that he would 
 have been seriously displeased with any attempt to pry into the 
 secret. 
 
 But, though Heriot's servants were bribed, and his sister awed 
 into silent acquiescence in these arrangements, they were not of a 
 nature to escape the critical observation of the neighbourhood. 
 Some opined that the wealthy goldsmith was about to turn papist, 
 
2i8 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 and re-establish Lady Foljambe's nunnery— others that he was 
 going mad— others that he was either going to many, or to do 
 worse. Master George's constant appearance at church, and the 
 knowledge that the supposed votaress always attended when the 
 prayers of the English ritual were read in the family, liberated him 
 from the first of these suspicions ; those who had to transact busi- 
 ness with him upon 'Change, could not doubt the soundness of 
 Master Heriot's mind ; and, to confute the other rumours, it was 
 credibly reported by such as made the matter their particular 
 interest, that Master George Heriot never visited his guest but in 
 presence of Mademoiselle Pauline, who sat with her work in a 
 remote part of the same room in which they conversed. It was 
 also ascertained that these visits scarcely ever exceeded an hour in 
 length, and were usually only repeated once a week, an intercourse 
 too brief and too long interrupted, to render it probable that love 
 was the bond of their union. 
 
 The enquirers were, therefore, at fault, and compelled to relin- 
 quish the pursuit of Master Heriot's secret, while a thousand ridi- 
 culous tales were circulated amongst the ignorant and superstitious, 
 with some specimens of which our friend Richie Moniplies had 
 been crammed, as we have seen, by the malicious apprentice of 
 worthy David Ramsay. 
 
 There was one person in the world who, it was thought, could 
 (if she would) have said more of the Lady Hermione than any one 
 in London, except George Heriot himself ; and that was the said 
 David Ramsay's only child, Margaret. 
 
 This girl was not much past the age of fifteen when the Lady 
 Hermione first came to England, and was a very frequent visitor 
 at her godfather's, who was much amused by her childish sallies 
 and by the wild and natural beauty with which she sung the airs 
 of her native country. Spoilt she was on all hands ; by the indul- 
 gence of her godfather, the absent habits and indifference of her 
 father, and the deference of all around to her caprices, as a beauty 
 and as an heiress. But though, from these circumstances, the city- 
 beauty had become as wilful, as capricious, and as affected, as 
 unlimited indulgence seldom fails to render those to whom it is 
 extended ; and although she exhibited upon many occasions that 
 affectation of extreme shyness, silence, and reserve, which misses 
 in their teens are apt to take for an amiable modesty ; and, upon 
 others, a considerable portion of that flippancy, which youth some- 
 times confounds with wit. Mistress Margaret had much real shrewd- 
 ness and judgment, which wanted only opportunities of observation 
 to refine it— a lively, good-humoured, playful disposition, and an 
 excellent heart. Her acquired follies were much increased by 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 219 
 
 reaaing plays and romances, to which she oevoted a great dea. of 
 her time, and from which she adopted ideas as different as possible 
 from those which she might have obtained from the invaluable and 
 affectionate instructions of an excellent mother ; and the freaks of 
 which sh« was sometimes guilty, rendered her not unjustly liable to 
 the charge of affectation ahd coquetry. But the little lass had 
 sense and shrewdness enough to keep her failings out of sight of 
 her godfather, to whom she was sincerely attached ; and so high 
 she stood in his favour, that, at his recommendation, she obtained 
 permission to visit the .recluse Lady Hermione. 
 
 The singular mode of life which that lady observea ; her great 
 beauty, rendered even more interesting by her extreme paleness ; 
 the conscious pride of b«ng admitted farther than the rest of the 
 world into the society of a person who was wrapped in so much 
 mystery, made a deep impression on the mind of Margaret Ram- 
 say ; and though their conversations were at no time either long or 
 confidential, yet, proud of the trust reposed in her, Margaret was 
 as secret respecting their tenor as if every word repeated had been 
 to cost her life. No enquiry, however artfully baoked by flattery 
 and insinuation, whether on the part of Dame Ursula, or any other 
 person equally inquisitive, could wring from the little maiden one 
 word of what she heard or saw, after she entered these mysterious 
 and secluded apartments. The slightest question concerning 
 Master Heriot's guest, was sufficient, at her gayest moment, to 
 check the current of her communicative prattle, and render her 
 silent. 
 
 We mention this, chiefly to illustrate the early strength of 
 Margaret's character— a strength concealed under a hundred 
 freakish whims and humours, as an ancient and massive buttress 
 is disguised by its fantastic covering of ivy and wild flowers. In 
 truth, if the damsel had told all she h»ard or saw within the 
 Foljambe apartments, she would have said but little to gratify the 
 curiosity of enquirers. 
 
 At the earlier period of their acquaintance, the Lady Hermione 
 was wont to reward the attentions of her little friend with small 
 but elegant presents, and entertain her by a display of foreign 
 rarities and curiosities, many of them of considerable value. Some- 
 times the time was passed in a way much less agreeable to 
 Margaret, by her receiving lessons from Pauline in the use of the 
 needle. But, although her preceptress practised these arts with a 
 dexterity then only known in foreign convents, the pupil proved so 
 incorrigibly idle and awkward, that the task of needle-work was at 
 length given up, and lessons of music substituted in their stead. 
 Here also Pauline was excellently qualified as an instructress, and 
 
220 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 Margaret, more successful in a science for which Nature had gifted 
 her, made proficiency both in vocal and instrumental music. These 
 lessons passed in presence of the Lady Hermione, to whom they 
 seemed to give pleasure. She sometimes added her own voice to 
 the performance, in a pure, clear stream of liquid melody ; but this 
 was only when the music was of a devotional cast. As Margaret 
 became older, her communications with the recluse assumed a dif- 
 ferent character. She was allowed, if not encouraged, to tell 
 whatever she had remarked out of doors, and the Lady Hermione, 
 while she remarked the quick, sharp, and retentive powers of obser- 
 vation possessed by her young friend, often found sufficient reason 
 to caution her against rashness in forming opinions, and giddv 
 petulance in expressing them. 
 
 The habitual awe with which she regarded this singular per- 
 sonage, induced Mistress Margaret, though by no means delighting 
 in contradiction or reproof, to listen with patience to her admoni- 
 tions, and to make full allowance for the good intentions of the 
 patroness by whom they were bestowed ; although in her heart she 
 could hardly conceive how Madame Hermione, who never stirred 
 from the Foljambe apartments, should think of teaching know- 
 ledge of the world to one who walked twice a-week between Temple- 
 Bar and Lombard Street, besides parading in the Park every 
 Sunday that proved to be fair weather. Indeed, pretty Mistress 
 Margaret was so little inclined to endure such remonstrances, that 
 her intercourse with the inhabitants of the Foljambe apartments 
 would have probably slackened as her circle of acquaintance 
 increased in the external world, had she not, on the one hand, 
 entertained an habitual reverence for her monitress, of which she 
 could not divest herself, and been flattered, on the other, by being, 
 to a certain degree, the depositary of a confidence for which others 
 thirsted in vain. Besides, although the conversation of Hermione 
 was uniformly serious, it was not in general either formal or severe ; 
 nor was the lady offended by flights of levity which Mistress 
 Margaret sometimes ventured on in her presence, even when they 
 were such as made Monna Paula cast her eyes upwards, and sigh 
 with that compassion which a devotee extends towards the votaries 
 of a trivial and profane world. Thus, upon the whole, the little 
 maiden was disposed to submit, though not without some wincing, 
 to the grave admonitions of the Lady Hermione ; and the rather 
 that the mystery annexed to the person of her monitress was in her 
 mind early associa.ted with a vague idea of wealth and importance 
 which had been rather confirmed than lessened by many accidental 
 circumstances which she had noticed since she was more capable 
 of observation. 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 221 
 
 It frequently happens, that the counsel which we reckon intrusive 
 when offered to ■ us unasked, becomes precious in our eyes when 
 the pressure of difficulties renders us more diffident of our own 
 judgment than we are apt to find ourselves in the hours of ease and 
 indifference ; and this is more especially the case if we suppose 
 that our adviser may also possess power and inclination to back 
 his counsel with effectual assistance. Mistress Margaret was now 
 in that situation. She was, or believed herself to be, in a con- 
 dition where both advice and assistance might be necessary ; and 
 it was therefore, after an anxious and sleepless night, that she 
 resolved to have recourse to the Lady Hermione, who she knew 
 would readily afford her the one, and, as she hoped, might also 
 possess means of giving her the other. The conversation between 
 them will best explain the purport of the visit. 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 By this good light, a wench of matchless mettle ! 
 This were a leaguer-lass to love a soldier. 
 To bind his wounds, and kiss his bloody brow, 
 And sing a roundel as she help'd to arm him. 
 Though the rough foeman's drums were beat so nigh, 
 They seem'd to bear the burden. 
 
 Old Play. 
 
 When Mistress Margaret entered the Foljambe apartment, she 
 found the inmates employed in their usual manner; the lady in 
 reading, and her attendant in embroidering a large piece of tapes- 
 try, which had occupied her ever since Margaret had been first 
 admitted within these secluded chambers. 
 
 Hermione nodded kindly to her visitor, but did not speak ; and 
 Margaret, accustomed to this reception, and in the present case 
 not sorry for it, as it gave her an interval to collect her thoughts, 
 stooped over Monna Paula's frame, and observed, in a half whisper, 
 " You were just so far as that rose, Monna, when I first saw you — 
 see, there is the mark where I had the bad luck to spoil the flower 
 in trying to catch the stitch — I was little above fifteen then. These 
 flowers make me an old woman, Monna Paula." 
 
 " I wish they could make you a wise one, my child," answered 
 Monna Paula, in whose esteem pretty Mistress Margaret did not 
 stand quite so high as in that of her patroness ; partly owing to 
 her natural-austerity, which was something intolerant of youth and 
 gaiety, and partly to the jealousy with which a favourite domestic 
 
222 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 regards any one whom she considers as a sort of rival in the affec- 
 tions of her mistress. 
 
 " What is it you say to Monna, little one ?" asked the lady. 
 
 " Nothing, madam," replied Mistress Margaret, " but that I have 
 seen the real flowers blossom three times over since I first saw 
 Monna Paula working in her canvas garden, and her violets 
 have not budded yet." 
 
 " True, lady-bird," replied Hermione ; " but the buds that are 
 longest in blossoming will last the longest in flower. You have 
 seen them in the garden bloom thrice, but you have seen them 
 fade thrice also ; now, Monna Paula's will remain in blow for ever 
 — they will fear neither frost nor tempest." 
 
 "True, madam," answered Mistress Margaret; "but neither 
 have they life or odour." 
 
 . "That, little one," replied the recluse, "is to compare a life 
 agitated by hope and fear, and chequered with success and dis- 
 appointment, and fevered by the effects of love and hatred, a life of 
 passion and of feeling, saddened and shortened by its exhausting 
 alternations, to a calm and tranquil existence, animated but by a 
 sense of duties, and only employed, during its smooth and quiet 
 course, in the unwearied discharge of them. Is that the moral of 
 your answer ? " 
 
 " I do not know, madam," answered Mistress Margaret ; " but, 
 of all birds in the air, I would rather be the lark, that sings while 
 he is drifting down the summer breeze, than the weathercock that 
 sticks fast yonder upon his iron perch, and just moves so much as 
 to discharge his duty, and tell us which way the wind blows." 
 
 " Metaphors are no arguments, my prettv maiden," said the 
 Lady Hermione, smiling. 
 
 " I am sorry for that, madam," answered Margaret ; " for they 
 are such a pretty indirect way of telling one's mind when it differs 
 from one's betters — besides, on this subject there is no end of 
 them, and they are so civil and becoming withal." 
 
 " Indeed?" replied the lady j " let me hear some o. them, I pray 
 you." 
 
 "It would be, for example, very bold in me," said Margaret, 
 " to say to your ladyship, that, rather than live a quiet life, I would 
 like a little variety of hope and fear, and liking and disliking— 
 and— and— and the other sort of feelings which your ladyship is 
 pleased to speak of ; but I may say freely, and without blame, that 
 I like a butterfly better than a beetle, or a trembling aspen better 
 than a grim Scots fir, that never wags a leaf— or that of all the 
 wood, brass, and wire that ever my father's fingers put together, 1 
 do hate and detest a certain huge old clock of the German fashion, 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 223 
 
 that rings hours and half hours, and quarters and half quarters, as 
 if it were of such consequence that the world should know it was 
 wound up and going. Now, dearest lady, I wish you would only 
 compare that clumsy, clanging, Dutch-looking piece of lumber 
 with the beautiful timepiece that Master Heriot caused my father 
 to make for your ladyship, which uses to play a hundred merry 
 tunes, and turns out, when it strikes the hour, a whole band of 
 morrice-dancers, to trip the hays to the measure." 
 
 " And which of these timepieces goes the truest, Margaret ? " 
 said the lady. 
 
 " I must confess the old Dutchman has the advantage in that" — 
 said Margaret. " I fancy you are right, madam, and that com- 
 parisons are no arguments ; at least mine has not brought me 
 through." 
 
 " Upon my word, maiden Margaret,", said the lady, smiling, 
 " you have been of late thinking very much of these matters." 
 
 " Perhaps too much, madam," said Margaret, so low as only to 
 be heard by the lady, behind the back of whose chair she had now 
 placed herself. The words were spoken very gravely, and accom- 
 panied by a half sigh, which did not escape the attention of her 
 to whom they were addressed. The Lady Hermione turned imme- 
 diately round, and looked earnestly at Margaret, then paused for a 
 moment, and, finally, commanded Monna Paula to carry her frame 
 and embroidery into the ante-chamber. When they were left 
 alone, she desired her young friend to come from behind the chair, 
 on the back of which she still rested, and sit down beside her upon 
 a stool. 
 
 " I will remain thus, madam, under your favour," answered 
 Margaret, without changing her posture : " I would rather you 
 heard me without seeing me." 
 
 " In God's name, maiden," returned her patroness, " what is it 
 you can have to say, that may not be uttered face to face, to so 
 true a friend as I am ?" 
 
 Without making any direct answer, Margaret only replied, " You 
 were right, dearest lady, when you said, I had suffered my feelings 
 too much to engross me of late. I have done very wrong, and you 
 will be angry with me — so will my godfather, but I cannot help it — 
 he must be rescued." 
 
 " He ? " repeated the lady, with emphasis ; " that brief little word 
 does, indeed, so far explain your mystery ; — but come from behind 
 the chair, you silly popinjay ! I will wager you have suffered 
 yonder gay young apprentice to sit too near your heart I have 
 not heard you mention young Vincent for many a day — perhaps he 
 has not been out of mouth and out of mind both. Have you been 
 
224 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 so foolish as to let him speak to you seriously?— I am told he is a 
 bold youth." 
 
 " Not bold enough to say anything that could displease me, 
 madam," said Margaret. 
 
 " Perhaps, then, you were not displeased," said the lady ; " or 
 perhaps he has not spoken, which would be wiser and better. Be 
 open-hearted, my love— your godfather will soon return, and we 
 will take him into our consultations. If the young man is indus- 
 trious, and comes of honest parentage, his poverty may be no such 
 insurmountable obstacle. But you are both of you very young, 
 Margaret — I know your godfather will expect that the youth 
 shall first serve out his apprenticeship." 
 
 Margaret had hitherto suffered the lady to proceed, under the 
 mistaken impression which she had adopted, simply because she 
 could not tell how to interrupt her ; but pure despite at hearing her 
 last words gave her boldness at length to say, " I crave your 
 pardon, madam j but neither the youth you mention, nor any ap- 
 prentice or master within the City of London" 
 
 "Margaret," said the lady, in reply, "the contemptuous tone 
 with which you mention those of your own class, (many hundreds 
 if not thousands of whom are in all respects better than yoiu-self, 
 and would greatly honour you by thinking of you,) is, methinks, no 
 warrant for the wisdom of your choice — for a choice, it seems, 
 there is. Who is it, maiden, to whom you have thus rashly 
 attached yourself? — rashly, I fear it must be." 
 
 " It is the young Scottish Lord Glenvarloch, madam," answered 
 Margaret, in a low and modest tone, but sufficiently firm, consider- 
 ing the subject. 
 
 " The young Lord of Glenvarloch ! " repeated the lady, in great 
 surprise — " Maiden, you are distracted in your wits." 
 
 " I knew you would say so, madam," answered Margaret. "It 
 is what another person has already told me — it is, perhaps, what 
 all the world would tell me — it is what I am sometimes disposed to 
 tell myself. But look at me, madam, for I will now come before 
 you, and tell me if there is madness or distraction in niy look and 
 word, when I repeat to you again, that I have fixed my affections 
 on this young nobleman." 
 
 " If there is not madness in your look or word, maiden, there is 
 infinite folly in what you say," answered the Lady Hermione, 
 sharply. " When did you ever hear that misplaced love brought 
 anything but wretchedness? Seek a match among your equals, 
 Margaret, and escape the countless kinds of risk and misery that 
 must attend an affection beyond your degree.— Why do you smile, 
 maiden ? Is there aught to cause scorn in what I say?" 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 225 
 
 " Surely no, madam," answered Margaret. " I only smiled to 
 think how it should happen, that, while rank made such a wide 
 difference between creatures formed from the same clay, the wit of 
 the vulgar should, nevertheless, jump so exactly the same length 
 with that of the accomplished and the exalted. It is but the varia- 
 tion of the phrase which divides them. Dame Ursley told me the 
 very same thing which your ladyship has but now uttered ; only 
 you, madam, talk of countless misery, and Dame Ursley spoke of 
 the gallows, and Mistress Turner, who was hanged upon it." 
 
 "Indeed?" answered the Lady Hermione ; "and who may 
 Dame Ursley be, that your wise choice has associated with me in 
 the difficult task of advising a fool ? " 
 
 " The barber's wife at next door, madam," answered Margaret, 
 with feigned simplicity, but far from being sorry at heart, that she 
 had found an indirect mode of mortifying her monitress. " She 
 is the wisest woman that I know, next to your ladyship." 
 
 " A proper confidant," said the lady, " and chosen with the same 
 delicate sense of what is due to yourself and others !— But what ails 
 you, maiden — where are you going ? " 
 
 " Only to ask Dame Ursley's advice," said Margaret, as if about 
 to depart ; " for I see your ladyship is too angry to give me any, 
 and the emergency is pressing." 
 
 " What emergency, thou simple one ? " said the lady, in a kinder 
 tone. — " Sit down, maiden, and tell me your tale. It is true you 
 are a fool, and a pettish fool to boot ; but then you are a child — an 
 amiable child, with all your self-willed folly, and we must help you, 
 if we can. — " Sit down, I say, as you are desired, and you will find 
 me a safer and wiser counsellor than the barber-woman. And 
 tell me how you come to suppose, that you have fixed your 
 heart unalterably upon a man whom you have seen, as I think, but 
 once." 
 
 " 1 have seen him oftener," said the damsel, looking dpwn ; " but 
 I have only spoken to him once. I should have been able to get 
 that once out of my head, though the impression was so deep, that 
 I could even now repeat every trifling word he said ; but other 
 things have since riveted it in my bosom for ever." 
 
 " Maiden," replied the lady, "for ever_ is the word which comes 
 most lightly on the lips in such circumstances, but which, not the 
 less, is almost the last that we should use. The fashion of this 
 world, its passions, its joys, and its sorrows, pass away like the 
 winged breeze- -there is nought for ever, but that which belongs to 
 the world beyond the grave." 
 
 " You have corrected me justly, madam," said Margaret, calmly ; 
 " I ought only to have spoken of my present state of mind, as what 
 
 Q 
 
226 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 will last me for my lifetime, which unquestionably may be but 
 short." 
 
 " And what is there in this Scottish lord that can rivet what con- 
 cerns him so closely in your fancy ? " said the lady. " I admit him 
 a personable man, for I have seen him ; and I will suppose him 
 courteous and agreeable. But what are his accomplishments be- 
 sides, for these surely are not uncommon attributes .' " 
 
 " He is unfortunate, madam — most unfortunate — and surrounded 
 by snares of different kinds, ingeniously contrived to ruin his cha- 
 racter, destroy his estate, and, perhaps, to reach even his life. 
 These schemes have been devised by avarice originally, but they 
 are now followed close by vindictive ambition, animated, I think, 
 by the absolute and concentrated spirit of mahce ; for the Lord 
 Dalgarno " 
 
 " Here, Monna Paula — Monna Paula ! " exclaimed the Lady 
 Hermione, interrupting her young friend's narrative. " She hears 
 me not," she answered, rising and going out, " I must seek her— I 
 will return instantly." She returned accordingly very soon after. 
 " You mentioned a name which I thought was familiar to me," she 
 said ; " but Monna Paula has put me right. I know nothing of 
 your lord— how was it you named him ? " 
 
 "Lord Dalgarno," said Margaret; — "the wickedest man who 
 lives. Under pretence of friendship, he introduced the Lord Glen- 
 varloch to a gambling-house with the purpose of engaging him in 
 deep play ; but he with whom the perfidious traitor had to deal, 
 was too virtuous, moderate, and cautious, to be caught in a snare 
 so open. What did they next, but turn his own moderation against 
 him, and persuade others that, because he would not become the 
 prey of wolves, he herded with them for a share of their booty ! 
 And, while this base Lord Dalgarno was thus undermining his 
 unsuspecting countryman, he took every measure to keep him 
 surrounded by creatures of his own, to prevent him from attending 
 Court, and mixing with those of his proper rank. Since the Gun- 
 powder Treason, there never was a conspiracy more deeply laid, 
 more basely and more deliberately pursued." 
 
 The lady smiled sadly at Margaret's vehemence, but sighed the 
 next moment, while she told her young friend how little she knew 
 the world she was about to live in, since she testified so much sur- 
 prise at finding it full of villainy." 
 
 " But by what means," she added, " could you, maiden, become 
 possessed of the secret views of a man so cautious as Lord Dal- 
 garno — as villains in general are ? " 
 
 " Permit me to be silent on that subject," said the maiden ; " I 
 could not tell you without betraying others— let it suffice that my 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 227 
 
 tidings are as certain as the means by which I acquired them are 
 secret and sure. But I must not tell them even to you." 
 
 "You are too bold, Margaret," said the lady, "to traffic in such 
 matters at your early age. It is not only dangerous, but even un- 
 becoming and unmaidenly." 
 
 " I knew you would say that also," said Margaret, with more 
 meekness and patience than she usually showed on receiving 
 reproof; "but, God knows, my heart acquits me of every other 
 feeling save that of the wish to assist this most innocent and 
 betrayed man. — I contrived to send him warning of his friend's 
 falsehood ;— alas ! my care has only hastened his utter ruin, 
 unless speedy aid be found. He charged his false friend with 
 treachery, and drew on him in the Park, and is now liable to the 
 fatal penalty due for breach of privilege of the King's palace." 
 
 "This is indeed an extraordinary tale," said Hermione; "is Lord 
 Glenvarloch then in prison ? " 
 
 " No, madam, thank God, but in the Sanctuary at Whitefriars 
 — it is matter of doubt whether it will protect him in such a case — 
 they speak of a warrant from the Lord Chief Justice — A gentleman 
 of the Temple has been arrested, and is in trouble, for having 
 assisted him in his flight.— Even his taking temporary refuge in 
 that base place, though from extreme necessity, will be used to the 
 further defaming him. All this I know, and yet I cannot rescue 
 him — cannot rescue him save by your means." 
 
 " By my means, maiden ? " said the lady—" you are beside your- 
 self! — What means can I possess in this secluded situation, of 
 assisting this unfortunate nobleman ? " 
 
 "You have means," said Margaret, eagerly; "you have those 
 means, unless I mistake greatly, which can do any thing — can do 
 every thing, in this city, in this world — you have wealth, and the 
 command of a small portion of it will enable me to extricate him 
 from his present danger. He will be enabled and directed how to 
 make his escape — and I " she paused. 
 
 " Will accompany him, doubtless, and reap the fruits of your 
 sage exertions in his behalf?" said the Lady Hermione, ironi- 
 cally. 
 
 " May Heaven forgive you the unjust thought. Lady," answered 
 Margaret. " I will never see him more — but I shall have saved 
 him, and the thought will make me happy." 
 
 " A cold conclusion to so bold and warm a flame," said the Lady, 
 with a smile which seemed to intimate incredulity. 
 
 " It is, however, the only one which I expect, madam — I could 
 almost say the only which I wish — I am sure I will use no eflbrts to 
 brftig about any other ; if I am bold in his cause, I am timorous 
 
 Q2 
 
228 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 enough in my own. During our only interview I was unable to 
 speak a word to him. He knows not the sound of my voice— 
 and all that I have risked, and must yet risk, I am doing for one, 
 who, were he asked the question, would say he has long since for- 
 gotten that he ever saw, spoke to, or sat beside, a creature of so 
 little signification as I am." 
 
 " This is a strange and unreasonable indulgence of a passion 
 equally fanciful and dangerous," said the Lady Hermione. 
 
 "You will not assist me, then?" said Margaret; "have good- 
 day, then, madam — my secret, I trust, is safe in such honourable 
 keeping." 
 
 " Tarry yet a little," said the lady, " and tell me what resource 
 you have to assist this youth, if you were supplied with money to 
 put it in motion." 
 
 " It is superfluous to ask me the question, madam," answered 
 Margaret, " unless you purpose to assist me ; and, if you do so 
 purpose, it is still superfluous. You could not understand the 
 means I must use, and time is too brief to explain." 
 
 " But have you in reality such means ? " said the lady. 
 
 " I have, with the command of a moderate sum," answered 
 Margaret Ramsay, " the power of baffling all his enemies — of 
 eluding the passion of the irritated King — the colder but more 
 determined displeasure of the Prince — the vindictive spirit of Buck- 
 ingham, so hastily directed against whomsoever crosses the path of 
 his ambition — the cold concentrated malice of Lord Dalgarno — all, 
 I can baffle them all ! " 
 
 " But is this to be done without your own personal risk, 
 Margaret ? " replied the lady ; " for, be your purpose what it will, 
 you are not to peril your own reputation or person, in the romantic 
 attempt of serving another; and I, maiden, am answerable to your 
 godfather, — to your benefactor, and my own, — not to aid you in 
 any dangerous or unworthy enterprise." 
 
 " Depend upon my word, — my oath', — dearest lady," replied the 
 supplicant, " that I will act by the agency of others, and do n6t 
 myself design to mingle in any enterprise in which my appearance 
 might be either perilous or unwomanly." 
 
 "I know not what to do," said the Lady Hermione; "it is 
 perhaps incautious and inconsiderate in me to aid so wild a project ; 
 yet the end seems honourable, if the means be sure— what is the 
 penalty if he fall into their power ? " 
 
 "Alas, alas ! the loss of his right hand ! " replied Margaret, her 
 voice almost stifled with sobs. 
 
 " Are the laws of England so cruel ? Then there is mercy in 
 Heaven alone," said the lady, « since, even in thia free land, men 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 229 
 
 are wolves to each other. — Compose yourself, Margaret, and tell 
 me what money is necessary to secure Lord Glenvarloch's 
 escape." 
 
 " Two hundred pieces," replied Margaret ; " I would speak to 
 you of restoring them— and I must one day have the power — only 
 that I know — that is, I think — your ladyship is indifferent on that 
 score." 
 
 " Not a word more of it," said the lady ; " call Monna Paula 
 hither." 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 Credit me, friend, it hath been ever thus, 
 Since the ark rested on Mount Ararat. 
 False man hath sworn, and woman hath believed — 
 Repented and reproach'd, and then believed once more. 
 
 The New World. 
 
 By the time that Margaret returned with Monna Paula, the 
 Lady Hermione was rising from the table at which she had been 
 engaged in writing something on a small slip of paper, which she 
 gave to her attendant, 
 
 " Monna Paula," she said, " carry this paper to Roberts, the cash- 
 keeper ; let him give you the money mentioned in the note, and 
 bring it hither presently." 
 
 Monna Paula left the room, and her mistress proceeded. 
 
 " I do not know," she said, " Margaret, if I have done, and am 
 doing, well in this affair. My life has been one of strange seclu- 
 sion, and I am totally unacquainted with the practical ways of this 
 world — an ignorance which I know cannot be remedied by mere 
 reading. — I fear I am doing wrong to you, and perhaps to the laws 
 of the country which affords me refuge, by thus indulging you ; 
 and yet there is something in my heart which cannot resist your 
 entreaties." 
 
 " 0, listen to it — listen to it, dear, generous lady ! " said Margaret, 
 throwing herself on her knees, and grasping those of her benefac- 
 tress, and looking in that attitude like a beautiful mortal in the act 
 of supplicating her tutelary angel ; " the laws of men are but the 
 injunctions of mortality, but what the heart prompts is the echo of 
 the voice from Heaven within us." 
 
 "Rise, rise, maiden," said Hermione; "you affect me more than 
 I thought I could have been moved by aught that should approach 
 me. Rise and tell me whence it comes, that, in so short a time, your 
 
230 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL 
 
 thoughts, your looks, your speech, and even your slightest actions, 
 are changed from those of a capricious and fanciful girl, to all this 
 energy and impassioned eloquence of word and action ? " 
 
 " I am sure I know not, dearest lady," said Margaret, looking 
 down ; " but I suppose that, when I was a triiler, I was only think- 
 ing of trifles. What I now reflect is deep and serious, and I am 
 thankful if my speech and manner bear reasonable proportion to 
 my thoughts." 
 
 " It must be so," said the lady ; " yet the change seems a rapid 
 and strange one. It seems to be as if a childish girl had at once 
 shot up into deep-thinking and impassioned woman, ready to make 
 exertions alike, and sacrifices, with all that vain devotion to a 
 favourite object of affection, which is often so basely rewarded." 
 
 The Lady Hermione sighed bitterly, and Monna Paula entered 
 ere the conversation proceeded farther. She spoke to her mistress 
 in the foreign language in which they frequently conversed, but 
 which was unknown to Margaret. 
 
 " We must have patience for a time," said the lady to her visitor ; 
 " the cash-keeper is abroad on some business, but he is expected 
 home in the course of half an hour." 
 
 Margaret rung her hands in vexation and impatience. 
 
 " Minutes are precious," continued the lady ; " that I am well 
 aware of ; and we will at least suffer none of them to escape us. 
 Monna Paula shall remain below and transact our business, the 
 very instant that Roberts returns home." 
 
 She spoke to her attendant accordingly, who again left the 
 room. 
 
 " You are very kind, madam — very good," said the poor little 
 Margaret, while the anxious trembling of her lip and of her hand 
 showed all that sickening agitation of the heart which arises from 
 hope deferred, 
 
 "Be patient, Margaret, and collect yourself," said the lady; 
 " you may, you must, have much to do ,to carry through this yoiir 
 bold purpose — reserve your spirits, which you may need so much — 
 be patient — it is the only remedy against the evils of life." 
 
 "Yes, madam," said Margaret, wiping her eyes, and endeavour- 
 ing in vain to suppress the natural impatience of her temper,—" I 
 have heard so — very often indeed ; and I dare, say I have myself. 
 Heaven forgive me, said so to people in perplexity and affliction ; 
 but it was before I had suffered perplexity and vexation myself, and 
 I am sure I will never preach patience to any human being again, 
 now that I know how much the medicine goes against the stomach." 
 
 " You will think better of it, maiden," said the Lady Hermione ; " I 
 also, when I first felt distress, thought they did me wrong who spoke 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 231 
 
 to me of patience ; but my sorrows have been repeated and con- 
 tinued till I have been taught to cling to it as the best, and — religious 
 duties excepted of which, indeed, patience forms a part — the only 
 alleviation which life can afford them." 
 
 Margaret, who neither wanted sense nor feeling, wiped her tears 
 hastily, and asked her patroness's forgiveness for her petulance." 
 
 " I might have thought " — she said, " I ought to have reflected, 
 that even from the manner of your life, madam, it is plain you must 
 have suffered sorrow ; and yet, God knows, the patience which I 
 have ever seen you display, well entitles you to recommend your 
 own example to others." 
 
 The lady was silent for a moment, and then replied — 
 
 " Margaret, I am about to repose a high confidence in you. You 
 are no longer a child, but a thinking and a feeling woman. You have 
 told me as much of your secret as you dared — I will let you know 
 as much of mine as I may venture to tell. You will ask me, 
 perhaps, why, at a moment when your own mind is agitated, I 
 should force upon you the consideration of my sorrows ? and I 
 answer, that I cannot withstand the impulse which now induces me 
 to do so. Perhaps from having witnessed, for the first time these 
 three years, the natural effects of human passion, my own sorrows 
 have been awakened, and are for the moment too big for my own 
 bosom — perhaps I may hope that you, who seem driving full 
 sail on the very rock on which I was wrecked for ever, will take 
 warning by the tale I have to tell. Enough, if you are willing to 
 listen, I am willing to tell you who the melancholy inhabitant of 
 the Foljambe apartments really is, and why she resides here. It 
 will serve, at least, to while away the time until Monna Paula shall 
 bring us the reply from Roberts." 
 
 At any other moment of her life, Margaret Ramsay would have 
 heard with undivided interest a communication so flattering in 
 itself, and referring to a subject upon which the general curiosity 
 had been so strongly excited. And even at this agitating moment 
 although she ceased not to listen with an anxious ear and throbbing 
 heart for the sound of Monna Paula's returning footsteps, she 
 nevertheless, as gratitude and policy, as well as a portion of 
 curiosity dictated, composed herself, in appearance at least, to the 
 strictest attention fo the Lady Hermione, and thanked her with 
 humility for the high confidence she was pleased to repose in her. 
 The Lady Hermione, with the same calmness which always attended 
 her speech and actions, thus recounted her story to her young 
 friend : 
 
 " My father," she said, " was a merchant, but he was of a city 
 whose merchants are princes. I am the daughter of a noble house 
 
232 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 in Genoa, whose name stood as high in honour and in antiquity, 
 as any inscribed in the Golden Register of that famous aristocracy. 
 
 " My mother was a noble Scottish woman. She was descended 
 — do not start — and not remotely descended, of the house of Glen- 
 varloch— no wonder that I was easily led to take concern in the 
 misfortunes of this young lord. He is my near relation, and my 
 mother, who was more than sufficiently proud of her descent, early 
 taught me to take an interest in the name. My maternal grand- 
 father, a cadet of that house of Glenvarloch, had followed the 
 fortunes of an unhappy fugitive, Francis Earl of Bothwell, who, 
 after showing his miseries in many a foreign court, at length settled 
 in Spain upon a miserable pension, which he earned by conform- 
 ing to the Catholic faith. Ralph Olifaunt, my grandfather, separated 
 from him in disgust, and settled at Barcelona, where, by the friend- 
 ship of the governor, his heresy, as it was termed, was connived 
 at. My father, in the course of his commerce, resided more at 
 Barcelona than in his native country, though at times he visited 
 Genoa. 
 
 " It was at Barcelona that he became acquainted with my mother, 
 loved her, and married her ; they differed in faith, but they agreed 
 in affection. I was their only child. In public I conformed to the 
 doctrines and ceremonial of the church of Rome ; but my mother, 
 by whom these were regarded with horror, privately trained me up 
 in those of the reformed religion ; and my father, either indifferent 
 in the matter, or unwilling to distress the woman whom he loved, 
 overlooked or connived at my secretly joining in her devotions. 
 
 " But when, unhappily, my father was attacked, while yet in the 
 prime of life, by a slow wasting disease, which he felt to be in- 
 curable, he foresaw the hazard to which his widow and orphan 
 might be exposed, after he was no more, in a country so bigoted 
 to Catholicism as Spain. He made it his business, during the two 
 last years of his life, to realize and to remit to England a large part of 
 his fortune, which, by the faith and honour of his correspondent, the 
 excellent man under whose roof I now reside, was employed to 
 great advantage. Had my father lived to complete his purpose, by 
 withdrawing his whole fortune from commerce, he himself would 
 have accompanied us to England, and would have beheld us 
 settled in peace and honour before his death. But Heaven had 
 ordained it otherwise. He died, leaving several sums engaged in 
 the hands of his Spanish debtors ; and, in particular, he had made 
 a large and extensive consignment to a certain wealthy society of 
 merchants at Madrid, who showed no willingness after his death to 
 account for the proceeds. Would to God we had left these covetous 
 and wicked men in possession of their booty, for such they seemed 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 233 
 
 to hold the property of their deceased correspondent and friend ! 
 We had enough for comfort, and even splendour, already secured 
 in England ; but friends exclaimed upon the folly of permitting 
 these unprincipled men to plunder us of our rightful property. The 
 sum itself was large, and the claim having been made, my mother 
 thought that my father's memory was interested in its being enforced, 
 especially as the defences set up for the mercantile society went, in 
 some degree, to impeach the fairness of his transactions. 
 
 " We went therefore to Madrid. I was then, my Margaret, about 
 your age, young and thoughtless, as you have hitherto been — We 
 went, I say, to Madrid, to solicit the protection of the Court and of 
 the King, without which we were told it would be in vain to expect 
 justice against an opulent and powerful association. 
 
 " Our residence at the Spanish metropolis drew on from weeks to 
 months. For my part, my natural sorrow for a kind, though not a 
 fond father, having abated, I cared not if the lawsuit had detained 
 us at Madrid for ever. My mother permitted herself and me rather 
 more liberty than we had been accustomed to. She found relations 
 among the Scottish and Irish officers, many of whom held a high 
 rank in the Spanish armies ; their wives and daughters became our 
 friends and companions, and I had perpetual occasion to exercise 
 my mothei-'s native language, which I had learned from my infancy. 
 By degrees, as my mother's spirits were low, and her health in- 
 different, she was induced, by her partial fondness for me, to suffer 
 me to mingle occasionally in society which she herself did not 
 frequent, under the guardianship of such ladies as she imagined she 
 could trust, and particularly under the care of the lady of a general 
 officer, whose weakness or falsehood was the original cause of my 
 misfortunes. I was as gay, Margaret, and thoughtless — I again 
 repeat it — as you were but lately, and my attention, like yours, 
 became suddenly riveted to one object, and to one set of feelings. 
 
 " The person by whom they were excited was young, noble, 
 handsome, accomplished, a soldier, and a Briton. So far our cases 
 are nearly parallel ; but, may Heaven forbid that the parallel should 
 become complete ! This man, so noble, so fairly formed, so gifted, 
 and so brave— this villain, for that, Margaret, was his fittest name, 
 spoke of love to me and I listened — Could I suspect his sincerity ? 
 If he was wealthy, noble, and long-descended, I also was a noble and 
 an opulent heiress. It is true, that he neither knew the extent of 
 my father's wealth, nor did I communicate to him (I do not even 
 remember if I myself knew it at the time) the important circum- 
 stance, that the greater part of that wealth was beyond the grasp of 
 arbitrary power, and not subject to the precarious award of arbitrary 
 judges. My lover might think, perhaps, as my mother was desirous 
 
234 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 the world at large should believe, that almost our whole fortune 
 depended on the precarious suit which we had come to Madrid to 
 prosecute— a belief which she had countenanced out of policy, being 
 well aware that a knowledge of my father's having remitted such a 
 large part of his fortune to England, would in no shape aid the 
 recovery of further sums in the Spanish courts. Yet, with no more 
 extensive views of my fortune than were possessed by the public, 
 I believe that he, of whom I am speaking, was at first sincere in his 
 pretensions. He had himself interest sufficient to have obtained a 
 decision in our favour in the courts, and my fortune, reckoning only 
 what was in Spain, would then have been no inconsiderable sum. 
 To be brief, whatever might be his motives or temptation for so far 
 committing himself, he applied to my mother for my hand, with my 
 consent and approval. My mother's judgment had become weaker, 
 but her passions had become more irritable, during her increasing 
 illness. 
 
 " You have heard of the bitterness of the ancient Scottish feuds, 
 of which it may be said, in the language of Scripture, that the 
 fathers eat sour grapes, and the teeth of the children are set on 
 edge. Unhappily, — I should say happily, considering what this 
 man has now shown himself to be, — some such strain of bitterness 
 had divided his house from my mother's, and she had succeeded 
 to the inheritance of hatred. When he asked her for my hand, she was 
 no longer able to command her passions — she raked up every injury 
 which the rival families had inflicted upon each other during a bloody 
 feud of two centuries — heaped him with epithets of scorn, and re- 
 jected his proposal of alliance, as if it had come from the basest of 
 mankind. 
 
 " My lover retired in passion ; and I remained to weep and 
 murmur against fortune, and — I will confess my fault — against my 
 affectionate parent. I had been educated with different feelings, 
 and the traditions of the feuds and quarrels of my mother's family 
 in Scotland, which were to her monuments and chronicles, seemed 
 to me as insignificant and unmeaning as the actions and fantasies 
 of Don Quixote ; and I blamed my mother bitterly for sacrificing 
 my happiness to an empty dream of family dignity. 
 
 " While I was in this humour, my lover sought a renewal, of our 
 intercourse. We met repeatedly in the house of the lady whom I 
 have mentioned, and who, in levity, or in the spirit of intrigue, 
 countenanced our secret correspondence. At length we were 
 secretly married — so far did my blinded passion hurry me. My 
 lover had secured the assistance of a clergyman of the English 
 church. Monna Paula, who had been my attendant from infancy, 
 was one witness of our union. Let me do the faithful creature 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 233 
 
 justice — She conjured me to suspend my purpose till my mother's 
 death should permit us to celebrate our marriage openly ; but the 
 entreaties of my lover, and my own wayward passion, prevailed 
 over her remonstrances. The lady I have spoken of was another 
 witness, but whether she was in full possession of my bridegroom's 
 secret I had never the means to learn. But the shelter of her name 
 and roof afforded us the means of frequently meeting, and the love 
 of my husband seemed as sincere and as unbounded as my own. 
 
 " He was eager, he said, to gratify his pride, by introducing me 
 to one or two of his noble English friends. This could not be done 
 
 at Lady D 's ; but by his command, which I was now entitled to 
 
 consider as my law, I contrived twice to visit him at his own hotel, 
 accompanied only by Monna Paula. There was a very small party, 
 of two ladies and two gentlemen. There was music, mirth, and 
 dancing. I had heard of the frankness of the English nation, but 
 I could not help thinking it bordered on license during these enter- 
 tainments, and in the course of the collation which followed ; but I 
 imputed my scruples to my inexperience, and would not doubt the 
 propriety of what was approved by my husband. 
 
 " I was soon summoned to other scenes : My poor mother's 
 disease drew to a conclusion — Happy I am that it took place before 
 she discovered what would have cut her to the soul. 
 
 " In Spain you may have heard how the Catholic priests, and 
 particularly the monks, besiege the beds of the dying, to obtain 
 bequests for the good of the church. I have said that my mother's 
 temper was irritated by disease, and her judgment impaired in pro- 
 portion. She gathered spirits and force from the resentment which 
 the priests around her bed excited by their importunity, and the 
 boldness of the stern sect of reformers, to which she had secretly 
 adhered, seemed to animate her dying tongue. She avowed the 
 religion she had so long concealed ; renounced all hope and 
 aid which did not come by and through its dictates ; rejected 
 with contempt the ceremonial of the Romish church ; loaded the 
 astonished priests with reproaches for their greediness and hypocrisy, 
 and commanded them to leave her house. They went in bitterness 
 and rage, but it was to return with the inquisitorial power, its 
 warrants, and its officers ; and they found only the cold corpse left 
 of her, on whom they had hoped to work their vengeance. As I 
 was soon discovered to have shared my mother's heresy, I was 
 dragged from her dead body, imprisoned in a solitary cloister, and 
 treated with severity, which the Abbess assured me was due to the 
 looseness of my life, as well as my spiritual errors. I avowed my 
 marriage, to justify the situation in which I found myself — I im- 
 plored the assistance of the Superior to communicate my situation 
 
236 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL, 
 
 to my husband. She smiled coldly at the proposal, and told me 
 the church had provided a better spouse for me ; advised me to 
 secure myself of divine grace hereafter, and deserve milder treat- 
 ment here, by presently taking the veil. In order to convince me 
 that I had no other resource, she showed me a royal decree, by 
 which all my estate was hypothecated to the convent of Saint 
 Magdalen, and became their complete property upon my death, or 
 my taking the vows. As I vcas, both from religious principle, and 
 affectionate attachment to my husband, absolutely immovable in my 
 rejection of the veil, I believe — may Heaven forgive me if I wrong 
 her ! — that the Abbess was desirous to make sure of my spoils, by 
 hastening the former event. 
 
 " It was a small and a poor convent, and situated among the 
 mountains of Guadarrama. Some of the sisters were the daughters 
 of neighbouring Hidalgoes, as poor as they were proud and 
 ignorant ; others were women immured there on account of their 
 vicious conduct. The Superior herself was of a high family, to 
 which she owed her situation ; but she was said to have disgraced 
 her connexions by her conduct during youth, and now, in advanced 
 age, covetousness and the love of power, a spirit too of severity 
 and cruelty, had succeeded to the thirst after licentious pleasure. 
 I suffered much under this woman — and still tier dark, glassy 
 eye, her tall, shrouded form, and her rigid features, haunt my 
 slumbers. 
 
 " I was not destined to be a mother. I was very ill, and my 
 recovery was long doubtful. The most violent remedies were 
 applied, if remedies they indeed were. My health was restored at 
 length, against my own expectation and that of all around me. 
 But, when I first again beheld the reflection of my own face, I 
 thought it was the visage of a ghost. I was wont to Be flattered by 
 all, but particularly by my husband, for the fineness of my com- 
 plexion — it was now totally gone, and, what is more extraordinary, 
 it has never returned. I have observed that the few who now see 
 me, look upon me as a bloodless phantom — Such has been the 
 abiding effect of the treatment to which I was subjected. May 
 God forgive those who were the agents of it ! — I thank Heaven I 
 can say so with as sincere a wish, as that with which I pray for 
 forgiveness of my own sins. They now relented somewhat towards 
 me — moved perhaps to compassion by my singular appearance, 
 which bore witness to my sufferings ; or afraid that the matter 
 might attract attention during a visitation of the bishop, which was 
 approaching. One day, as I was walking in the convent-garden, to 
 which I had been lately admitted, a miserable old Moorish slave, 
 who was kept to cultivate the little spot, muttered as I passed him. 
 
THE PORTUMES of KIGEL. 237 
 
 but still keeping his wrinkled face and decrepit form in the same 
 angle with the earth — ' There is Heart's Ease near the postern.' 
 
 " I knew something of the symbolical language of flowers, once 
 carried to such perfection among the Moriscoes of Spain ; but if -I 
 had been ignorant of it, the captive would soon have caught at any 
 hint that seemed to promise liberty. With all the haste consistent 
 with the utmost circumspection — for I might be observed by the 
 Abbess or some of the sisters from the window — I hastened to 
 the postern. It was closely barred as usual, but when I coughed 
 slightly, I was answered from the other side — and, O Heaven ! it 
 was my husband's voice which said, ' Lose not a minute here at 
 present, but be on this spot when the vesper bell has tolled.' 
 
 " I retired in an ecstasy of joy. I was not entitled or permitted 
 to assist at vespers, but was accustomed to be confined to my cell 
 while the nuns were in the choir. Since my recovery, they had 
 discontinued locking the door ; though the utmost severity was 
 denounced against me if I left these precincts. But, let the penalty 
 be what it would, I hastened to dare it. — No sooner had the last 
 toll of the vesper bell ceased to sound, than I stole from my 
 chamber, reached the garden unobserved, hurried to the postern, 
 beheld it open with rapture, and in the next moment was in my 
 husband's arms. He had with him another cavalier of noble mien 
 — both were masked and armed. Their horses, with one saddled 
 for my use, stood in a thicket hard by, with two other masked 
 horsemen, who seemed to be servants. In less than two minutes 
 we were mounted, and rode off as fast as we could through rough 
 and devious roads, in which one of the domestics appeared to act 
 as guide. 
 
 " The hurried pace at which we rode, and the anxiety of the 
 moment, kept me silent, and prevented my expressing my surprise 
 or my joy save in a few broken words. It also served as an 
 apology for my husband's silence. At length we stopped at a 
 solitary hut — the cavaliers dismounted, and I was assisted from my 
 
 saddle, not by M M my husband, I would say, who seemed 
 
 busied about his horse, but by the stranger. 
 
 " ' Go into the hut,' said my husband, ' change your dress with 
 the speed of lightning — ^you will find one to assist you^we must 
 forward instantly when you have shifted your apparel.' 
 
 " I entered the hut, and was received in the arms of the faithful 
 Monna Paula, who had waited my arrival for many hours, half dis- 
 tracted with fear and anxiety. With her assistance I speedily tore 
 off the detested garments of the convent, and exchanged them for a 
 travelling suit, made after the English fashion. I observed that 
 Monna Paula was in a similar dress. I had but just huddled on 
 
23S The fortunes of nigEL. 
 
 my change of attire, when we were hastily summoned to mount. 
 A horse, I found, was provided for Monna Paula, and we resumed 
 our route. On the way, my convent-garb, which had been wrapped 
 Jiastily together around a stone, was thrown into a lake, along the 
 verge of which we were then passing. The two cavaliers rode 
 together in front, my attendant and I followed, and the servants 
 brought up the rear. Monna Paula, as we rode on, repeatedly 
 entreated me to be silent upon the road, as our lives. depended 
 on it. I was easily reconciled to be passive, for, the first fever of 
 spirits which attended the sense of liberation and of gratified 
 affection having passed away, I felt as it were dizzy with the rapid 
 motion ; and my utmost exertion was necessary to keep my place 
 on the saddle, until we suddenly (it was now very dark) saw a 
 strong light before us. 
 
 " My husband reined up his horse, and gave a signal by a low 
 whistle twice repeated, which was answered from a distance. The 
 whole party then halted under the boughs of a large cork-tree, and 
 my husband, drawing himself close to my side, said, in a voice 
 which I then thought was only embarrassed by fear for my safety, 
 — ' We must now part. Those to whom I commit you are contra- 
 bandists, who only know you as Englishwomen, but who, for a high 
 bribe, have undertaken to escort you through the passes of the 
 Pyrenees as iSx as Saint Jean de Luz.' 
 
 " ' And do yoii. not go with us ? ' I exclaimed with emphasis, 
 though in a whisper. 
 
 " ' It is impossible,' he said, 'and would ruin all— See that you 
 speak in English in these people's hearing, and give not the least 
 sign of understanding what they say in Spanish — your life depends 
 on it ; for, though they live in opposition to, and evasion of, the 
 laws of Spain, they would tremble at the idea of violating those of 
 the church — I see them coming — farewell — farewell.' 
 
 " The last words were hastily uttered —I endeavoured to detain 
 him yet a moment by my feeble grasp on his cloak. 
 
 " ' You will meet me, then, I trust, at Saint Jean de Luz t ' 
 
 " 'Yes, yes,' he answered hastily, 'at Saint Jean de Luz you will 
 meet your protector.' 
 
 " He then extricated his cloak from my grasp, and was lost in the 
 darkness. His companion approached— kissed my hand, which in 
 the agony of the moment I was scarce sensible of, and followed my 
 husband, attended by one of the domestics." 
 
 The tears of Hermione here flowed so fast as to threaten the 
 interruption of her narrative. When she resumed it, it was with a 
 kind of apology to Margaret. 
 
 " Every circumstance," she said, " occurring in those moments, 
 
THE FORTUNES OK NIGEL, 239 
 
 when I still enjoyed a delusive idea of happiness, are deeply im- 
 printed in my remembrance, which, respecting all that has since 
 happened, is waste and unvaried as an Arabian desert. But I 
 have no right to inflict on you, Margaret, agitated as you are with 
 your own anxieties, the unavaihng details of my useless recollec- 
 tions." 
 
 Margaret's eyes were full of tears— it was impossible it could be 
 otherwise, considering that the tale was told by her suffering bene- 
 factress, and resembled, in some respects, her own situation ; and 
 yet she must not be severely blamed, if, while eagerly pressing her 
 patroness to continue her narrative, her eye involuntarily sought the 
 door, as if to chide the delay of Monna Paula. 
 
 The Lady Hermione' saw and forgave these conflicting emotions ; 
 and she, too, must be pardoned, if, in her turn, the minute detail of 
 her narrative showed, that, in the discharge of feelings so long 
 locked in her own bosom, she rather forgot those which were 
 personal to her auditor, and by which it must be supposed 
 Margaret's mind was principally occupied, if not entirely en- 
 grossed. 
 
 " I told you, I think, that one domestic followed the gentleman," 
 thus the lady continued her story, '' the other remained with us for 
 the purpose, as it seemed, of introducing us to two persons whom 
 
 M , I say, whom my husband's signal had brought to the 
 
 spot. A word or two of explanation passed between them and 
 the servant, in a sort of patois, which I did not understand ; and 
 one of the strangers taking told of my bridle, the othecof Monna 
 Paula's, they led us towards the light, which I have already said 
 was the signal of our halting. I touched Monna Paufa, and was 
 sensible that she trembled very much, which surprised me, because 
 I knew her character to be so strong and bold as to border upon 
 the masculine. 
 
 " When we reached the fire, the gipsy figures of those who 
 surrounded it, with their swarthy features, large Sombrero hats, 
 girdles stuck full of pistols and poniards, and all the other apparatus 
 of a roving and perilous life, would have terrified me at another 
 moment. But then I only felt the agony of having parted from my 
 husband almost in the very moment of my rescue. The females of 
 the gang — for there were four or five women amongst these con- 
 traband traders — received us with a sort of rude courtesy. They 
 were, in dress and manners, not extremely different from the men 
 with whom they associated — were almost as hardy and adven- 
 turous, carried arms like them, and were, as we learned from 
 passing > circumstances, scarce less experienced in the use of 
 them. 
 
240 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 " It was impossible not to fear these wild people ; yet they gave 
 us no reason to complain of them, but used us on all occasions with 
 a kind of clumsy courtesy, accommodating themselves to our wants 
 and our weakness during the journey, even while we heard them 
 grumbling to each other against our effeminacy,— like some rude 
 carrier, who, in charge of a packet of valuable and fragile ware, takes 
 every precaution for its preservation, while he curses the unwonted 
 trouble which it occasions him. Once or twice, when they were dis- 
 appointed in their contraband traffic, lost some goods in a rencontre 
 with the Spanish officers of the revenue, and were finally pursued 
 by a military force, their murmurs assumed a more alarming tone, 
 in the terrified ears of my attendant and myself, when, without 
 daring to seem to understand them, we heard them curse the 
 insular heretics, on whose account God, Saint James, and Our 
 Lady of the Pillar, had blighted their hopes of profit. These are 
 dreadful recollections, Margaret." 
 
 " Why, then, dearest lady," answered Margaret, " will you thus 
 dwell on them?" 
 
 " It is only," said the Lady Hermione, " because I linger Uke a 
 criminal on the scaffold, and would fain protract the time that 
 must inevitably bring on the final catastrophe. Yes, dearest 
 Margaret, I rest and dwell on the events of that journey, marked 
 as it was by fatigue and danger, though the road lay through the 
 wildest and most desolate deserts and mountains, and though our 
 companions, both men and women, were fierce and lawless them- 
 selves, and exposed to the most merciless retaliation from those 
 with whom they were constantly engaged — yet would I rather 
 dwell on these hazardous events than tell that which awaited me 
 at Saint Jean de Luz." 
 
 " But you arrived there in safety ? " said Margaret. 
 
 " Yes, maiden," replied the Lady Hermione ; " and were guided 
 by the chief of our outlawed band to the house which had been 
 assigned for our reception, with the same punctilious accuracy 
 with which he would have delivered a bale of uncustomed goods 
 to a correspondent. I was told a gentleman had expected me for 
 two days — I rushed into the apartment, and, when I expected to 
 embrace my husband — I found myself in the arms of his friend ! " 
 
 " The villain ! " exclaimed Margaret, whose anxiety had, in 
 spite of herself, been a moment suspended by the narrative of 
 the lady. 
 
 "Yes," replied Hermione, calmly, though her voice somewhat 
 faltered, "it is the name that best— that well befits him. He, 
 Margaret, for whom I had sacrificed all — whose love and whose 
 memory were dearer to me than my freedom, when I was in 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 241 
 
 the convent — than my life, when I was on my perilous journey — 
 had"taken his measures to shake me off, and transfer me, as a 
 privileged wanton, to the protection of his libertine friend. At 
 first the stranger laughed at my tears and my agony, as the 
 hysterical passion of a deluded and overreached wanton, or the 
 wily affection of a courtezan. My claim of marriage he laughed at, 
 assuring me he knew it was a mere farce required by me, and sub- 
 mitted to by his friend, to save some reserve of delicacy ; and 
 expressed his surprise that I should consider in any other light 
 a ceremony which could be valid neither in Spain nor England, 
 and insultingly offered to remove my scruples, by renewing such 
 a union with me himself. My exclamations brought Monna Paula 
 to my aid— she was not, indeed, far distant, for she had expected 
 some such scene." 
 
 " Good Heaven ! " said Margaret,." was she a confidant of your 
 base husband ? " 
 
 " No," answered Hermione, " do her not that injustice. It was 
 her persevering enquiries that discovered the place of my confine- 
 ment — it was she who gave the information to my husband, and 
 who remarked even then that the news was so much more interest- 
 ing to his friend than to him, that she suspected, from an early 
 periofl, it was the purpose of the villain to shake me off. On the 
 journey, her suspicions were confirmed. She had heard him 
 remark to his companion, with a cold sarcastic sneer, the total 
 change which my prison and my illness had made on my com- 
 plexion ; and she had heard the other reply, that the defect might 
 be cured by a touch of Spanish red. This, and other circum- 
 stances, having prepared her for such treachery, Monna Paula now 
 entered, completely possessed of herself, and pr^ared to support 
 me. Her calm representations went farther with "the stranger than 
 the expressions of my despair. If he did not entirely believe our 
 tale, he at least acted the part of a man of honour, who would not 
 intrude himself on defenceless females, whatever was their 
 character ; desisted from persecuting us with his presence ; and 
 not only directed Monna Paula how we should journey to Paris, 
 but furnished her with money for the purpose of our journey. 
 From the capital I wrote to Master Heriot, my father's most trusted 
 correspondent ; he came instantly to Paris on receiving the letter ; 
 
 and But here comes Monna Paula, with more than the sum you 
 
 desired. Take it, my dearest maiden — serve this youth if you 
 will. But, O Margaret, look for no gratitude in return ! " 
 
 The Lady Hermione took the bag of gold from her attendant, 
 and gave it to her young friend, who threw herself into her arms,- 
 kissed her on both the pale cheeks, over which the sorrows so newly 
 
 R 
 
=43 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 awakened by her narrative had drawn many tears, then sprung up, 
 wiped her own overflowing eyes, and left the Foljambe apartments 
 with a hasty and resolved step. 
 
 CHAPTER XXI, 
 
 Rove not from pole to pole— the man lives here 
 Whose razor's only equall'd by his beer ; 
 And where, in either sense, the cockney-put 
 May, if he pleases, get confounded cut. 
 
 On the sign of an Alehouse kept by a Barber. 
 
 We are under the necessity of transporting our readers to the 
 habitation of Benjamin Suddlechop, the husband of the active and 
 efficient Dame Ursula, and who also, in his own person, discharged 
 more offices than one. For, besides trimming locks and beards, 
 and turning whiskers upward into the martial and swaggering curl, 
 or downward into the drooping form which became mustaches of 
 civil policy ; besides also occasionally letting blood, either by 
 cupping or by the lancet, extracting a stump, and performing other 
 actions of petty pharmacy, very nearly as well as his neighbour 
 Raredrench, the apothecary ; he could, on occasion, draw a cup 
 of beer as well as a tooth, tap a hogshead as well as a vein, and 
 wash, with a draught of good ale, the mustaches which his art had 
 just trimmed. But he carried on these trades apart from each 
 other. 
 
 His barber's shop projected its long and mysterious pole into 
 Fleet street, painted party-coloured-wise, to represent the ribbons 
 with which, in elder times, that ensign was garnished. In the 
 window were seen rows of teeth displayed upon strings like rosaries 
 — cups with a red rag at the bottom, to resemble blood, an intima- 
 tion that patients might be bled, cupped, or blistered, with the 
 assistance of "sufficient advice;" while the more profitable, but 
 less honourable operations upon the hair of the head and beard, 
 were briefly and gravely announced. Within was the well-worn 
 leathern chair for customers, the guitar, then called a ghittern or 
 cittern, with which a customer might amuse himself till his prede- 
 cessor was dismissed from under Benjamin's hands, and which, 
 therefore, often flayed the ears of the patient metaphorically, while 
 his chin sustained from the razor literal scarification. All, there- 
 fore, in this department, spoke the chirurgeon-barber, or the barber- 
 chirurgeon. 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 243 
 
 But there was a little back-room, used as a private tap-room, 
 which had a separate entrance by a dark and crooked alley, which 
 communicated with Fleet street, after a circuitous passage through 
 several by-lanes and courts. This retired temple of Bacchus had 
 also a connexion with Benjamin's more public shop by a long and 
 narrow entrance, conducting to the secret premises in which a few 
 old topers used to take their morning draught, and a few gill-sippers 
 their modicum of strong waters, in a bashful way, after having 
 entered the barber's shop under pretence of being shaved. Besides, 
 this obscure tap-room gave a separate admission to the apartments 
 of Dame Ursley, which she was believed to make use of in the 
 course of her multifarious practice, both to let herself secretly out, 
 and to admit clients and employers who cared not to be seen to 
 visit her in public . Accordingly, after the hour of noon, by which 
 time the modest and timid whetters, who were Benjamin's best 
 customers, had each had his draught, or his thimbleful, the business 
 of the tap was in a manner ended, and the charge of attending the 
 back-door passed from one of the barber's apprentices to the little 
 mulatto girl, the dingy Iris of Dame Suddlechop. Then came 
 mystery thick upon mystery ; muffled gallants, and masked 
 females, in disguises of different fashions, were seen to glide 
 through the intricate mazes of the alley ; and even the low tap on 
 the door, which frequently demanded the attention of the little 
 Creole, had in it something that expressed secrecy and fear of 
 discovery. 
 
 It was the evening of the same day when Margaret had held the 
 long conference with the Lady Hermione, that Dame Suddlechop 
 had directed her little portress to " keep the door fast as a miser's 
 purse-strings ; and, as she valued her saffron skin, to let in none 
 
 but" the name she added in a whisper, and accompanied it 
 
 with a nod. The little domestic blinked intelligence, went to her 
 post, and in brief time thereafter admitted and ushered into the 
 presence of the dame, that very city-gallant whose clothes sat awk- 
 wardly upon him, and who had behaved so doughtily in the fray 
 which befell at Nigel's first visit to Beaujeu's ordinary. The mulatto 
 introduced him — " Missis, fine young gentleman, all over gold and 
 velvet" — then muttered to herself as she shut the door, " fine 
 young gentleman, he ! — apprentice to him who makes the tick- 
 tick." 
 
 It was indeed— we are sorry to say it, and trust our readers will 
 sympathize with the interest we take in the matter — it was indeed 
 honest Jin Vin, who had been so far left to his own devices, and 
 abandoned by his better angel, as occasionally to travesty himself 
 in this fashion, and to visit, in the dress of a gallant of the day, 
 
 R 2 
 
244 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 those places of pleasure and dissipation, in which it would have 
 been everlasting discredit to him to have > been seen in his real 
 character and condition ; that is, had it been possible for him in 
 his proper shape to have gained admission. There was now a deep 
 gloom on his brow, his rich habit was hastily put on, and buttoned 
 awry ; his belt buckled in a most disorderly fashion, so that his 
 sword stuck outwards from his side, instead of hanging by it with 
 graceful negligence ; while his poniard, though fairly hatched and 
 gilded, stuck in his girdle like a butcher's steel in the fold of his 
 blue' apron. Persons of fashion had, by the way, the advantage 
 formerly of being better distinguished from the vulgar than at 
 present ; for, what the ancient farthingale and more m'odern hoop 
 were to court ladies, the sword was to the gentleman ; an article of 
 dress, which only rendered those ridiculous who assumed it for the 
 nonce, without being in the habit of wearing it. Vincent's rapier 
 go"t between his legs, and, as he stumbled over it, he exclaimed — 
 " Zounds ! 'tis the second time it has served me thus — I believe the 
 damned trinket knows I am no true gentleman, and does it of set 
 purpose." 
 
 " Come, come, mine honest Jin Vin — come, my good boy," said 
 the dame, in a soothing tone, " never mind these trankums— a frank 
 and hearty London 'prentice is worth aU the gallants of the inns of 
 court." 
 
 " I was a frank and hearty London 'prentice before I knew you, 
 Dame Suddlechop," said Vincent ; " what your advice has made 
 me, you may find a name for ; since, fore George ! I am ashanied 
 to think about it myself." 
 
 " A-w'ell-a-day," quoth the dame, " and is it even so with thee ? — 
 nay, then, I know but one cure ; " and with that, going to a little 
 corner cupboard of carved wainscoat, she opened it by the assist- 
 ance of a key, which, with a half-a-dozen besides, hung in a silver 
 chain at her girdle, and produced a long flask of thin glass cased 
 with wicker, bringing forth at the same time two Flemish rummer 
 glasses, with long stalks and capacious wombs. She filled the 
 one brimful for her guest, and the other more modestly to about 
 two-thirds of its capacity, for her own use, repeating, as the rich 
 cordial trickled forth in a smooth oily stream — " Right Rosa Solis, 
 as ever washed mulligrubs out of a moody brain ! " 
 
 But, though Jin Vin tossed off his glass without scruple, while 
 the lady sipped hers more moderately, it did not appear to produce 
 the expected amendment upon his humour. On the contrary, as 
 he threw himself into the great leathern chair, in which Dame 
 Ursley was wont to solace herself of an evening, he declared 
 himself " the most miserable dog within the sound of Bow-bell." 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 2.;S 
 
 "And why should you be so idle as to think yourself so, silly 
 boy ? " said Dame Suddlechop ; " but 'tis always thus— fools and 
 children never know when they are well. Why, there is not one 
 that walks in St. Paul's, whether in flat cap, or hat and feather, 
 that has so many kind glances from the wenches as you, when ye 
 swagger along Fleet street with your bat under your arm, and your 
 cap set aside upon your head. Thou knowest well, that, from Mrs. 
 Deputy's self down to the waistcoateers in the alley, all of them 
 are twiring and keeping betwixt their fingers when you pass ; and 
 yet you call yourself a miserable dog ! and I must tell you all this 
 over and over again, as if I were whistling the chimes of London 
 to a pettish child, in order to bring the pretty baby into good- 
 humour ! " 
 
 The flattery of Dame Ursula seemed to have the fate of her 
 cordial— it was swallowed, indeed, by the party to whom she pre- 
 sented it, and that with some degree of relish, but it did not 
 operate as a sedative on the disturbed state of the youth's mind. 
 He laughed for an instant, half in scorn, and half in gratified 
 vanity, but cast a sullen look on Dame Ursley as he replied to her 
 last words. 
 
 " You do treat me like a child indeed, when you sing over 
 and over to me a cuckoo song that I care not a copper-filing 
 for." 
 
 " Aha ! " said Dame Ursley ; " that is to say, you care not if 
 you please all, unless you please one^You are a true lover, I war- 
 rant, and care not for all the city, from here to Whitechapel, so yoy 
 could write yourself first in your pretty Peg-a- Ramsay's good-wiJJ. 
 Well, well, take patience, man, and be guided by me, for I will be 
 the hoop will bind you together at last." 
 
 " It is time you were so," said Jenkin, " for hitherto you have 
 rather been the wedge to separate us." 
 
 Dame Suddlechop had by this time finished her cordial— it was 
 not the first she had taken that day ; and, though a woman of 
 strong brain, and cautious at least, if not abstemious, in her pota- 
 tions, it may nevertheless be supposed that her patience was not 
 improved by the regimen which she observed. 
 
 "Why, thou ungracious and ingrate knave,'' said Dame Ursley, 
 " have not I done every thing to put thee in thy mistress's good 
 graces ? She loves gentry, the proud Scottish minx, as a Welshman 
 loves cheese, and has her father's descent from that /Duke of Dal- 
 devil, or whatsoever she calls him, as close in her heart as gold in a 
 miser's chest, though she as seldom shows it— and none she will 
 think of, or have, but a gentleman— and a gentleman I have made 
 of thee, Jin Vin, the devil cannot denv that." 
 
246 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 " You have made a fool of me," said poor Jenkin, looking at the 
 sleeve of his jacket." 
 
 " Never the worse gentleman for that," said Dame Urslej-, 
 laughing. 
 
 " And what is worse," said he, turning his back to her suddenly, 
 and writhing in his chair, " you have made a rogue of me." 
 
 " Never the worse gentleman for that neither," said Dame 
 Ursley, in the same tone ; " let a man bear his folly gaily and his 
 knavery stoutly, and let me see if gravity or honesty will look him 
 in the face now-a-days. Tut, man, it was only in the time of King 
 Arthur or King Lud, that a gentleman was held to blemish his 
 escutcheon by a leap over the line of reason or honesty — It is the 
 bold look, the ready hand, the fine clothes, the brisk oath, and the 
 wild brain, that makes the gallant now-a-days." 
 
 " I know what you have made me," said Jin Vin ; " since I have 
 given up skittles and trap-ball for tennis and bowls, good English 
 ale for thin Bordeaux and sour Rhenish, roast-beef and pudding 
 for woodcocks and kickshaws — my bat for a sword, my cap for a 
 beaver, my forsooth for a modish oath, my Christmas-box for a 
 dice-box, my religion for the devil's matins, and mine honest name 
 
 for Woman, I could brain thee, when I think whose advice has 
 
 guided me in all this 1" 
 
 " Whose advice, then ? whose advice, then ? Speak out, thou 
 poor, petty cloak-brusher, and say who advised thee ! " retorted 
 Dame Ursley, flushed and indignant—" Marry come up, my paltry 
 companion — say by whose advice you have made a gamester of 
 yourself, and a thief besides, as your words would bear — The Lord 
 deliver us from evil!" And here Dame Ursley devoutly crossed 
 herself. 
 
 " Hark ye, Dame Ursley Suddlechop," said Jenkin, starting up, 
 his dark eyes flashing with anger ; " remember I am none of your 
 husband — and, if I were, you would do well not to forget whose 
 threshold was swept when they last rode the Skimmington * upon 
 such another scolding jade as yourself." 
 
 " I hope to see you ride up Holborn next," said Dame Ursley, 
 provoked out of all her holyday and sugar-plum expressions, " with 
 a nosegay at your breast, and a parson at your elbow ! " 
 
 " That may well be," answered Jin Vin, bitterly, " if I walk by 
 your counsels as I Imve begun by them ; but, before that day comes, 
 you shall know that Jin Vin has the brisk boys of Fleet street still 
 at his wink. — Yes, you jade, you shall be carted for bawd and con- 
 juror, double-dyed in grain, and bing off to Bridewell, with every 
 brass basin betwixt the Bar and Paul's beating before you, as if the 
 devil were banging them with his beef-hook." 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 247 
 
 Dame Ursley coloured like scarlet, seized upon the half-emptied 
 flask of cordial, and seemed, by her first gesture, about to hurl it at 
 the head of her adversary 5 but suddenly, and as if by a strong 
 internal effort, she checked her outrageous resentment, and, putting 
 the bottle to its more legitimate use, filled, with wonderful compo- 
 sure, the two glasses, and, taking up one of them, said, with a 
 smile, which better became her comely and jovial countenance 
 than the fury by which it was animated the moment before — 
 
 " Here is to thee, Jin Vin, my lad, in all loving kindness, what- 
 ever spite thou bearest to me, that have always been a mother to 
 thee." 
 
 Jenkin's English good-nature could not resist this forcible 
 appeal ; he took up the other glass, and lovingly pledged the dame 
 in her cup of reconciliation, and proceeded to make a kind of 
 grumbling apology for his own violence — 
 
 " For you know," he said, " it was you persuaded me to get these 
 fine things, and go to that godless ordinary, and ruffle it with 
 the best,^ and bring you home all the news ; and you said, I, 
 that was the cock of the ward, would soon be the cock of the 
 ordinary, and would win ten times as much at gleek and primero, 
 as I used to do at put and beggar-my-neighbour — and turn up 
 doublets with the dice, as busily as I was wont to trowl down the 
 ninepins in the skittle-ground — and then you said I should bring 
 you such news out of the ordinary as should make us all, when 
 used as you knew how to use it — and now you see what is to come 
 of it all ! " 
 
 "'Tis all true thou sayest, lad," said the dame ; "but thou must 
 have patience. Rome was not built in a day — you cannot become 
 used to your court-suit in a month's time, any more than when you 
 changed your long coat for a doublet and hose ; and in gaming you 
 must expect to lose as well as gain — 'tis the sitting gamester sweeps 
 the board." 
 
 " The board has swept me, I know,'' replied Jin Vin, '' and that 
 pretty clean out. — I would that were the worst ; but I owe for all 
 this finery, and settling-day is coming on, and my master will find 
 my accompt worse than it should be by a score of pieces. My old 
 father will be called in to make them good ; and I — may save the 
 hangman a labour and do the job myself, or go the Virginia 
 voyage." 
 
 " Do not speak so loud, my dear boy," said Dame Ursley ; " but 
 tell me why you borrow not from a friend to make up your arrear. 
 You could lend him as much when his settling-day came round." 
 
 " No, no — I have had enough of that work," -said Vincent. 
 " Tunstall would lend me the money, poor fellow, an he had it ; 
 
248 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 but his gentle, beggarly kindred, plunder him of all, and keep 
 him as bare as a birch at Christmas. No— my fortune may be 
 spelt in four letters, and these read, RUIN." 
 
 " Now hush, you simple craven," said the dame ; " did you never 
 hear, that when the need is highest the help is nighest ? We may 
 find aid for you yet, and sooner than you are aware of. I am sure 
 I would never have advised you to such a course, but only you had 
 set heart and eye on pretty Mistress Marget, and less would not 
 serve you— and what could I do but advise you tO' cast your city- 
 slough, and try your luck where folks find fortune ? " 
 
 " Ay, ay — I remember your counsel well," said Jenkin ; " I was 
 to be introduced to her by you when I was perfect in my gallantries, 
 and as rich as the King ;, and then she was to be surprised to find 
 I was poor Jin Vin, that used to watch, from matin to curfew, for 
 one glance of her eye ; and now, instead of that, she has set her 
 soul on this Scottish sparrow-hawk of a lord that won my last 
 tester, and be cursed to him ; and so I am bankrupt in love, 
 fortune, and character, before I am out of my time, and all along of 
 you. Mother Midnight." 
 
 " Do not call me out of my own name, my dear boy, Jin Vin," 
 answered Ursula, in a tone betwixt rage and coaxing, — " do not ; 
 because I am no saint, but a poor sinful woman, with no more 
 patience than she needs, to carry her through a thousand crosses. 
 And if I have done you wrong by evil counsel, I must mend it, and 
 put you right by good advice. And for the score of pieces that must 
 be made up at settling-day, why, here is, in a good green purse, as 
 much as will make that matter good ; and we will get old Cross- 
 patch, the tailor, to take a long day for your clothes ; and " 
 
 "Mother, are you serious?" said Jin Vin, unable to trust either 
 his eyes or his ears. 
 
 " In troth am I," said the dame ; '' and will you call me Moth 
 Midnight now, Jin Vin ? " 
 
 " Mother Midnight ! " exclaimed Jenkin, hugging the dame in 
 his transport, and bestowing on her still comely cheek a hearty and 
 not unacceptable smack, that sounded like the report of a pistol, — 
 " Mother Midday, rather, that has risen to light me out of my 
 troubles — a mother more dear than she who bore me ; for she, 
 poor soul, only brought me into a world of sin and sorrow, and 
 your timely aid has helped me out of the one and the other." And 
 the good-natiu-ed fellow threw himself back in his chair, and fairly 
 drew his hand across his eyes. 
 
 " You would not have me be made to ride the Skimmington 
 then," said the.dame ; " or parade me in a cart, with all the brass 
 basins of the ward beating the march to Bridewell before me ? " 
 
THE FORTUNES Of NIGEL. 249 
 
 "I would sooner be carted to Tyburn myself," replied the 
 penitent. 
 
 " Why, then, sit up like a man, and wipe thine eyes : and, if 
 thou art pleased with what I have done, I will show thee how 
 thou mayst requite me in the highest degree." 
 
 " How ? " said Jenkin Vincent, sitting straight up in his chair.:— 
 " You would have me, then, do you some service for this friend- 
 ship of yours ? " 
 
 " Ay, marry would I," said Dame Ursley ; " for you are to know, 
 that though I am right glad to stead you with it, this gold is 
 not mine, but was placed in my hands in order to find a trusty 
 
 agent, for a certain purpose ; and so But what's the matter 
 
 with you ? — are you fool enough to be angry because you cannot 
 get a purse of gold for nothing ? I would I knew where such 
 were to come by. I never could find them lying in my road, I 
 promise you." 
 
 " No, no, dame," said poor Jenkin, " it is not for that ; for, look 
 you, I would rather work these ten bones to the knuckles, and 
 live by my labour ; but " (and here he paused). 
 
 " But what, man ? " said Dame Ursley. " You are willing to 
 work for what you want ; and yet, when I offer you gold for 
 the winning, you look on me as the devil looks over Lincoln." 
 
 " It is ill talking of the devil, mother," said Jenkin. " I had 
 him even now in my head — for, look you, I am at that pass, when 
 they say he will appear to wretched ruined creatures, and proffer them 
 gold for the fee-simple of their salvation. But I have been trying 
 these two days to bring my mind strongly up to the thought, that 
 I will rather sit down in shame, and sin, and sorrow, as I am like 
 to do, than hold on in ill courses to get rid of my present straits ; 
 and so take care. Dame Ursula, how you tempt me to break such 
 a good resolution." 
 
 " I tempt you to nothing, young man," answered Ursula ; " and, 
 as I perceive you are too wilful to be wise, I wOl e'en put my purse 
 in my pocket, and look out for- some one that will work my 
 turn with better will, and more thankfulness. And you may go 
 your own course, — break your indenture, ruin your father, lose your 
 character, and bid pretty Mistress Margaret farewell, for ever and 
 a day." 
 
 " Stay, stay," said Jenkin ; " the woman is in as great a hurry as 
 a brown baker when his oven is overheated. First, let me hear 
 that which you have to propose to me." 
 
 " Why, after all, it is but to get a gentleman of rank and fortune, 
 who is in trouble, carried in secret down the river, as far as the 
 Isle of Dogs, or somewhere thereabout, where he may lie con- 
 
250 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 cealed until he can escape abroad. I know thou knowest every 
 place by the river's side as well as the devil knows an usurer, or 
 the beggar knows his dish." 
 
 " A plague of your similes, dame," replied the apprentice ; " for the 
 devil gave ms that knowledge, and beggary may be the end on't. — 
 But what has this gentleman done, that he should need to be under 
 hiding ? No Papist, I hope — no Catesby and Piercy business — no 
 Gunpowder Plot?" 
 
 " Fy, fy ! — what do you take me for ? " said Dame Ursula. " I 
 am as good a churchwoman as the parson's wife, save that 
 necessary business will not allow me to go there oftener than 
 on Christmas-day, Heaven help me ! — No, no — this is no Popish 
 matter. The gentleman hath but struck another in the Park " 
 
 " Ha ! what ? " said Vincent, interrupting her with a start. 
 
 " Ay, ay, I see you guess whom I mean. It is even he we have • 
 spoken of so often — ^just Lord Glenvarloch, and no one else." 
 
 Vincent sprung from his seat, and traversed the room with rapid 
 and disorderly steps. 
 
 " There, there it is now — you are always ice or gunpowder. You 
 sit in the great leathern arm-chair, as quiet as a rocket hangs upon 
 the frame in a rejoicing-night till the match be fired, and then, 
 whizz ! you are in the third heaven, beyond the reach of the human 
 voice, eye, or brain. — When you have wearied yourself with pad- 
 ding to and fro across the room, will you tell me your determina- 
 tion, for time presses ? Will you aid me in this matter, or 
 not?" 
 
 "No — no— no — a thousand times no," replied Jenkin. "Have 
 you not confessed to me, that Margaret loves him ? " 
 
 "Ay," answered the dame, "that she thinks she does ; but that 
 will not last long." 
 
 "And have I not told you but this instant," replied Jenkin, "that 
 it was this same Glenvarloch that rooked me, at the ordinary, of 
 every penny I had, and made a knave of me to boot, by gaining 
 more than was my own ? — O that cursed gold, which Shortyard, 
 the mercer, paid me that morning on accompt, for mending the 
 clock of Saint Stephen's ! If I had not by ill chance, had that 
 about me, I could but have beggared my purse, without blemishing 
 my honesty ; and, after I had been rooked of all the rest amongst 
 them, I must needs risk the last five pieces witli that shark among 
 the minnows ! " 
 
 " Granted, said Dame Ursula. " All this I know ; and I own, 
 that as Lord Glenvarloch was the last you played with, you have a 
 right to charge your ruin on his head. Moreover, I admit, as 
 already said, that Margaret has made him your rival. Yet surelv, 
 
the; fortunes of nigel. 251 
 
 now he is in danger to lose his hand, it is not a time to remember 
 all this?" 
 
 " By my faith, but it is, though," said the young citizen. " Lose 
 his hand, indeed? They may take his head, for what I care. 
 Head and hand have made me a miserable wretch ! " 
 
 " Now, were it not better, my prince of flat-caps," said Dame 
 Ursula, "that matters were squared between you ; and that, through 
 means of the same Scottish lord, who has, as you say, deprived you 
 of your money and your mistress, you should in a short time re- 
 cover both?" 
 
 "And how can your wisdom come to that conclusion, dame?" 
 said the apprentice. " My money, indeed, I can conceive — that is, 
 if I comply with your proposal ; but — my pretty Margaret ! — how 
 serving this lord, whom she has set her nonsensical head upon, can 
 do me good with her, is far beyond my conception." 
 
 "That is because, in simple phrase," said Dame Ursula, "thou 
 knowest no more of a woman's heart than doth a Norfolk gosling. 
 Look you, man. Were I to report to Mistress Margaret that the 
 young lord has miscarried through thy lack of courtesy in refusing 
 to help him, why, then, thou wert odious to her for ever. She will 
 loathe thee as she will loathe the very cook who is to strike off 
 Glenvarloch's hand with his cleaver — and then she will be yet more 
 fixed in her affections towards this lord. London will hear of 
 nothing but him — speak of nothing but him— think of nothing but 
 him, for three weeks at least, and all that outcry will serve to keep 
 him uppermost in her mind ; for nothing pleases a girl so much as 
 to bear relation to any one who is the talk of the whole world 
 around her. Then, if he suffer this sentence of the law, it is a 
 chance if she ever forgets him, I saw that handsome, proper 
 young gentleman, Babington, suffer in the Queen's time myself, and 
 though I was then but a girl, he was in my head for a year after he 
 was hanged. But, above all, pardoned or punished, Glenvarloch will 
 probably remain in London, and his presence will keep up the silly 
 girl's nonsensical fancy about him. Whereas, if he escapes " 
 
 " Ay, show me how that is to avail me ? " said Jenkin. 
 
 " If he escapes," said the dame, resuming her argument, " he 
 must resign the Court for years, if not for life ; and you know the 
 old saying, ' out of sight, and out of mind.' " 
 
 " True — most true," said Jenkin ; " spoken like an oracle, most 
 wise Ursula." 
 
 " Ay, ay, I knew you would hear reason at last," said the wily 
 dame ; " and then when this same lord is off and away for once 
 and for ever, who, I pray you, is to be pretty pet's confidential 
 person, and who is to fill up the void in her affections ? — why, who 
 
252 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 but thou, thou pearl of 'prentices ! And then you will have 
 overcpme your own inclinations to comply with hers, and every 
 woman is sensible of that — and you will have run some risk, too, 
 in carrying her desires into effect— and what is it that woman 
 likes better than bravery, and devotion to her. will ? Then you 
 have her secret, and she must treat you with favour and observance, 
 and repose confidence in you, and hold private intercourse with 
 you, till she weeps with one eye for the absent lover whom she 
 is never to see again, and blinks with the other blithely upon 
 him who is in presence ; and then if you know how to improve the 
 relation in which you stand with her, you are not the brisk lively 
 lad that all the world takes you for — Said I well ? " 
 
 " You have spoken like an empress, most mighty Ursula," said 
 Jenkin Vincent ; " and your will shall be obeyed." 
 
 " You know Alsatia well ? " continued his tutoress. 
 
 " Well enough, well enough," replied he with a nod ; " I have 
 heard the dice rattle there in my day, before I must set up for 
 gentleman, and go among the gallants at the Shavaleer Bojo's, 
 as they call him, — the worse rookery of the two, though the feathers 
 are the gayest." 
 
 " And they will have a respect for thee yonder, I warrant ? " 
 
 " Ay, ay," replied Vin, " when I am got into my fustian doublet 
 again, with my bit of a trunnion under my arm, I can walk Alsatia 
 at midnight as I could do that there Fleet street in midday — 
 they will not one of them swagger with the prince of 'prentices, and 
 the king of clubs — they know I could bring every tall boy in the 
 ward down upon them." 
 
 " And you know all the watermen, and so forth ? " 
 
 " Can converse with every sculler in his own language, from 
 Richmond to Gravesend, and know all the water-cocks, from John 
 Taylor the Poet to little Grigg the Grinner, who never pulls but he 
 shows all his teeth from ear to ear, as if he were grimacing 
 through a horse-colJar." 
 
 "And you can take any dress or character upon you well, such 
 as a waterman's, a butcher's, a foot-soldier's," continued Ursula, 
 " or the like ? " 
 
 " Not such a mummer as I am within the walls, and thou knowest 
 that well enough, dame," replied the apprentice. " I can touch the 
 players themselves, at the Ball and at the Fortune, for presenting any 
 thing except a.gentleman. Take but this d — d skin of frippery 
 off me, which I think the devil stuck me into, and you shall put 
 me into nothing else that I will not become as if I were born 
 to it." 
 
 " Well, we will talk of your transmutation by-and-by,'' said the 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL, 253 
 
 dame, " and find you clothes withal, and money besides ; for it will 
 take a good deal to carry the thing handsomely through." 
 
 " But where is that money to come from, dame ? " said Jenkin ; 
 " there is a question I would fain have answered before I touch it." 
 
 " Why, what a fool art thou to ask such a question ! Suppose I 
 am content to advance it to please young madam, what is the harm 
 then ? " 
 
 " I will suppose no such thing," said Jenkin, hastily ; " I know 
 that you, dame, have no gold to spare, and maybe would not spare 
 it if you had — so that cock will not crow. ' It must be from 
 Margaret herself." 
 
 "Well, thou suspicious animal, and what if it were?" said 
 Ursula. 
 
 " Only this," replied Jenkin, " that I will presently to her, and 
 learn if she has come fairly by so much ready money ; for sooner 
 than connive at her getting it by any indirection, I would hang 
 myself at once. It is enough what I have done myself, no need to 
 engage poor Margaret in such villainy — I'll to her, and tell her of 
 the danger— I will, by Heaven ! " 
 
 " You are mad to think of it," said Dame Suddlechop, con- 
 siderably alarmed — " hear me but a moment. I know not precisely 
 from whom she got the money ; but sure I am that she obtained it 
 at her godfa.ther's." 
 
 " Why, Master George Heriot is not returned from France," said 
 Jenkin. 
 
 " No," replied Ursula, " but Dame Judith is at home— and the 
 strange lady, whom they call Master Heriot's ghost — she never 
 goes abroad." 
 
 " It is very true. Dame Suddlechop," said Jenkin ; "and I believe 
 you have guessed right — they say that lady has coin at will ; and if 
 Marget can get a handful of fairy-gold, why, she is free to throw it 
 away at will." 
 
 " Ah, Jin Vin," said the dame, reducing her voice almost to a 
 whisper, " we should not want gold at will neither, could we but 
 read the riddle of that lady ! " 
 
 " They may read it that list," said Jenkin, " I'll never pry into 
 what concerns me not — Master George Heriot is a worthy and 
 brave citizen, and an honour to London, and has a right to manage 
 his own household as he likes best. — There was once a talk of 
 rabbling him the fifth of November before the last, because they 
 said he kept a nunnery in his house, like old Lady Foljambe ; but 
 Master George is well loved among the 'prentices, and we got so 
 many brisk boys of us together as should have rabbled the rabble, 
 had they had but the heart to rise." 
 
254 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 " Well, let that pass," said Ursula ; " and now, tell me how you 
 will manage to be absent from shop a day or two, for you must 
 think that this matter will not be ended sooner." 
 
 " Why, as to that, I can say nothing," said Jenkin, " I have always 
 served duly and truly ; I have no heart to play truant, and cheat 
 my master of his time as well as his money." 
 
 " Nay, but the point is to get back his money for him," said 
 Ursula, " which he is not likely to see on other conditions. Could 
 you not ask leave to go down to your uncle in Essex for two or 
 three days ? He may be ill, you know." 
 
 " Why, if I must, I must," said Jenkin, with a heavy sigh ; " but 
 I will not be lightly caught treading these dark and crooked paths 
 again." 
 
 " Hush thee, then," said the dame, " and get leave for this very 
 evening ; and come back hither, and I will introduce you to another 
 implement, who must be employed in the matter.— Stay, stay !— the 
 lad is mazed — you would not go into your master's shop in that 
 guise, surely? Your trunk is in the matted chamber with your 
 'prentice things — go and put them on as fast as you can." 
 
 " I think I am bewitched," said Jenkin, giving a glance towards 
 his dress, " or that these fool's trappings have made as great an ass 
 of me as of many I have seen wear them ; but let me once be rid 
 of the harness, and if you catch me putting it on again, I will give 
 you leave to sell me to a gipsy, to carry pots, pans, and beggar's 
 bantlings, all the rest of my life." 
 
 So saying, he retired to change his apparel. 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 Chance will not do the work — Chance sends the breeze ; 
 
 But if the pilot slumber at the helm, 
 
 The very wind that wafts us towards the port 
 
 May dash us on the shelves. — The steersman's part is 
 
 vigilance. 
 Blow it or rough or smooth. 
 
 Old Play. 
 
 We left Nigel, whose fortunes we are bound to trace by the 
 engagement contracted in our title-page, sad and solitary in the 
 mansion of Trapbois the usurer, having just received a letter instead 
 of a visit from his friend the Templar, stating reasons why he could 
 not at that time come to see him in Alsatia. So that it appeared 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 235 
 
 his intercourse with the better and more respectable class of society, 
 was, for the present, entirely cut off. This was a melancholy, and, 
 to a proud mind like that of Nigel, a degrading reflection. 
 
 He went to the window of his apartment, and found the street 
 enveloped in one of those thick, dingy, yellow-coloured fogs, which 
 often invest the lower part of London and Westminster. Amid the 
 darkness, dense and palpable, were seen to wander like phantoms a 
 reveller or two, whom the morning had surprised where the evening 
 left them ; and who now, with tottering steps, and by an instinct 
 which intoxication could not wholly overcome, were groping the 
 way to their own homes, to convert day into night, for the purpose 
 of sleeping off the debauch which had turned night into day. 
 Although it was broad day in the other parts of the city, it was 
 scarce dawn yet in Alsatia ; and none of the sounds of industry or 
 occupation were there heard, which had long before aroused the 
 slumberers in every other quarter. The prospect was too tiresome 
 and disagreeable to detain Lord Glenvarloch at his station, so, 
 turning from the window, he examined with more interest the 
 furniture and appearance of the apartment which he tenanted. 
 
 Much of it had been in its time rich and curious — there was a 
 huge four-post bed, with as much carved oak about it as would have 
 made the head of a man-of-war, and tapestry hangings ample 
 enough to have been her sails. There was a huge mirror with a 
 massy frame of gilt brass-work, which was of Venetian manufacture, 
 and must have been worth a considerable sum before it received 
 the tremendous crack, which, traversing it from one corner to the 
 other, bore the same proportion to the surface that the Nile bears 
 to the map of Egypt. The chairs were of different forms and shapes, 
 some had been carved, some gilded, some covered with damasked 
 leather, some with embroidered work, but all were damaged and 
 worm-eaten. There was a picture of Susanna and the Elders over 
 the chimney-piece, which might have been accounted a choice 
 piece, had not the rats made free with the chaste fair one's nose, 
 and with the beard of one of her reverend admirers. 
 
 In a word, all that Lord Glenvarloch saw, seemed to have been 
 articles carried olT by appraisement or distress, or bought as penny- 
 worths at some obscure broker's, and huddled together in the 
 apartment, as in a sale-room, without regard to taste or congruity. 
 
 The place appeared to Nigel to resemble the houses near the 
 sea-coast, which are too often furnished with the spoils of wrecked 
 vessels, as this was probably fitted Up with the relics of ruined 
 profligates. — "My own skiff is among the breakers," thought Lord 
 Glenvarloch, " though my wreck will add little to the profits of the 
 spoiler." 
 
zs6 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 He was chiefly interested in the state of the grate, a huge 
 assemblage of rusted iron bars which stood in the chimney, 
 unequally supported by three brazen feet, moulded into the form 
 of lion's claws, while the fourth, which had been bent by an 
 accident, seemed proudly uphfted as if to paw the ground ; or as if 
 the whole article had nourished the ambitious purpose of pacing 
 forth into the middle of the apartment, and had one foot ready 
 raised for the journey. A smile passed over Nigel's face as this 
 fantastic idea presented itself to his fancy. — " I must stop its march, 
 however," he thought ; " for this morning is chill and raw enough 
 to demand some fire." 
 
 He called accordingly from the top of a large staircase, with a 
 heavy oaken balustrade, which gave access to his own and other 
 apartments, for the house was old and of considerable size ; but, 
 receiving no answer to his repeated summons, he was compelled to 
 go in search of some one who might accommodate him with what 
 he wanted. 
 
 Nigel had, according to the fashion of the old world in Scotland, 
 received an education which might, in most particulars, be termed 
 simple, hardy, and unostentatious ; but he had, nevertheless, been 
 accustomed to much personal deference, and to the constant 
 attendance and ministry of one or more domestics. This was the 
 universal custom in Scotland, where wages were next to nothing, 
 and where, indeed, a man of title or influence might have as many 
 attendants as he pleased, for the mere expense of food, clothes, and 
 countenance. Nigel was therefore mortified and displeased when 
 he found himself without notice or attendance ; and the more 
 dissatisfied, because he was at the same time angry with himself 
 for suffering such a trifle to trouble him at all, amongst matters of 
 more deep concernment. " There must surely be some servants in 
 so large a house as this," said he, as he wandered over the place, 
 through which he was conducted by a passage which branched off 
 from the gallery. As he went on, he tried the entrance to several 
 apartments, some of which he found were locked and others unfur- 
 nished, all apparently unoccupied ; so that at length he returned to 
 the staircase, and resolved to make his way down to the lower part 
 of the house, where he supposed he must at least find the old 
 gentleman, and his ill-favoured daughter. With this purpose he 
 first made his entrance into a little low, dark parlour, containing a 
 well-worn leathern easy chair, before which stood a pair of slippers, 
 while on the left side rested a crutch-handled staff ; an oaken table 
 stood before it, and supported a huge desk clamped with iron, and 
 a massive pewter inkstand. Around the apartment were shelves, 
 cabinets, and other places convenient for depositing papers. A 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 257 
 
 sword, musketoon, and a pair of pistols, hung over the chimney, in 
 ostentatious display, as if to intimate that the oroprietor would be 
 prompt in the defence of his premises. 
 
 "This must be the usurer's den," thought Nigel; and he was 
 about to call aloud, when the old man, awakened even by the 
 slightest noise, for avarice seldom sleeps sound, soon was heard 
 from the inner room, speaking in a voice of irritability, rendered 
 more tremulous by his morning cough. 
 
 " Ugh, ugh, ugh — who is there ? I say — ugh, ugh — who is there? 
 Why, Martha ! — ugh, ugh — Martha Trapbois— here be thieves in 
 the house, and they will not speak to me— why, Martha ! — thieves, 
 thieves— ugh, ugh, ugh ! " 
 
 Nigel endeavoured to explain, but the idea of thieves had taken 
 possession of the old man's pineal gland, and he kept coughing and 
 screaming, and screaming and coughing, until the gracious Martha 
 entered the apartment ; and, having first outscreamed her father, 
 in order to convince him that there was no danger, and to assure 
 him that the intruder was their new. lodger, and having as often 
 heard her sire ejaculate — " Hold him fast — ugh, ugh — hold him fast 
 till I come," she at length succeeded in silencing' his fears and his 
 clamour, and then coldly and dryly asked Lord Glenvarloch what 
 he wanted in her father's apartment. 
 
 Her lodger had, in the meantime, leisure to contemplate her 
 appearance, which did not by any means improve the idea he had 
 formed of it by candlelight on the preceding evening. She was 
 dressed in what was called a Queen Mary's ruff and farthingale ; 
 not the falling ruff with which the unfortunate Mary of Scotland is 
 usually painted, but that which, with more than Spanish stiffness, 
 surrounded the throat, and set off the morose head, of her fierce 
 namesake, of Smithfield memory. This antiquated dress assorted 
 weU with the faded complexion, grey eyes, thin lips, and austere 
 visage of the antiquated maiden, which was, moreover, enhanced 
 by a black hood, worn as her head-gear, carefully disposed so as to 
 prevent any of her hair from escaping to view, probably because 
 the simplicity of the period knew no art of disguising the colour 
 with which time had begun to grizzle her tresses. Her figure was 
 tall, thin, and fiat, with skinny arms and hands, and feet of the 
 larger size, cased in huge high-heeled shoes, which added height to 
 a stature already ungainly. Apparently some art had been used by 
 the tailor, to conceal a slight defect of shape, occasioned by the 
 accidental elevation of one shoulder above the other ; but the 
 praiseworthy efforts of the ingenious mechanic had only succeeded 
 in calling the attention of the observer to his benevolent purpose, 
 without demonstrating that he had been able to achieve it. 
 
 S 
 
2S8 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 Such was Mrs. Martha Trapbois, whose dry " What were you 
 seeking here, sir ?" fell again, and with reiterated sharpness, on the 
 ear of Nigel, as he gazed upon her presence, and compared it 
 internally to one of the faded and grim figures in the old tapestry 
 which adorned his bedstead. It was, however, necessary to reply, 
 and he answered, that he came in search of the servants, as he 
 desired to have a fire kindled in his apartment on account of the 
 rawness of the morning. 
 
 "The woman who does our char-work," answered Mistress 
 Martha, " comes at eight o'clock — if you want fire sooner, there are 
 fagots and a bucket of sea-coal in the stone-closet at the head of 
 the stair — and there is a flint and steel on the upper shelf — you can 
 light fire for yourself if you will." 
 
 " No — no— no, Martha," ejaculated her father, who, having 
 donned his rusty tunic, with his hose all ungirt, and his feet slip- 
 shod, hastily came out of the inner apartment, with his mind pro- 
 bably full of robbers, for he had a naked rapier in his hand, which 
 still looked formidable, though rust had somewhat marred its shine. 
 — ^What he had heard at entrance about lighting a fire, had changed, 
 however, the current of his ideas, " No — no — no," he cried, and 
 each negative was more emphatic than its predecessor — "The 
 gentleman shall not have the trouble to put on a fire — ugh — ugh, 
 I'll put it on myself, for a con-si-de-ra-ti-on." 
 
 This last word was a favourite expression with the old gentleman, 
 which he pronounced in a peculiar manner, gasping it out syllable 
 by syllable, and laying a strong emphasis upon the last. It was, 
 indeed, a sort of protecting clause, by which he guarded himself 
 against all inconveniences attendant on the rash habit of offering 
 service or civility of any kind, the which, when hastily snapped at 
 by those to whom they are uttered, give the profferer sometimes 
 room to repent his promptitude. 
 
 " For shame, father," said Martha, " that must not be. Master 
 Grahame wiU kindle his own fire, or wait till the char-woman 
 comes to do it for him, just as likes him best," 
 
 " No, child— no, child. Child Martha, no,'' reiterated the old 
 miser — " no char-woman shall ever touch a grate in my house ; 
 they put — ugh, ugh — the fagot uppermost, and so the coal kindles 
 not, and the flame goes up the chimney, and wood and heat are 
 both thrown away. Now, I will lay it properly for the gentleman, 
 for a consideration, so that it shall last— ugh, ugh— last the whole 
 day." Here his vehemence increased his cough so violently, that 
 Nigel could only, from a scattered word here and there, comprehend 
 that it was a recommendation to his daughter to remove the poker 
 and tongs from the stranger's fireside, with an assurance, that, when 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 259 
 
 necessary} his landlord would be in attendance to adjust it himself, 
 " for a consideration." 
 
 Martha paid as little attention to the old man's injunctions as a 
 predominant dame gives to those of a henpecked husband. She 
 only repeated, in a deeper and more emphatic tone of censure,- 
 " For shame, father — for shame ! " then, turning to her guest, said, 
 with her usual ungraciousness of manner, — " Master Grahame— it 
 is best to be plain with you at first. My father is an old, a very old 
 man, and his wits, as you may see, are somewhat weakened — 
 though I would not advise you to make a bargain with him, else 
 you may find them too sharp for your own. For myself, I am a 
 lone woman, and, to say truth, care little to see or converse with 
 any one. If you can be satisfied with house-room, shelter, and 
 safety, it will be your own fault if you have them not, and they are 
 not always to be found in this unhappy quarter. But, if you seek 
 deferential observance and attendance, I tell you at once you will 
 not find them here." 
 
 " I am not wont either to thrust myself upon acquaintance, 
 madam, or to give trouble," said the guest ; " nevertheless, I shall- 
 need the assistance of a domestic to assist me to dress — Perhaps 
 you can recommend me to such ? " 
 
 " Yes, to twenty," answered Mistress Martha, " who will pick 
 your purse while they tie your points, and cut your throat while 
 they smooth your pillow. " 
 
 " I will be his servant myself," said the old man, whose intellect, 
 for a moment distanced, had again, in some measure, got up with 
 the conversation. " I will brush his cloak — ugh, ugh — and tie his 
 points — ugh, ugh — and clean his shoes — ugh — and run on his 
 errands with speed and safety — ugh, ugh, ugh, ugh — for a con- 
 sideration." 
 
 " Good-morrow to you, sir," said Martha, to Nigel, in a tone of 
 direct and positive dismissal. " It cannot be agreeable to a 
 daughter that a stranger should hear her father speak thus. If you 
 be really a gentleman, you will retire to your own apartment." 
 
 " I will not delay a moment," said Nigel, respectfully, for he was 
 sensible that circumstances palliated the woman's rudeness. " I 
 would but ask you, if seriously there can be danger in procuring 
 the assistance of a serving-man in this place ? " 
 
 " Young gentleman," said Martha, " you must know little of 
 Whitefriars to ask the question. We live alone in this house, and 
 seldom has a stranger entered it ; nor should you, to be plain, had 
 my will been consulted. Look at the door — see if that of a castle 
 can be better secured ; the windows of the first floor are grated on 
 the outside, and within, look to these shutters." 
 
 s 2 
 
26o THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 She pulled one of them aside, and showed a ponderous apparatus 
 of bolts and chains for securing the window-shutters, while her 
 father, pressing to her side, seized her gown with a trembling hand, 
 and said, in a low whisper, " Show not the trick of locking and 
 undoing them. Show him not the trick on't, Martha— ugh, ugh— 
 on no consideration." Martha went on, without paying him any 
 attention. 
 
 " And yet, young gentleman, we have been more than once like 
 to find all these defences too weak to protect our lives ; such an 
 evil effect on the wicked generation around us hath been made by 
 the unhappy report of my poor father's wealth." 
 
 " Say nothing of that, housewife," said the miser, his irritability 
 increased by the very supposition of his being wealthy — " Say 
 nothing of that, or I will beat thee, housewife — beat thee with my 
 staff, for fetching and carrying lies that will procure our throats to 
 be cut at last — ugh, ugh. — I am but a poor man," he continued, 
 turning to Nigel — " a very poor man, that am willing to do any 
 honest turn upon earth, for a modest consideration." 
 
 " I therefore warn you of the life you must lead, young gentle- 
 man," said Martha ; " the poor woman who does the char-work 
 will assist you so far as is in her power, but the wise man is his 
 own best servant and assistant." 
 
 " It is a lesson you have taught me, madam, and I thank you for 
 it — I will assuredly study it at leisure." 
 
 " You will do well," said Martha ; " and as you seem thankful 
 for advice, I, though I am no professed counsellor of others, will 
 give you more. Make no intimacy with any one in Whitefriars — 
 borrow no money, on any score, especially from my father, for, 
 dotard as he seems, he will make an ass of you. J^ast, and best of 
 all, stay here not an instant longer than you can help it. Farewell, 
 sir." 
 
 " A gnarled tree may bear good fruit, and a harsh nature may 
 give good counsel," thought the Lord of Glenvarloch, as he retreated 
 to his own apartment, where the same reflection occurred to him 
 again and again, while, unable as yet to reconcile himself to the 
 thoughts of becoming his own fire-maker, he walked up and down 
 his bedroom,~to v.'arm himself by exercise. 
 
 At length his meditations arranged themselves in the following 
 soliloquy— by which expression I beg leave to observe once for all, 
 that I do not mean that Nigel literally said aloud with his bodily 
 organs, the words which follow in inverted commas, (while pacing 
 the room by himself,) but that I myself choose to present to my 
 dearest reader the picture of my hero's mind, his reflections and 
 resolutions, in the form of a speech, rather than in that of a narra- 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 261 
 
 tive. In other words, I have put his thoughts into language ; and 
 this I conceive to be the purpose of the soliloquy upon the. stage 
 as well as in the closet, being at once the most natural, and perhaps 
 the only way of communicating to the spectator what is supposed 
 to be passing in the bosom of the scenic personage. There are no 
 such soliloquies in nature, it is true, but unless they were received 
 as a conventional medium of communication betwixt the poet and 
 the audience, we should reduce dramatic authors to the recipe of 
 Master Puff, who makes Lord Burleigh intimate a long train of 
 political reasoning to the audience, by one comprehensive shake of 
 his noddle. In narrative, no doubt, the writer has the alternative 
 of telling that his personages thought so and so, inferred thus and 
 thus, and arrived at such and such a conclusion ; but the soliloquy 
 is a more concise and spirited mode of communicating the same 
 information ; and therefore thus communed, or thus might have 
 communed, the Lord of Glenvarloch with his own mind. 
 
 " She is right, and has taught me a lesson I will profit by. I 
 have been, through my whole life, one who leant upon others for 
 that assistance, which it is more truly noble to derive from my own 
 exertions. I am ashamed of feeling the paltry inconvenience which 
 long habit had led me to annex to the want of a servant's assistance 
 — I am ashamed of that ; but far, far more am I ashamed to have 
 suifersd the same habit of throwing my own burden on others, to 
 render_me, since I came to this city, a mere victim of those events, 
 which I have never even attempted to influence — a thing never 
 acting, but perpetually acted upon — protected by one friend, de- 
 ceived by another ; but in the advantage which I received from the 
 one, and the evil I have sustained from the other, as passive and 
 helpless as a boat that drifts without oar or rudder at the mercy of 
 the winds and waves. I became a courtier, because Heriot so 
 advised it — a gamester, because Dalgarno so contrived it — an 
 Alsatian, because Lowestoffe so willed it. Whatever of good or 
 bad has befallen me, hath arisen out of the agency of others, not 
 from- my own. My father's son must no longer hold this facile and 
 puerile course. Live or die, sink or swim, Nigel Olifaunt, from 
 this moment, shall owe his safety, success, and honour, to his own 
 exertions, or shall fall with the credit of having at least exerted his 
 own free agency. I will write it down in my tablets, in her very 
 words, — ' The wise man is his own best assistant.' " 
 
 He had just put his tablets in his pocket when the old char- 
 woman, who, to add to her efficiency, was sadly crippled by rheu- 
 matism, hobbled into the room, to try if she could gain a small 
 gratification by waiting on the stranger. She readily undertook to 
 get Lord Glenvarloch's breakfast, and, as there was an eating-house 
 
262 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 at the next door, she succeeded in a shorter time than Nigel had 
 augured. 
 
 As his solitary meal was finished, one of the Temple porters, or 
 inferior officers, was announced, as seeking Master Grahame, on 
 the part of his friend. Master Lowestoffe ; and, being admitted by 
 the old woman to his apartment, he delivered to Nigel a small 
 mail-trunk, with the clothes he had desired should be sent to him, 
 and then, with more mystery, put into his hand a casket, or strong- 
 box, which he carefully concealed beneath his cloak. " I am glad 
 to be rid on't," said the fellow, as he placed it on the table. 
 
 " Why, it is surely not so very heavy," answered Nigel, " and 
 you are a stout young man." 
 
 " Ay, sir," replied the fellow ; " but Sampson himself would not 
 have carried such a matter safely through Alsatia, had the lads of 
 the Huff known what it was. Please to look into it, sir, and see 
 all is right — I am an honest fellow, and it comes safe out of my 
 hands. How long it may remain so afterwards, will depend on 
 your own care. I would not my good name were to suffer by any 
 after-clap." 
 
 To satisfy the scruples of the messenger. Lord Glenvarloch 
 opened the casket in his presence, and saw that his small stock of 
 money, with two or three valuable papers which it contained, and 
 particularly the original sign-manual which the King had granted 
 in his favour, were in the same order in which he had left them. 
 At the man's further instance, he availed himself of the writing 
 materials which were in the casket, in order to send a line to 
 Master Lowestoffe, declaring that his property had reached him in 
 safety. He added some grateful acknowledgments for Lowestoffe's 
 services, and, just as he was sealing and delivering his billet to the 
 messenger, his aged landlord entered the apartment. His thread- 
 bare suit of black clothes was now somewhat better arranged than 
 they had been in the dishabille of his first appearance, and his 
 nerves and intellects seemed to be less fluttered ; for, without much 
 coughing or hesitation, he invited Nigel to partake of a morning 
 draught of wholesome single ale, which he brought in a large 
 leathern tankard, or black-jack, carried in the one hand, while the 
 other stirred it round with a sprig of rosemary, to give it, as the old 
 man said, a flavour. 
 
 Nigel declined the courteous proffer, and intimated by his 
 manner, while he did so, that he desired no intrusion on the privacy 
 of his own apartment ; which, indeed, he was the more entitled to 
 maintain, considering the cold reception he had that morning met 
 with when straying from its precincts into those of his landlord. 
 But the open casket contained matter, or rather metal, so attractive 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 263 
 
 to old Trapbois, that he remained fixed, like a setting-dog at a dead 
 point, his nose advanced, and one hand expanded like the lifted 
 forepaw, by which that sagacious quadruped sometimes indicates 
 that it is a hare which he has in the wind. Nigel was about to 
 break the charm which had thus arrested old Trapbois, by shutting 
 the lid of the casket, when his attention was withdrawn from him 
 by the question of the messenger, who, holding out the letter, asked 
 whether he was to leave it at Mr. Lowestoffe's chambers in the 
 Temple, or carry it to the Marshalsea ? 
 
 " The Marshalsea ? " repeated Lord Glenvarloch ; " what of the 
 Marshalsea ? " 
 
 " Why, sir," said the man, " the poor gentleman is laid up there 
 in lavender, because, they say, his own kind heart led him to scald 
 his fingers with another man's broth." 
 
 Nigel hastily snatched back the letter, broke the seal, joined to 
 the contents his earnest entreaty that he might be instantly ac- 
 quainted with the cause of his" confinement, and added, that, if it 
 arose out of his own unhappy affair, it would be of brief duration, 
 since he had, even before hearing of a reason which so peremptorily 
 demanded that he should surrender himself, adopted the resolution 
 to do so, as the manliest and most proper course which his ill 
 fortune and imprudence had left in his own power. He therefore 
 conjured Mr. Lowestoffe to have no delicacy upon this score, but, 
 since his surrender was what he had determined upon as a sacrifice 
 due to his own character, that he would have the frankness to 
 mention in what manner it could be best arranged, so as to extri- 
 cate him, Lowestoffe, from the restraint to which the writer could 
 not but fear his friend had been subjected, on account of the 
 generous interest which he had taken in his concerns. The letter 
 concluded, that the writer would suffer twenty-four hours to elapse 
 in expectation of hearing from him, and, at the end of that period, 
 was determined to put his purpose in execution. He delivered the 
 billet to the messenger, and, enforcing his request with a piece of 
 money, urged him, without a moment's delay, to convey it to the 
 hands of Master Lowestoffe. 
 
 " I — I — I — will carry it to him myself," said the old usurer, " for 
 half the consideration." 
 
 The man who heard this attempt to take his duty and perquisites 
 over his head, lost no time in pocketing the money, and departed 
 on his errand as fast as he could. 
 
 " Master Trapbois," said Nigel, addressing the old man some- 
 what impatiently, " had you any particular commands for me ? " 
 
 " I — I — came to see if you rested well," answered the old man ; 
 " and — if I could do any thing to serve you, on any consideration." 
 
264, THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 "Sir, I thank you," said Lord Glenvarloch— " I thank you;" 
 and, ere he could say more, a heavy footstep was heard on the 
 stair. 
 
 "My God!" exclaimed the old man, starting up— "Why, 
 Dorothy— char- woman— why, daughter,— draw bolt, I say, house- 
 wives — the door hath been left a-latch ! " 
 
 The door of the chamber opened wide, and in strutted the portly 
 bulk of the military hero whom Nigel had on the preceding even- 
 ing in vain endeavoured to recognise. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 Swash-Buckler. Bilboe's the word — 
 
 Pierrot. It hath been spoke too often, 
 The spell hath lost its charm — I tell thdC, friend, 
 The meanest cur that trots the street, will turn. 
 And snarl against your proffer'd bastinado. 
 
 Swash-Buckler. 'Tis art shall do it, then — I will dOSe 
 the mongrels — 
 Or, in plain terms, I'll use the private knife 
 'Stead of the brandish'd falchion. 
 
 Old Play. 
 
 The noble Captain Colepepper or PeppercuU, for he was known 
 by both these names, and some others besides, had a martial and a 
 swashing exterior, which, on the present occasion, was rendered 
 yet more peculiar, by a patch covering his left eye and a part of 
 the cheek. The sleeves of his thickset velvet jerkin were polished 
 and shone with grease, — his buff gloves had Ijuge tops, which 
 reached almost to the elbow ; his sword-belt of the same materials 
 extended its breadth from his haunch-bone to his small ribs, and 
 supported on the one side his large black-hiked back-sword, on 
 the other a dagger of like proportions. He paid his compliments 
 to Nigel with that air of predetermined effrontery, which an- 
 nounces that it will not be repelled by any coldness of reception, 
 asked .Trapbois how he did, by the familiar title of old Peter 
 Pillory, and then, seizing upon the black-jack, emptied it off at a 
 draught, to the health of the last and youngest freeman of Alsatia, 
 the noble and loving Master Nigel Grahame. 
 
 When he had set down the empty pitcher and drawn nis breath, 
 he began to criticise the liquor which it had lately contained.— 
 " Sufficient single beer, old Pillory— and, as I take it, brewed at 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 265 
 
 the rate of a nutshell of malt to a butt of Thames— as dead as a 
 corpse, too, and yet it went hissing down my throat — bubbling, by 
 Jove, like water upon hot iron. — You left us early, noble Master 
 Grahame, but, good faith, we had a carouse to your honour— we 
 heard butt ring hollow ere we parted ; we were as loving as inkle- 
 weavers — we fought, too, to finish off the gawdy. I bear some 
 marks of the parson about me, you see — a note of the sermon or 
 so, which should have been addressed to my ear, but missed its 
 mark, and reached my left eye. The man of God bears my sign- 
 manual too, but the Duke made us friends again, and it cost me 
 more sack than I could carry, and all the Rhenish to boot, to 
 pledge the seer in the way of love and reconciliation — But, Caracco ! 
 'tis a vile old canting slave for all that, whom I will one day beat 
 out of his devil's livery into all the colours bf the rainbow. — Basta ! 
 -■-Said I well, old Trapbois.' Where is thy daughter, man?— 
 what says she to my suit?— 'tis an honest one— wilt have a soldier 
 for thy son-in-law, old Pillory, to mingle the soul of martial honour 
 with thy thieving, miching, petty-larceny blood, as men put bold 
 brandy into muddy ale ? " 
 
 " My daughter receives not company so early, noble captain," 
 said the usurer, and concluded his speech with a dry, emphatical 
 "ugh, ugh." 
 
 "What, upon no c6n-si-de-ra-ti-on ?" said the captain; "and 
 wherefore not, old Truepenny ? she has not much time to lose in 
 driving her bargain, methinks." 
 
 " Captain," said Trapbois, " I was upcm some little business with 
 our noble friend here. Master Nigel Green — ugh, ugh, ugh" — 
 
 " And you would have me gone, I warrant you?" answered the 
 bully ; " but patience, old Pillory, thine hour is not yet come, man 
 — You see," he said, pointing to the casket, "that noble Master 
 Grahame, whom you call Green, has got the decuses and the 
 smelts:' 
 
 " Which you would willingly rid him of, ha I ha ! — ugh, ugh," 
 answered the usurer, " if you knew how— but, lack-a day ! thou art 
 one of those that come out for wool, and art sure to go home 
 shorn. Why now, but that I am sworn against laying of wagers, I 
 would risk some consideration that this honest guest of mine sends 
 thee home penniless, if thou darest venture with him — ugh, ugh— 
 at any game which gentlemen play at." 
 
 " Marry, thou hast me on the hip there, thou old miserly cony- 
 catcher ! " answered the captain, taking a bale of dice from the 
 sleeve of his coat ; " I must always keep company with these 
 damnable doctors, and they have made me every baby's cully, and 
 purged my purse into an atrophy ; but never mind, it passes the 
 time as well as aught else — How say you. Master Grahame ? " 
 
256 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 The fellow paused ; but even the extremity of his impudence 
 could hardly withstand the cold look of utter contempt with which 
 Nigel received his proposal, returning it with a simple, " I only 
 play where I know my company, and never in the morning." 
 
 " Cards may be more agreeable," said Captain Colepepper ; 
 " and, for knowing your company, here is honest old Pillory will 
 tell you Jack Colepepper plays as truly on the square as e'er a man 
 that trowled a die — Men talk of high and low dice, Fulhams and 
 bristles, topping, knapping, slurring, stabbing, and a hundred ways 
 of rooking besides ; but broil me like a rasher of bacon, if I could 
 ever learn the trick on 'em !" 
 
 " You have got the vocabulary perfect, sir, at the least," said 
 Nigel, in the same cold tone. 
 
 " Yes, by mine honour have I," returned the Hector ; "they are 
 phrases that a gentleman learns about town. — But perhaps you 
 would like a set at tennis, or a game at balloon— we have an indif- 
 ferent good court hard by here, and a set of as gentleman-like 
 blades as ever banged leather against brick and mortar." 
 
 " I beg to be excused at present," said Lord Glenvarloch ; " and 
 to be plain, among the valuable privileges your society has con- 
 ferred on me, I hope I may reckon that of being private in my own 
 apartment when I have a mind." 
 
 " Your humble servant, sir," said the captain ; " and I thank 
 you for your civihty — Jack Colepepper can have enough of com- 
 pany, and thrusts himself on no one. — But perhaps you will like to 
 make a match at skittles ? " 
 
 " I am by no means that way disposed," replied the young 
 nobleman. 
 
 " Or to leap a flea— run a snail — match a wherry, eh ? " 
 
 " No — I will do none of these," answered Nigel. 
 
 Here the old man, who had been watching with his little peery 
 eyes, pulled the bulky Hector by the skirt, and whispered, " Do 
 not vapour him the huff, it will not pass — let the trout play, he will 
 rise to the hook presently." 
 
 But the bully, confiding in his own strength, and probably mis- 
 taking for timidity the patient seorn with which Nigel received his 
 proposals, incited also by the open casket, began to assume a 
 louder and more threatening tone. He drew himself up, bent his 
 brows, assumed a look of professional ferocity, and continued, " In 
 Alsatia, look ye, a man must be neighbourly and companionable. 
 Zouns ! sir, we would slit any nose that was turned up at us honest 
 fellows.— Ay, sir, we would slit it up to the gristle, though it had 
 smelt nothing all its life but musk, ambergris, and court-scented 
 water. —Rabbit me, I am a soldier, and care no more for a lord 
 than a lamplighter t " 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 267 
 
 "Are you seeking a quarrel, sir?" said Nigel, calmly, having in 
 truth no desire to engage himself in a discreditable broil in such a 
 place, and with such a character. 
 
 " Quarrel, sir?" said the captain ; " I am not seeking a quarrel, 
 though I care not how soon I find one. Only I wish you to under- 
 stand you must be neighbourly, that's all. What if we should go 
 over the water to the garden, and see a bull hanked this fine morn- 
 ing — 'sdeath, will you do nothing?" 
 
 " Something I am strangely tempted to do at this moment," said 
 Nigel. 
 
 " Videlicet," said Colepepper, with a swaggering air, " let us hear 
 the temptation." 
 
 " I am tempted to throw you headlong from the window, unless 
 you presently make the best of your way down stairs." 
 
 " Throw me from the window?— hell and furies !" exclaimed the 
 captain ,' " I have confronted twenty crooked sabres at Buda with 
 my single rapier, and shall a chitty-faced, beggarly Scots lordling, 
 speak of me and a window in the same breath i" — Stand off, old 
 Pillory, let me make Scotch collops of him— he dies the death ! " 
 
 " For the love of Heaven, gentlemen," exclaimed the old miser, 
 throwing himself between them, " do not break the peace on any 
 consideration ! Noble guest, forbear the captain — he is a very 
 Hector of Troy— Trusty Hector, forbear my guest, he is like to 
 prove a very Achilles — ugh — ugh " 
 
 Here he was interrupted by his asthma, but, nevertheless, con- 
 tinued to interpose his person between Colepepper (who had 
 unsheathed his whinyard, and was making vain passes at his 
 antagonist) and Nigel, who had stepped back to take his sword, 
 and now held it undrawn in his left hand. 
 
 " Make an end of this foolery, you scoundrel ! " said Nigel — 
 " Do you come hither to vent your noisy oaths and your bottled-up 
 valour on me ? You seem to know me, and I am half ashamed to 
 say I have at length been able to recollect you — remember the 
 garden behind the ordinary, you dastardly ruffian, and the speed 
 with which fifty men saw you run from a drawn sword. — Get you 
 gone, sir, and do not put me to the vile labour of cudgelling such a 
 cowardly rascal down stairs." 
 
 The bully's countenance grew dark as night at this unexpected 
 recognition ; for he had undoubtedly thought himself secure in his 
 change of dress, and his black patch, from being discovered by a 
 person who had seen him but once. He set his teeth, clenched his 
 hands, and it seemed as if he was seeking for a moment's courage 
 to fly upon his antagonist. But his heart failed, he sheathed his 
 sword, turned his back in gloomy silence, and spoke not until he 
 
268 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 reached the door, when, turning round, he said, with a deep oath, 
 " If I be not avenged of you for this insolence ere many days go 
 by, I would the gallows had my body and the devil niy spirit ! " 
 
 So saying, and with a look where determined spite and malice 
 made his features savagely fierce, though they could not overcome 
 his fear, he turned and left the house. Nigel followed him as far 
 as the gallery at the head of the staircase, with the purpose of 
 seeing him depart, and ere he returned was met by Mistress 
 Martha Trapbois, whom the noise of the quarrel had summoned 
 from her own apartment. He could not resist saying to her -in 
 his natural displeasure — " I would, madam, you could teach your 
 father and his friends the lesson which you had the goodness to 
 bestow on me this morning, and prevail on them to leave me the 
 unmolested privacy of my own apartment." 
 
 " If you came hither for quiet or retirement, young man," an- 
 swered she, " you have been advised to an evil retreat. You might 
 seek mercy in the Star-Chamber, or holiness in hell, with better 
 success than quiet in Alsatia. But my father shall trouble you no 
 longer." 
 
 " So saying, she entered the apartment, and, fixing her eyes on 
 the casket, she said with emphasis — " If you display such a load- 
 stone, it will draw many a steel knife to your throat." 
 
 While Nigel hastily shut the casket, she addressed her father, 
 upbraiding him, with small reverence, for keeping company with 
 the cowardly, hectoring, murdering villain, John Colepepper. 
 
 " Ay, ay, child," said the old man, with the cunning leer which 
 intimated perfect satisfaction with his own superior address — " I 
 know — I know — ugh — but I'll crossbite him — I know them all, and 
 I can manage them— ay, ay— I have the trick on't— ugh— ugh." ■ 
 
 "You manage, father !" said the austere damsel; "you will 
 manage to have your throat cut, and that ere long. You cannot 
 hide from them your gains and your gold as formerly." 
 
 " My gains, wench ? my gold .? " said the usurer ; " alack-a-day, 
 few of these and hard got — few and hard got." 
 
 " This will not serve you, father, any longer," said she, " and had 
 not served you thus long, but that Bully Colepepper had contrived 
 a cheaper way of plundering your house, even by means of my 
 miserable self. — But why do I speak to hirti of all this," she said, 
 checking herself, and shrugging her shoulders with an expression 
 of pity which did not fall much short of scorn. " He hears nie 
 not — he thinks not of me. — Is it not sti-ange that the love of gather- 
 ing gold should survive the care to preserve both property and life ? ' 
 
 " Your father," said Lord Glenvarloch, who could not help 
 respecting the strong sense and feeling shown by this poor woman. 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 269 
 
 even amidst all her rudeness and severity, " your father seems to 
 have his faculties sufficiently alert when he is in the exercise of his 
 ordinary pursuits and functions. I wonder he is not sensible of 
 the weight of your arguments." 
 
 " Nature 'made him a man senseless of danger, and that insen- 
 sibility is the best thing I have derived from him," said she ; " age 
 has left him shrewdness enough to tread his old beaten paths, but 
 not to seek new courses. The old blind horse will long continue 
 to go its rounds in the mill, when it would stumble in the open 
 meadow." 
 
 " Daughter ! — why, wench — why, housewife !" said the old man, 
 awakemng out of some dream, in which he had been sneering and 
 chuckling in imagination, probably over a successful piece of 
 roguery, — " go to chamber, wench —go to chamber — draw bolts 
 and chain — look sharp to door — let none in or out but worshipful 
 Master Grahame — I must take my cloak, and go to Duke Hilde- 
 brod — ay, ay, time has been, my own warrant was enough j but the 
 lower we lie, the more are we under the wind." 
 
 And, with his wonted chorus of muttering and coughing, the old 
 man left the apartment. His daughter stood for a moment looking 
 after him, with her usual expression of discontent and sorrow. 
 
 " You ought to persuade your father," said Nigel, " to leave this 
 evil neighbourhood, if you are in reality apprehensive for his 
 safety." 
 
 " He would be safe in no other quarter," said the daughter ; " I 
 would rather the old man were dead than publicly dishonoured. 
 In other quarters he would be pelted and pursued, like an owl 
 which ventures into sunshine. Here he was safe, while his com- 
 rades could avail themselves of his talents ; he is now squeezed 
 and fleeced by them on every pretence. They consider him as a 
 vessel on the strand, from which each may snatch a prey ; and the 
 very jealousy which they entertain respecting him as a common 
 property, may perhaps induce them to guard him from more 
 private and daring assaults." 
 
 " Still, methinks, you ought to leave this place," answered Nigel, 
 " since you might find a safe retreat in some distant country." 
 
 " In Scotland, doubtless," said she, looking at him with a sharp 
 and suspicious eye, " and enrich strangers with our rescued wealth 
 —Ha ! young man ? " 
 
 " Madam, if you knew me," said Lord Glenvarloch, " you would 
 spare the suspicion implied in your words." 
 
 " Who shall assure me of that?" said Martha, sharply. " They 
 say you are a brawler and a gamester, and I know how far these 
 are to be trusted by the unhappy." 
 
270 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 " They do me wrong, by Heaven ! " said Lord Glenvarloch. 
 
 " It may be so," said Martha : " I am little interested in the degree 
 of your vice or your folly ; but it is plain, that the one or the other 
 has conducted you hither, and that your best hope of peace, safety, 
 and happiness, is to be gone, with the least possible delay, from a 
 place which is always a sty for swine, and often a shambles." So 
 saying, she left the apartment. 
 
 There was something in the ungracious manner of this female, 
 amounting almost to contempt of him she spoke to — an indignity 
 to which Glenvarloch, notwithstanding his poverty, had not as yet 
 been personally exposed, and which, therefore, gave him a transitory 
 feeling of painful surprise. Neither did the dark hints which Martha 
 threw out concerning the danger of his place of refuge, sound by any 
 means agreeably to his ears, The bravest man, placed in a situa- 
 tion in which he is surrounded by suspicious persons, and removed 
 from all counsel and assistance, except those afforded by a valiant 
 heart and a strong arm, experiences a sinking of the spirit, a con- 
 sciousness of abandonment, which for a moment chills his blood, 
 and depresses his natural gallantry of disposition. 
 
 But, if sad reflections arose in Nigel's mind, he had not time to 
 indulge them ; and, if he saw little prospect of finding friends in 
 Alsatia, he found that he was not likely to be solitary for lack of 
 visitors. 
 
 He had scarcely paced his apartment for ten minutes, endeavour- 
 ing to arrange his ideas on the course which he was to pursue on 
 quitting Alsatia, when he was interrupted by the Sovereign of the 
 quarter, the great Duke Hildebrod himself, before whose approach 
 the bolts and chains of the miser's dwelling fell, or withdrew, as of 
 their own accord ; and both the folding leaves of the door were 
 opened, that he might roll himself into the house like a huge butt 
 of liquor, a vessel to which he bore a considerable outward re- 
 semblance, both in size, shape, complexion, and contents. 
 
 "Good-morrow to your lordship," said the greasy puncheon, 
 cocking his single eye, and rolling it upon Nigel with a singular 
 expression of familiar impudence ; whilst his grim bull-dog, which 
 was close at his heels, made a kind of gurgling in his throat, as if 
 saluting, in similar fashion, a starved cat, the only living thing in 
 Trapbois' house which we have not yet enumerated, and which had 
 flown up to the top of the tester, where she stood clutching and 
 grinning at the mastiff, whose greeting she accepted with as much 
 good-will as Nigel bestowed on that of the dog's master. 
 
 " Peace, Belzie !— D— n thee, peace ! " said Duke Hildebrod, 
 " Beasts and fools will be meddling, my lord." 
 
 " I thought, sir," answered Nigel, with as much haughtiness as 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 271 
 
 was consistent wirh the cool distance which he desired to 
 preserve, " I thought I had told you, my name"at present was Nigel 
 Grahame." 
 
 His eminence of Whitefriars on this burst out into a loud, 
 chuckling, impudent laugh, repeating the word till his voice was 
 almost inarticulate, — "Niggle Green — Niggle Green — Niggle 
 Green ! — why, my lord, you would be queered in the drinking of 
 a penny pot of Malmsey, if you cry -before you are touched. Why, 
 you have told me the secret even now, had I not had a shrewd 
 guess of it before. Why, Master Nigel, since that is the word, I 
 only called you my lord, because we made you a peer of Als5.tia 
 last night, when the sack was predominant. — How you look now ! 
 —Ha ! ha ! ha ! " 
 
 Nigel, indeed, conscious that he had unnecessarily betrayed 
 himself, replied hastily, — "he was much obliged to him for the 
 honours conferred, but did not propose to remain in the Sanctuary 
 long enough to enjoy them." 
 
 " Why, that may be as you will, an you will walk by wise counsel," 
 answered the ducal porpoise ; and, although Nigel remained stand- 
 ing, in hopes to accelerate his guest's departure, he threw himself 
 into one of the old tapestry-backed easy-chairs, which cracked under 
 his weight, and began to call for old Trapbois. 
 
 The crone of all work appearing instead of her master, the Duke 
 cursed her for a careless jade, to let a strange gentleman, and a 
 brave guest, go without his morning's draught. 
 
 " I never take one, sir," said Glenvarloch. 
 
 " Time to begin — time to begin," answered the Duke. — " Here, 
 you old refuse of Sathan, go to our palace, and fetch Lord Green's 
 morning draught. Let us see — what shall it be, my lord ? — a 
 humming double pot of ale, with a roasted crab dancing in it like 
 a wherry above bridge ?— or, hum — ay, young men are sweet- 
 toothed — a quart of burnt sack, with sugar and spice ? — good 
 against the fogs. Or, what say you to sipping a gill of right distilled 
 waters ? Come, we will have them all, and you shall take your choice. 
 — Here, you Jezebel, let Tim send the ale, and the sack, and the 
 nipperkin of double-distilled, with a bit of diet-loaf, or some such 
 trinket, and score it to the new comer." 
 
 Glenvarloch, bethinking himself that it might be as well to endure 
 this fellow's insolence for a brief season, as to get into farther 
 discreditable quarrels, suffered him to take his own way, without 
 interruption, only observing, " You make yourself at home, sir, in 
 my apartment ; but, for the time, you may use your pleasure. 
 Meanwhile, I would fain know what has procured me the honour ot 
 this unexpected visit ? " 
 
272 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 " You shall know that when old Deb has brought the liquor— I 
 never speak of business dry-lipped. Why, how she drumbles— I 
 warrant she stops to take a sip on the road, and then you will think 
 youTiave had unchristian measure.— In the meanwhile, look at that 
 dog there— look Bekebub in the face, and tell me if you ever saw 
 a sweeter beast — never flew but at head in his life." 
 
 And, after this congenial panegyric, he was proceeding with a 
 tale of a dog and a bull, which threatened to be somewhat of the 
 longest, when he was interrupted by the return of the old crone, 
 and two of his own tapsters, bearing the various kinds of 
 drinkables which he had demanded, and which probably was the 
 only species of interruption he would have endured with 
 equanimity. 
 
 When the cups and cans were duly arranged upon the table, and 
 when Deborah, whom the Ducal generosity honoured with a 
 penny farthing in the way of gratuity, had withdrawn with her 
 sateUites, the worthy potentate, having first slightly invited Lord 
 Glenvarloch to partake of the liquor which he was to pay for, and 
 after having observed, that, excepting three poached eggs, a pint of 
 bastard, and a cup of clary, he was fasting from every thing but 
 sin, set himself seriously to reinforce the radical moisture. Glen- 
 varloch had seen Scottish lairds and Dutch burgomasters at their 
 potations ; but their exploits (though each might be termed a 
 thirsty generation) were nothing to those of Duke Hildebrod, who 
 seemed an absolute sandbed, capable of absorbing any given 
 quantity of liquid, without being either vivified or overflowed. He 
 drank off the ale to quench a thirst which, as he said, kept him in a 
 fever from morning to night, and night to morning ; tippled off the 
 sack to correct the crudity of the ale ; sent the spirits after the sack 
 to keep all quiet, and then declared that, probably, he should not 
 taste liquor till ^osi meridiem, unless it was in compliment to some 
 especial friend. Finally, he intimated that he was ready to proceed 
 on the business which brought him from home so early, a proposi- 
 tion which Nigel readily received, though he could not help suspect- 
 ing that the most important purpose of Duke Hildebrod's visit 
 was already transacted. 
 
 In this, however, Lord Glenvarloch proved to be mistaken, 
 Hildebrod, before opening what he had to say, made an accurate 
 survey of the apartment, laying, from time to time, his finger on his 
 nose, and winking on Nigel with his single eye, while he opened 
 and shut the doors, lifted the tapestry, which concealed, in one or two 
 places, the dilapidation of time upon the wainscoted walls, peeped 
 into closets, and, finally, looked under the bed, to assure himself 
 that the coast was clear of listeners and interlopers. He then 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 273 
 
 resumed his seat, and beckoned confidentially to Nigel to draw his 
 chair close to him. 
 
 " I am well as I am, Master Hildebrod," replied the young 
 lord, little disposed to encourage the familiarity which the man 
 endeavoured to fix on him ; but the undismayed Duke proceeded 
 as follows : 
 
 " You shall pardon me, my lord — and I now give you the title 
 right seriously — if I remind you that our waters may be watched ; 
 for though old Trapbois be as deaf as Saint Paul's, yet his daughter 
 has sharp ears, and sharp eyes enough, and it is of them that it is 
 my business to speak." 
 
 " Say away, then, sir," said Nigel, edging his chair somewhat 
 closer to the Quicksand, " although I cannot conceive what business 
 I have either with iriine host or his daughter." 
 
 " We will see that in the twinkling of a quart-pot," answered the 
 gracious Duke ; " and first, my lord, you must not think to dance in 
 a net before old Jack Hildebrod, that has thrice your years o'er his 
 head, and was born, like King Richard, with all his eye-teeth ready 
 cut." 
 
 " Well, sir, go on," said Nigel. 
 
 " Why, then, my lord, I presume to say, that, if you are, as I 
 believe you are, that Lord Glenvarloch whom all the world talk of 
 —the Scotch gallant that has spent all, to a thin cloak and a light 
 purse— be not moved, my lord, it is so noised of you — men call you 
 the sparrowhawk, who will fly at all — ay, were it in the very Park — 
 Be not moved, my lord." 
 
 " I am ashamed, sirrah," replied Glenvarloch, " that you should 
 have power to move me by your insolence— but beware— and, if you 
 indeed guess who I am, consider how long I may be able to endure 
 your tone of insolent famiharity." 
 
 "I erave pardon, my lord," said Hildebrod, with a sullen, yet 
 apologetic look ; " I meant no harm in speaking my poor mind. I 
 know not what honour there may be in being familiar with your 
 lordship, but I judge there is httle safety, for Lowestoffe is laid up 
 in lavender only for having shown you the way into Alsatia ; and 
 so, what is to come of those who maintain you when you are here, 
 or whether they will get mpst honour or most trouble by doing so, 
 I leave with your lordship's better judgment." 
 
 " I will bring no one into trouble on my account," said Lord 
 Glenvarloch. " I will leave Whitefriars to-morrow. Nay, by 
 Heaven, I will leave it this day." 
 
 " You will have more wit in your anger, I trust," said Duke 
 Hildebrod ; " listen first to what I have to say to you, and, if honest 
 Jack Hildebrod puts you not in the way of nicking them all, may he 
 
 T 
 
274 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 never cast doublets, or gull a greenhorn again ! And so, niy lord, 
 in plain words, you must wap and win." 
 
 " Your words must be still plainer before I can understand them," 
 said Nigel. 
 
 " What the devil — a gamester, one who deals with the devil's 
 bones and the doctors, and not understand pedlar's French ! Nay, 
 then, I must speak plain English, and that's the simpleton's 
 tongue." 
 
 " Speak, then, sir,'' said Nigel; "and I pray you be brief, for I 
 have little more time to bestow on you." 
 
 " Well, then, my lord, to be brief, as you and the lawyers call it 
 — I understand you have an estate in the north, which changes 
 masters for want of the redeeming ready. — Ay, you start, but you 
 cannot dance in a net before me, as I said before ; and so the King 
 runs the frowning humour on you, and the Court vapours you the 
 go-by ; and the Prince scowls at you from under his cap ; and the 
 favourite serves you out the puckered brow and the cold shoulder ; 
 
 and the favourite's favourite " 
 
 " To go no further, sir," interrupted Nigel, " suppose all this true 
 — and what follows ? " 
 
 "What follows?" returned Duke Hildebrod. "Marry, this 
 follows, that you will owe good deed, as well as good will, to him 
 who shall put you in the way to walk with your beaver cocked in the 
 presence, as an ye were Earl of Kildare ; bully the courtiers ; meet 
 the Prince's blighting look with a bold brow ; confront the favourite ; 
 
 baffle his deputy, and " 
 
 "This is all well," said Nigel; "but how is it to be accom- 
 plished?" 
 
 " By making thee a Prince of Peru, my lord of the northern 
 latitudes ; propping thine old castle with ingots, — fertilizing thy 
 failing fortunes with gold dust— it shall but cost thee to put thy 
 baron's coronet for a day or so on the brows of an old Caduca here, 
 the man's daughter of the house, and thou art master of a mass of 
 
 treasure that shall do all I have said for thee, and" 
 
 " What, would you have me marry this old gentlewoman here, the 
 daughter of mine host ? " said Nigel, surprised and angry, yet unable 
 to suppress some desire to laugh. 
 
 " Nay, my lord, I would have you marry fifty thousand good 
 sterling pounds ; for that, and better, hath old Trapbois hoarded ; 
 and thou shalt do a deed of mercy in it to the old man, who will 
 lose his golden smelts in some worse way — for now that he is well- 
 nigh past his day of work, his day of payment is like to follow." 
 
 " Truly, this is a most courteous offer," said Lord Glenvarloch ; 
 "but may I pray of your candour, most noble duke, to tell me why 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL, 275 
 
 you dispose of a ward of so much wealth on a stranger hke me, who 
 may leave you to-morrow ? " 
 
 " In sooth, my lord," said the Duke, " that question smacks more 
 of the wit of Beaujeu's ordinary, than any word I have yet heard 
 your lordship speak, and reason it is you should be answered. 
 Touching my peers, it is but necessary to say, that Mistress Martha 
 Trapbois will none of them, whether clerical or laic. The captain 
 hath asked her, so hath the parson, but she will none of them — she 
 looks higher than either, and is, to say truth, a woman of sense, 
 and so forth, too profound, and of spirit something too high, to put 
 up with greasy buff or rusty prunella. For ourselves, we need but 
 hint that we have a consort in the land of the living, and, what is 
 more to purpose, Mrs. Martha knows it. So, as she will not lace 
 her kersey hood save with a quality binding, you, my lord, must be 
 the man, and must carry off fifty thousand decuses, the spoils of 
 five thousand bullies, cutters, and spendthrifts, — always deducting 
 from the main sum some five thousand pounds for our princely 
 advice and countenance, without which, as matters stand in Alsatia, 
 you would find it hard to win the plate." 
 
 " But has your wisdom considered, sir,'' replied Glenvarloch, 
 " how this wedlock can serve me in my present emergence ? " 
 
 "As for that, my lord," said Duke Hildebrod, " if, with forty or 
 fifty thousand pounds in your pouch, you cannot save yourself, you 
 will deserve to lose your head for vour folly, and your hand for being 
 close-fisted." 
 
 "But, since your goodness has taken my matters into such 
 serious consideration," continued Nigel, who considered there was 
 no prudence in breaking with a man, who, in his way, meant him 
 favour rather than offence, " perhaps you may be able to tell me 
 how my kindred will be likely to receive such a bride as you re- 
 commend to me ? " 
 
 "Touching that matter, my lord, I have always heard your 
 countrymen knew as well as other folk, on which side their bread 
 was buttered. And, truly, speaking from report, I know no place 
 where fifty thousand pounds — fifty thousand pounds, I say — will 
 make a woman more welcome than it is likely to do in your ancient 
 kingdom. And, truly, saving the slight twist in her shoulder, Mrs. 
 Martha Trapbois is a person of very awful and majestic appear- 
 ance, and may, for aught I know, be come of better blood than any 
 one wots of ; for old Trapbois looks not over like to be her father, 
 and her mother was a generous, liberal sort of a woman. 
 
 " I am afraid," answered Nigel, " that chance is rather too vague 
 to assure her a gracious reception into an honourable house.' 
 
 " Why, then, my lord," replied Hildebrod, " I think it like she 
 
 T 2 
 
276 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 will be even with them ; for I will venture to say, she has as much 
 ill-nature as will make her a match for your whole clan." 
 
 " That may inconvenience me a little," rephed Nigel. 
 
 " Not a whit — not a whit," said the Duke, fertile in expedients ; 
 " if she should become rather intolerable, which is not unlikely, 
 your honourable house, which I presume to be a castle, hath, doubt- 
 less, both turrets and dungeons, and ye' may bestow your bonny 
 bride in either the one or the other, and then you know you will be 
 out of hearing of her tongue, and she will be either above or below 
 the contempt of your friends." 
 
 " It is sagely counselled, most equitable sir,'' replied Nigel, "and 
 such restraint would be a fit meed for her folly that gave me any 
 power over her." 
 
 "You entertain the project then, my lord?" said Duke Hilde- 
 brod. 
 
 " I must turn it in my mind for twenty-four hours," said Nigel ; 
 " and I will pray you so to order matters that I be not further 
 interrupted by any visitors." 
 
 " We will utter an edict to secure your privacy," said the Duke ; 
 " and you do not think," he added, lowering his voice to a confi- 
 dential whisper, "that ten thousand is too much to pay to the 
 Sovereign, in name of wardship ? " 
 
 " Ten thousand ! " said Lord Glenvarloch ; " why, you said five 
 thousand but now." 
 
 " Aha ! art avised of that ? " said the Duke, touching the side ot 
 his nose with his finger ; " nay, if you have marked me so closely, 
 you are thinking on the case more nearly than I believed, till you 
 trapped me. Well, well, we will not quarrel about the considera- 
 tion, as old Trapbois would call it— do you win and wear the dame ; 
 it will be no hard matter with your face and figure, and I will take 
 care that no one interrupts you. I will have an edict from the 
 Senate as soon as they meet for their meridiem." 
 
 So saying, Duke Hildebrod took his leave. 
 
THE FORTUNES OF XIGEL. 277 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 This is the time — Heaven's maiden sentinel 
 Hath quitted her high watch — the lesser spangles 
 Are paling one by one ; give me the ladder 
 And the short lever — bid Anthony 
 Keep with his carabine the wicket-gate ; 
 And do thou bare thy knife and follow me, 
 For we will in and do it — darkness like this 
 Is dawning of our fortunes. 
 
 Old Play. 
 
 When Duke Hildebrod had withdrawn, Nigel's first impulse was 
 an irresistible feeling to laugh at the sage adviser, who would have 
 thus connected him with age, ugliness, and ill-temper; but his 
 next thought was pity for the unfortunate father and daughter, 
 who, being the only persons possessed of wealth in this unhappy 
 district, seemed like a wreck on the sea-shore of a barbarous 
 country, only secured from plunder for the moment by the jealousy 
 of the tribes among whom it had been cast. Neither could he 
 help being conscious that his own residence here was upon con- 
 ditions equally precarious, and that he was considered by the 
 Alsatians in the same light of a godsend on the Cornish coast, or a 
 sickly but wealthy caravan travelling through the wilds of Africa, 
 and emphatically termed by the nations of despoilers through whose 
 regions it passes, Dummalafong, which signifies a thing given to be 
 devoured^a common prey to all men. 
 
 Nigel had already formed his own plan to extricate himself, at 
 whatever risk, from his perilous and degrading situation ; and, in 
 order that he might carry it into instant execution, he only awaited 
 the return of Lov/estoffe's messenger. He expected him, however, in 
 vain, and could only amuse himself by looking through such parts 
 of his baggage as had been sent to him from his former lodgings, 
 in order to select a small packet of the most necessary articles to 
 take with him, in the event of his quitting his lodgings secretly and 
 suddenly, as speed and privacy would, he foresaw, be particularly 
 necessary, if he meant to obtain an interview with the King, which 
 was the course his spirit and his interest alike determined him to 
 pursue. 
 
 While he was thus engaged, he found, greatly to his satisfaction, 
 that Master Lowestoffe had transmitted not only his rapier and 
 poniard, but a pair of pistols, which he had used in travelling ; of 
 a smaller and more convenient size than the large petronels, or 
 
278 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 horse pistols, which were then in common use, as being made for 
 wearing at the girdle or in the pockets. Next to having stout and 
 friendly comrades, a man is chiefly emboldened by finding himself 
 well armed in case of need, and Nigel, who had thought with some 
 anxiety on the hazard of trusting his life, if attacked, to the pro- 
 tection of the clumsy weapon with which Lowestoffe had equipped 
 him, in order to complete his disguise, felt an emotion of confidence 
 approaching to triumph, as, drawing his own good and well-tried 
 rapier, he wiped it with his handkerchief, examined its point, bent 
 it once or twice against the ground to prove its well-known metal, 
 and finally replaced it in the scabbard, the more hastily, that he 
 heard a tap at the door of his chamber, and had no mind to be 
 found vapouring in the apartment with his sword drawn. 
 
 It was his old host who entered, to tell him with many cringes 
 that the price of his apartment was to be a crown per diem ; and 
 that, according to the custom of Whitefriars, the rent was always 
 payable per advance, although he never scrupled to let the money 
 lie till a week or fortnight, or even a month, in the hands of any 
 honourable guest like Master Grahame, always upon some reason- 
 able consideration for the use. Nigel got rid of the old dotard's 
 intrusion, by throwing down two pieces of gold, and requesting the 
 accommodation of his present apartment for eight days, adding, 
 however, he did not think he should tarry so long. 
 
 The miser, with a sparkling eye and a trembling hand, clutched 
 fast the proffered coin, and, having balanced the pieces with 
 exquisite pleasure on the extremity of his withered finger, began 
 almost instantly to show that not even the possession of gold can 
 gratify for more than an instant the very heart that is most eager 
 in the pursuit of it. First, the pieces might be light — with hasty 
 hand he drew a small pair of scales from his bosom and weighed 
 them, first together, then separately, and smiled with glee as he saw 
 them attain the due depression in the balance — a circumstance 
 which might add to his profits, if it were true, as was currently 
 reported, that little of the gold coinage was current in Alsatia 
 in a perfect state, and that none ever left the Sanctuary in that 
 condition. 
 
 Another fear then occurred to trouble the old miser's pleasure. 
 He had been just able to comprehend that Nigel intended to leavethe 
 Friars sooner than the arrival of the term for which he had deposited 
 the rent. This might imply an expectation of refunding, which, as a 
 Scotch wag said, of all species of funding, jumped least with the 
 old gentleman's humour. He was beginning to enter a hypothetical 
 caveat on this subject, and to quote several reasons why no part o 
 the money once consigned as room-rent, could be repaid back on 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 279 
 
 any pretence, without great hardship to the landlord, when Nigel, 
 growing impatient, told him that the money was his absolutely, and 
 without any intention on his part of resuming any of it — all he 
 asked in return was the liberty of enjoying in private the apartment 
 he had paid for. Old Trapbois, who had still at his tongue's end 
 much of the smooth language, by which, in his time, he had 
 hastened the ruin of many a young spendthrift, began to launch out 
 upon the noble and generous disposition of his new guest, until 
 Nigel, growing impatient, took the old gentleman by the hand, and 
 gently, yet irresistibly, leading him to the door of his chamber, put 
 him out, but with such a decent and moderate exertion of his 
 superior strength, as to render the action in no shape indecorous, 
 and, fastening the door, began to do that for his pistols which he 
 had done for his favourite sword, examining with care the ilints and 
 locks, and reviewing the state of his small provision of ammunition. 
 In this operation he was a second time interrupted by a knocking 
 at his door — he called upon the person to enter, having no doubt 
 that it was Lowestoffe's messenger at length arrived. It was, how- 
 ever, the ungracious daughter of old Trapbois, who, muttering some- 
 thing about her father's mistake, laid down upon the table one of 
 the pieces of gold which Nigel had just given to him, saying, that 
 what she retained was the full rent for the term he had specified. 
 Nigel replied, he had paid the money, and had no desire to receive 
 it again. 
 
 " Do as you will with it, then," replied his hostess, " for there it 
 lies, and shall lie for me. If you are fool enough to pay more than 
 is reason, my father shall not be knave enough to take it." 
 
 " But yOur father, mistress," said Nigel, " your father told me" 
 
 " Oh, my father, my father," said she, interrupting him, — " my 
 father managed these affairs while he was able — I manage them 
 now, and that may in the long run be as well for both of us." 
 She then looked on the table, and observed the weapons. 
 " You have arms, I see," she said ; " do you know how to use 
 them?" 
 
 " I should do so, mistress,'' replied Nigel, " for it has been my 
 occupation." 
 " You are a soldier, then? " she demanded. 
 " No farther as yet, than as every gentleman of my country is a 
 soldier." 
 
 " Ay, that is your point of Honour— to cut the throats of the poor 
 — a proper gentlemanlike occupation for those who should protect 
 them ! " 
 
 " 1 do not deal in cutting throats, mistress," replied Nigel ; " but 
 I carry arms to defend myself, and my country if it needs me." 
 
28o THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 " Ay," replied Martha, " it is fairly worded ; but men say you are 
 as prompt as others in petty brawls, where neither your safety nor 
 your country is in hazard ; and that had it not been so, you would 
 not have been in the Sanctuary to-day." 
 
 "Mistress," returned Nigel, "I should labour in vain to make 
 you understand that a man's honour, which is, or should be, dearer 
 to him than his life, may often call on and compel us to hazard 
 our own lives, or those of others, on what would otherwise seem 
 trifling contingencies." 
 
 " God's law says nought of that," said the female ; " I have only 
 read there, that thou shalt not kill. But I have neither time nor 
 inclination to preach to you — you will find enough of fighting here if 
 you like it, and well if it come not to seek you when you are least 
 prepared. Farewell for the present — the char-woman will execute 
 your commands for your meals." 
 
 She left the room, just as Nigel, provoked at her assuming a 
 superior tone of judgment and of censure, was about to be so super- 
 fluous as to enter into a dispute with an old pawnbroker's daughter 
 on the subject of the point of honour. He smiled at himself for 
 the folly into which the spirit of self-vindication had so nearly 
 hurried him. 
 
 Lord Glenvarloch then applied to old Deborah the char-woman, 
 by whose intermediation he was provided with a tolerably decent 
 dinner ; and the only embarrassment which he experienced, was 
 from the almost forcible entry of the old dotard his landlord, who 
 insisted upon giving his assistance at laying the cloth. Nigel had 
 some difficulty to prevent him from displacing his arms and some 
 papers which were lying on the small table at which he had been 
 sitting ; and nothing short of a stern and positive injunction to the 
 contrary could compel him to use another board (though there 
 were two in the room) for the purpose of laying the cloth. 
 
 Having at length obliged him to relinquish his purpose, he could 
 not help observing that the eyes of the old dotard seemed still anxiously 
 fixed upon the small table on which lay his sword and pistols ; and 
 that, amidst all the little duties which he seemed officiously anxious 
 to render to his guest, he took every opportunity of looking towards 
 and approaching these objects of his attention. At length, when 
 Trapbois thought he had completely avoided the notice of his guest, 
 Nigel, through the observation of one of the cracked mirrors, on 
 which channel of communication the old man had not calculated, 
 beheld him actually extend his hand towards the table in question. 
 He thought it unnecessary to use farther ceremony, but telHng his 
 landlord, in a stern voice, that he permitted no one to touch his 
 armS; he commanded him to leave the Apartment, The old usurer 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 281 
 
 commenced a maundering sort of apology, in which all that Nig«l 
 distinctly apprehended, was a frequent repetition of the word 
 cmuideration, and which did not seem to him to require any other 
 answer than a reiteration of his command to him to leave the 
 apartment, upon pain of worse consequences. 
 
 The ancient Hebe who acted as Lord Glenvarloch's cupbearer, 
 took his part against the intrusion of the still more antiquated 
 Ganymede, and insisted on old Trapbois leaving the room instantly, 
 menacing him at the same time with her mistress's displeasure if 
 he remained there any longer. The old man seemed more under 
 petticoat government than any other, for the threat of the char- 
 woman produced greater effect upon him than the more formidable 
 displeasure of Nigel. He withdrew grumbling and muttering, and 
 Lord Glenvarloch heard him bar a large door at the nearer end 
 of the gallery, which served as a division betwixt the other parts of 
 the extensive mansion, and the apartment occupied by his guest, 
 which, as the reader is aware, had its access from the landing-place 
 at the head of the grand staircase. 
 
 Nigel accepted the careful sound of the bolts and bars as they 
 were severally drawn by the trembling hand of old Trapbois, as an 
 omen that the senior did not mean again to revisit him in the 
 course of the evening, and heartily rejoiced that he was at length 
 to be left to uninterrupted solitude. 
 
 The old woman asked if there was aught else to be done for his 
 accommodation ; and, indeed, it had hitherto seemed as if the 
 pleasure of serving him, or more properly the reward which she ex- 
 pected, had renewed her youth and activity. Nigel desired to 
 have candles, to have a fire lighted in his apartment, and a few 
 fagots placed beside it, that he might feed it from time to time, as 
 he began to feel the chilly effects of the damp and low situation of 
 the house, close as it was to the Thames. But while the old woman 
 was absent upon his errand, he began to think in what way he 
 should pass the long solitary evening with which he was threatened. 
 
 His own reflections promised to Nigel little amusement, and less 
 applause. He had considered his own perilous situation in every 
 light in which it could be viewed, and foresaw as little utility ae 
 comfort in resuming the survey. To divert the current of his ideas, 
 books were, of course, the readiest resource ; and although, like 
 most of us, Nigel had, in his time, sauntered through large libra- 
 ries, and even spent a long time there without greatly disturbing 
 their learned contents, he was now in a situation where the posses- 
 sion of a volume, even of very inferior merit, becomes a real 
 treasure. The old housewife returned shortly afterwards with 
 fagots, and some pieces of half-burnt wax-candies, the perquisites. 
 
282 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 probably, real or usurped, of some experienced groom of the 
 chambers, two of which she placed in large brass candlesticks, of 
 different shapes and patterns, and laid the others on the table, that 
 Nigel might renew them from time to time as they burnt to the 
 socket. She heard with interest Lord Glenvarloch's request to 
 have a book— any sort of book— to pass away the night withal, and 
 returned for answer, that she knew of no other books in the house 
 than her young mistress's (as she always denominated Mistress 
 Martha Trapbois) Bible, which the owner would not lend ; and her 
 master's Whetstone of Witte, being the second part of Arithmetic, 
 by Robert Record, with the Cossike Practice and Rule of Equation ; 
 which promising volume Nigel declined to borrow. She offered, 
 however, to bring him some books from Duke Hildebrod— " who 
 sometimes, good gentleman, gave a glance at a book when the 
 State affairs of Alsatia left him as much leisure." 
 
 Nigel embraced the proposal, and his unwearied Iris scuttled 
 away on this second embassy. She returned in a short time with 
 a tattered quarto volume under her arm, and a pottle of sack in her 
 hand ; for the Duke, judging that mere reading was dry work, had 
 sent the wine by way of sauce to help it down, not forgetting to 
 add the price to the morning's score, which he had already run up 
 against the stranger in the Sanctuary. 
 
 Nigel seized on the book, and did not refuse the wine, thinking 
 that a glass or two, as it really proved to be of good quality, would 
 be no bad interlude to his studies. He dismissed with thanks and 
 assurance of reward, the poor old drudge who had been so zealous 
 in his service ; trimmed his fire and candles, and placed the easiest 
 of the old arm-chairs in a convenient posture betwixt the fire and 
 the table at which he had dined, and which now supported 
 the measure of sack and the lights ; and thus accompanying his 
 studies with such luxurious appUances as were in his power, he 
 began to examine the only volume with which the ducal library of 
 Alsatia had been able to supply him. 
 
 The contents, though of a kind generally interesting, were not 
 well calculated to dispel the gloom by which he was surrounded. 
 The book was entitled " God's Revenge against Murther ; " not, as 
 the bibliomaniacal reader may easily conjecture, the work which 
 Reynolds published under that imposing name, but one of a much 
 earlier date, printed and sold by old Wolfe ; and which, could a 
 copy now be found, would sell for much more than its weight in 
 gold.* 
 
 Nigel had soon enough of the doleful tales which the book con- 
 tains, and attempted one or two other modes of killing the evening. 
 He looked out at window, but the night was rainy, with gusts 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 283 
 
 of wind ; he tried to coax the fire, but the fagots were green, 
 and smoked without burning ; and as he was naturally tempe- 
 rate, he felt his blood somewhat heated by the canary sack 
 which he had already drank, and had no farther inclination to 
 that pastime. He next attempted to compose a memorial ad- 
 dressed to the King, in which he set forth his case and his 
 grievances ; but, speedily stung with the idea that his supplica- 
 tion would be treated with scorn, he flung the scroll into the 
 fire, and, in a sort of desperation, resumed the book which he 
 had laid aside. 
 
 Nigel became more interested in the volume at the second than 
 at the first attempt which he made to peruse it. The narratives, 
 strange and shocking as they were to human feeling, possessed yet 
 the interest of sorcery or of fascination, which rivets the attention 
 by its awakening horrors. Much was told of the strange and 
 horrible acts of blood by which men, setting nature and humanity 
 alike at defiance, had, for the thirst of revenge, the lust of gold, or 
 the cravings of irregular ambition, broken into the tabernacle of 
 life. Yet more surprising and mysterious tales were recounted of 
 the mode in which such deeds of blood had come to be discovered 
 and revenged. Animals, irrational animals, had told the secret, 
 and birds of the air had carried the matter. The elements had 
 seemed to betray the deed which had polluted them — earth had 
 ceased to support the murderer's steps, fire to warm his frozen 
 limbs, water to refresh his parched lips, air to relieve his gasping 
 lungs. All, in short, bore evidence to the homicide's guilt. In 
 other circumstances, the criminal's own awakened conscience 
 pursued and brought him to justice ; and in some narratives the 
 grave was said to have yawned, that the ghost of the sufferer might 
 call for revenge. 
 
 It was now wearing late in the night, and the book was still in 
 Nigel's hands, when the tapestry which hung behind him flapped 
 against the wall, and the wind produced by its motion waved the 
 flame of- the candles by which he was reading. Nigel started and 
 turned round, in that excited and irritated state of mind which 
 arose from the nature of his studies, especially at a period when a 
 certain degree of superstition was inculcated as a point of religious 
 faith. It was not without emotion that he saw the bloodless 
 countenance, meagre form, and ghastly aspect of old Trapbois, 
 once more in the very act of extending his withered hand towards 
 the table which supported his arms. Convinced by this untimely 
 apparition that something evil was meditated towards him, Nigel 
 sprung up, seized his sword, drew it, and placing it at the old 
 man's breast, demanded of him what he did in his apartment at so 
 
z84 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 untimely an hour. Trapbois showed neither fear nor surprise, and 
 only answered by some imperfect expressions, intimating he would 
 part with his hfe rather than with his property ; and Lord Glen- 
 varloch, strangely embarrassed, knew not what to think of the 
 intruder's motives, and still less how to get rid of him. As he 
 again tried the means of intimidation, he was surprised by a second 
 apparition from behind the tapestry, in the person of the daughter 
 of Trapbois, bearing a lamp in her hand. She also seemed •to 
 possess her father's insensibility to danger, for, coming close to 
 Nigel, she pushed aside impetuously his naked sword, and even 
 attempted to take it out of his hand. 
 
 " For shame," she said, " your sword on a man of eighty years 
 and more ! — this the honour of a Scottish gentleman ! — give it to 
 me to make a spindle of ! " 
 
 " Stand back," said Nigel ; " I mean your father no injury — but 
 I will know what has caused him to prowl this whole day, and 
 even at this late hour of night, around my arms." 
 
 " Your arms ! " repeated she ; " alas ! young man, the whole 
 arms in the Tower of London are of little value to him, in com- 
 parison of this miserable piece of gold which I left this morning on 
 the table of a young spendthrift, too careless to put what belonged 
 to him into his own purse." 
 
 So saying, she showed the piece of gold, which, still remaining 
 on the table, where she left it, had been the bait that attracted old 
 Trapbois so frequently to the spot ; and which, even in the silence 
 of the night, had so dwelt on his imagination, that he had made 
 use of a private passage long disused, to enter his guest's apart- 
 ment, in order to possess himself of the treasure during his 
 slumbers. He now exclaimed, at the highest tones of his cracked 
 and feeble voice — 
 
 " It is mine — it is mine ! — he gave it to me for a consideration — 
 I will die ere I part with my property ! " 
 
 " It is indeed his own, mistress," said Nigel, " and I do entreat 
 you to restore it to the person on whom I have bestowed it, and let 
 me have my apartment in quiet." 
 
 " I will account with you for it, then," — said the maiden, reluc- 
 tantly giving to her father the morsel of Mammon, on which he 
 darted as if his bony fingers had been the talons of a hawk seizing 
 its prey ; and then making a contented muttering and mumbling, 
 like an old dog after he has been fed, and just when he is wheeling 
 himself thrice round for the purpose of lying down, he followed his 
 daughter behind the tapestry, through a little sliding-door, which 
 was perceived when the hangings were drawn apart. 
 
 " This shall be properly fastened to-morrow," said the daughter 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 285 
 
 to Nigel, speaking in such a tone that her father, deaf, and en- 
 grossed by his acquisition, could not hear her ; " to-night I will 
 continue to watch him closely. — I wish you good repose." 
 
 These few words, pronounced in a tone of more civility than she 
 had yet made use of towards her lodger, contained a wish which 
 was not to be accomplished, although her guest, presently after her 
 departure, retired to bed. 
 
 There was a slight fever in Nigel's blood, occasioned by the 
 various events of the evening, which put him, as the phrase is, 
 beside his rest. Perplexing and painful thoughts rolled on his 
 mind like a troubled stream, and the more he laboured to lull 
 himself to slumber, the farther he seemed from attaining his object. 
 He tried all the resources, common in such cases ; kept counting 
 from one to a thousand, until his head was giddy — he watched the 
 embers of the wood fire till his eyes were dazzled — ^he listened to 
 the dull moaning of the wind, the swinging and creaking of signs 
 which projected from the houses, and the baying of here and there 
 a homeless dog, till his very ear was weary. 
 
 Suddenly, however, amid this monotony, came a sound which 
 startled him at once. It was a female shriek. He sat up in his 
 bed to listen, then remembered he was in Alsatia, where brawls of 
 every sort were current among the unruly inhabitants. But another 
 scream, and another, and another, succeeded so close, that he was 
 certain, though the noise was remote and sounded stifled, it must 
 be in the same house with himself. 
 
 Nigel jumped up hastily, put on a part of his clothes, seized his 
 sword and pistols, and ran to the door of his chamber. Here he 
 plainly heard the screams redoubled, and, as he thought, the sounds 
 came from the usurer's apartment. All access to the gallery was 
 effectually excluded by the intei'mediate door, which the brave 
 young lord shook with eager, but vain impatience. But the secret 
 passage occurred suddenly to his recollection. He hastened back 
 to his room, and succeeded with some difficulty in lighting a 
 candle, powerfully agitated by hearing the cries repeated, yet still 
 more afraid lest they should sink into silence. 
 
 He rushed along the narrow and winding entrance, guided by 
 the noise, which now burst more wildly on his ear ; and, while he 
 descended a narrow staircase which terminated the passage, he 
 heard the stifled voices of men, encouraging, as it seemed, each 
 other. — " D — n her, strike her down — silence her — beat her brains 
 out ! " — while the voice of his hostess, though now almost exhausted, 
 was repeating the cry of " murder," and " help." At the bottom of 
 the staircase was a small door, which gave way before Nigel as he 
 precipitated himeelf upon the scene of action,— a cocked pistol 
 
286 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 in one hand, a candle in the other, and his naked sword under 
 his arm. 
 
 Two ruffians had, with great difficulty, overpowered, or, rather, 
 were on the point of overpowering, the daughter of Trapbois, whose 
 resistance appeared to have been most desperate, for the floor was 
 covered with fragments of her clothes, and handfuls of her hair. 
 It appeared that her life was about to be the price of her defence, 
 for one villain had drawn a long clasp-knife, when they were sur- 
 prised by the entrance of Nigel, who, as they turned towards him, 
 shot the fellow with the knife dead on the spot, and when the 
 other advanced to him, hurled the candlestick at his head, and 
 then attacked him with his sword. It was dark, save some pale 
 moonlight from the window ; and the ruffian, after firing a pistol 
 without effect, and fighting a traverse or two with his sword, lost 
 heart, made for the window, leaped over it, and escaped. Nigel 
 fired his remaining pistol after him at a venture, and then called 
 for light. 
 
 " There is light in the kitchen,'' answered Martha Trapbois, with 
 more presence of mind than could have been otpected. " Stay, 
 you know not the way ; I will fetch it myself — Oh ! my father— 
 my poor father ! — I knew it would come to this — and all along of 
 the accursed gold ! — They have murdered him I " 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 Death finds us 'mid our playthings — snatches us. 
 As a cross nurse might do a wayward child. 
 From all our toys and baubles. His rough call 
 Unlooses all our favourite ties on earth ; 
 And well if they are such as may be ansvver'd 
 In yonder world, where all is judged of truly. 
 
 Old Play. 
 
 It was a ghastly scene which opened, upon Martha Trapbois's 
 return with a light. Her own haggard and austere features were 
 exaggerated by all the desperation of grief, fear, and passion — but 
 the latter was predominant. On the floor lay the body of the 
 robber, who had expired without a groan, while his blood, flowing 
 plentifully, had crimsoned all around. Another body lay also 
 there, on which the unfortunate woman precipitated herself in 
 agony, for it was that of her unhappy father. In the next moment 
 she started up, and exclaiming—" There may be life yet !" strove 
 to raise the body. Nigel went to her assistance, but not without a 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 287 
 
 glance at the open window ; which Martha, as acute as if undis- 
 turbed either by passion or terror, failed not to interpret justly. 
 
 " Fear not," she cried, " fear not ; they are base cowards, to 
 whom courage is as much unknown as mercy. If I had had 
 weapons, I could have defended myself against them without 
 assistance or protection. — Oh ! my poor father ! protection comes 
 too late for this cold and stiff corpse. — He is dead — dead !" 
 
 While she spoke, they were attempting to raise the dead body of 
 the old miser ; but it was evident, even from the feeling of the in- 
 active weight and rigid joints, that life had forsaken her station. 
 Nigel looked for a wound, but saw none. The daughter of the de- 
 ceased, with more presence of mind than a daughter could at the 
 time have been supposed capable of exerting, discovered the in- 
 strument of his murder — a sort of scarf, which had been drawn so 
 tight round his throat, as to stifle his cries for assistance in the first 
 instance, and afterward to extinguish life. 
 
 She undid the fatal noose ; and, laying the old man's body in the 
 arms of Lord Glenvarloch, she ran for water, for spirits, for essences, 
 in the vain hope that life might be only suspended. That hope 
 proved indeed vain. She chafed his temples, raised his head, 
 loosened his nightgown, (for it seemed as if he had arisen from bed 
 upon hearing the entrance of the villains,) and, finally, opened, with 
 difficulty, his fixed and closely- clenched hands, from one of which 
 dropped a key, from the other the very piece of gold about which 
 the unhappy man had been a little before so anxious, and which 
 probably, in the impaired state of his mental faculties, he was 
 disposed to defend with as desperate energy as if its amount had 
 been necessary to his actual existence. 
 
 " It is in vain — it is in vain," said the daughter, desisting from 
 her fruitless attempts to recall the spirit which had been effectually 
 dislodged, for the neck had been twisted by the violence of the 
 murderers ; " it is in vain — he is murdered— I always knew it would 
 be thus ; and now I witness it ! " 
 
 She then snatched up the key and the piece of money, but it was 
 only to dash them again on the floor, as she exclaimed, " Accursed 
 be ye both, for you are the causes of this deed ! " 
 
 Nigel would have spoken — would have reminded her, that 
 measures should be instantly taken for the pursuit of the murderer 
 who had escaped, as well as for her own security against his return ; 
 but she interrupted him sharply. 
 
 " Be silent," she said, " be silent. Think you, the thoughts of my 
 own heart are not enough to distract me, and with such a sight as 
 this before me ? I say, be silent," she said again, and in a yet 
 sterner tone — " Can a daughter listen, and her father's murdered 
 corpse lying on her knees ? " 
 
aSS THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 Lord Glenvarloch, however overpowered by the energy of her 
 grief, felt not the less the embarrassment of his own situation. He 
 had discharged both his pistols— the robber might return— he had 
 probably other assistants besides the man who had fallen, and it 
 seemed to him, indeed, as if he had heard a muttering beneath the 
 windows. He explained hastily to his companion the necessity of 
 procuring ammunition. 
 
 " You are right," she said, somewhat contemptuously, " and have 
 ventured already more than ever I expected of man. Go, and shift 
 for yourself, since that is your purpose — leave me to my fate." 
 
 Without stopping for needless expostulation, Nigel hastened to 
 his own room through the secret passage, furnished himself with 
 the ammunition he sought for, and returned with the same celerity ; 
 wondering himself at the accuracy with which he achieved, in the 
 dark, all the meanderings of the passage which he had traversed 
 only once, and that in a moment of such violent agitation. 
 
 He found, on his return, the unfortunate woman standing like a 
 statue by the body of her father, which she had laid straight on the 
 floor, having covered the face with the skirt of his gown. She 
 testified neither surprise nor pleasure at Nigel's return, but said to 
 him calmly — " My moan is made — my sorrow — all the sorrow at 
 least that man shall ever have noting of, is gone past ; but 1 will 
 have justice, and the base villain who murdered this poor defence- 
 less old man, when he had not, by the course of nature, a twelve- 
 month's life in him, shall not cumber the earth long after him. 
 Stranger, whom heaven has sent to forward the revenge reserved 
 for this action, go to Hildebrod's — there they are awake all night in 
 their revels — Ijid him come hither— he is bound by his duty, and 
 dare not, and shall not, refuse his assistance, which he knows well 
 I can reward. Why do ye tarry ?— go instantly." 
 
 " I would," said Nigel, " but I am fearful of leaving you alone ; 
 the villains may return, and " 
 
 " True, most true," answered Martha, " he may return ; and, 
 though I care little for his murdering me, he may possess himself of 
 what has most tempted him. Keep this key and this piece of gold ; 
 they are both of importance — defend your life if assailed, and if you 
 kill the villain I will make you rich. I go myself to call for aid." 
 
 Nigel would have remonstrated with her, but she had departed, 
 and in a moment he heard the house door clank behind her. For 
 an instant he thought of following her ; but upon recollection that the 
 distance was but short betwixt the tavern of Hildebrod and the house 
 of Trapbois, he concluded that she knew it better than he — incurred 
 little danger in passing it, and that he would do well in the mean- 
 while to remain on the watch as she recommended. 
 
 It was no pleasant situation for one unused to such scenes to 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. sBi^ 
 
 remain in the apartment with two dead bodies, recently those of 
 living and breathing men, who had both, within the space of less 
 than half an hour, suffered violent death ; one of them by the hand 
 of the assassin, the other, whose blood still continued to flow from 
 the wound in his throat, and to flood all around him, by the spec- 
 tatoi-'s own deed of violence, though of justice. He turned his face 
 from those wretched relics of mortality with a feeling of disgust, 
 mingled with superstition ; and he found, when he had done so, 
 that the consciousness of the presence of thase ghastly objects, 
 though unseen by him, rendered him more uncomfortable than even 
 when he had his eyes fixed upon, and reflected by, the cold, staring, 
 lifeless eyeballs of the deceased. Fancy also played her usual 
 sport with him. He now thought he heard the well-worn damask 
 nightgown of the deceased usurer rustle ; anon, that he heard the 
 slaughtered bravo draw up his leg, the boot scratching the floor as 
 if he was about to rise; and again he -deemed he heard the foot- 
 steps and the whisper of the returned rufBan under the window 
 from which he had lately escaped. To face the last and most real 
 danger, and to parry the terrors which the other class of feelings 
 were like to impress upon him, Nigel went to the window, and was 
 much cneered to observe the light of several torches illuminating 
 the street, and followed, as the murmur of voices denoted, by a 
 number of persons, armed, it would seem, with firelocks and 
 halberds, and attendant on Hildebrod, who (not in his fantastic 
 office of duke, but in that which he really possessed of bailiff of the 
 liberty and sanctuary of Whitefriars) was on his way to enquire 
 into the crime and its circumstances. 
 
 It was a strange and melancholy contrast to see these debauchees, 
 disturbed in the very depth of their midnight revel, on their arrival 
 at such a scene as this. They stared on each other, and on the 
 bloody work before them, with lack-lustre eyes ; staggered with 
 uncertain steps over boards slippery with blood ; their noisy brawl- 
 ing voices sunk into stammering whispers ; and, with spirits quelled 
 by what they saw, while their brains were still stupified by the 
 liquor which they had drunk, they seemed like men walking in their 
 sleep. 
 
 Old Hildebrod was an exception to the general condition. ~'.'hat 
 seasoned cask, however full, was at all times capable of motion, 
 when there occurred a motive sufficiently strong to set him a- 
 roUing. He seemed much shocked at what he beheld, and his pro- 
 ceedings, in consequence, had more in them of regularity and 
 propriety than he might have been supposed capable of exhibiting 
 upon any occasion whatever. The daughter was first examined, 
 and stated, with wonderful accuracy and distinctness, the manner 
 
 u 
 
290 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 in which she had been alarmed with a noise of struggling and 
 violence in her father's apartment, and that the more readily, 
 because she was watching him on account of some alarm concern- 
 ing his health. On her entrance, she had seen her father sinking 
 under the strength of two men, upon whom she rushed with all the 
 fury she was capable of. As their faces were blackened, and their 
 figures disguised, she could not pretend, in the hurry of a moment 
 so dreadfully agitating, to distinguish either of them as persons 
 whom she had seen before. She remembered little more except the 
 firing of shots, until she found herself alone with her guest, and saw 
 that the ruffians had escaped. 
 
 Lord Glenvarloch told his story as we have given it to the 
 reader. The direct evidence thus received, Hildebrod examined 
 the premises. He found that the villains had made their entrance 
 by the window out of which the survivor had made liis escape ; yet 
 it seemed singular that they should have done so, as it was secured 
 with strong iron bars, which old Trapbois was in the habit of 
 shutting with his own hand at nightfall. He minuted down with 
 great accuracy, the state of everything in the apartment, and 
 examined carefully the features of the slain robber. He was 
 dressed like a seaman of the lowest order, but his face was known 
 to none present. Hildebrod next sent for an Alsatian surgeon, 
 whose vices, undoing what his skill might have done for him, had 
 consigned him to the wretched practice of this place. He made 
 him examine the dead bodies, and make a proper declaration of the 
 manner in which the sufferers seemed to have come by their end. 
 The circumstance of the sash did hot escape the learned judge, and 
 having listened to all that could be heard or conjectured on the 
 subject, and collected all particulars of evidence which appeared to 
 bear on the bloody transaction, he commanded the door of the apart- 
 ment to be locked until next morning ; and carrying the unfortunate 
 daughter of the murdered man into the kitchen, where there was 
 no one in presence but Lord Glenvarloch, he asked her gravely, 
 whether she suspected no one in particular of having committed the 
 deed. 
 
 " Hoyou suspect no one ? " answered Martha, looking fixedly on 
 him. 
 
 " Perhaps I may, mistress ; but it is my part to ask questions, 
 yours to answer them. That's the rule of the game." 
 
 " Then I suspect him who wore yonder sash. Do not you know 
 whom I mean ? " 
 
 " Why, if you call on me for honours, I must needs say I have 
 seen Captain Peppercull have one of such a fashion, and he was not 
 a man to change his suits often." 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 291 
 
 " Send out, then," said Martha, " and have him apprehended." 
 
 " If it is he, he will be far by this time ; but I will communicate 
 with the higher powers," answered the judge. 
 
 " You would have him escape," resumed she, fixing her eyes on 
 him sternly. 
 
 " By cock and pie," replied Hildebrod, " did it depend on me, the 
 murdering cut-throat should hang as high as ever Haman did — 
 but let me take my time. He has friends among us, that you wot 
 well ; and all that should assist me, are as drunk as fiddlers." 
 
 " I will have revenge — I will have it," repeated she ; " and take 
 heed you trifle not with me." 
 
 " Trifle ! I would sooner trifle with a she-bear the minute after 
 they had baited her. I tell you, mistress, be but patient, and we 
 will have him. I know all his haunts, and he cannot forbear 
 them long ; and I will have trap-doors open for him. You cannot 
 want justice, mistress, for you have the means to get it." 
 
 " They who help me in my revenge," said Martha, " shall share 
 those means." 
 
 " Enough said," replied Hildebrod ; " and now I would have you 
 ^■o to my house, and get something hot — you will be but dreary here 
 by yourself." 
 
 " I will send for tlie old char-woman," replied Martha, " and we 
 have the stranger gentleman, besides." 
 
 " Umph, umph — the stranger gentleman ! " said Hildebrod to 
 Nigel, whom he drew a little apart. " I fancy the captain has made 
 the stranger gentleman's fortune when he was making a bold dash 
 for his own. I can tell your honour — I must not say lordship — 
 that I think my having chanced to give the greasy buff-and-iron 
 scoundrel some hint of what I recommended to you to-day, has put 
 him on this rough game. The better for you — you will get the cash 
 without the father-in-law. — You will keep conditions, I trust ? " 
 
 " I wish you had said nothing to any one of a scheme so absurd," 
 said Nigel. 
 
 "Absurd ! — Why, think you she will not have thee 1 Take her 
 with the tear in her eye, man — take her with the tear in her eye. 
 Let me hear from you to-morrow. Good-night, good-night — a nod 
 is as good as a wink. I must to my business of sealing and locking 
 up. By the way, this horrid work has put all out of my head — 
 Here is a fellow from Mr. Lowestoffe has been asking to see you. 
 As he said his business was express, the Senate only made him 
 drink a couple of flagons, and he was just coming to beat up 
 your quarters when this breeze blew up. — Ahey, friend ! there is 
 Master Nigel Grahame," 
 
 A young man, dressed in a green plush jerkin, with a badge on 
 the sleeve, and having the appearance of a waterman, approached 
 
292 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 and took Nigel aside, while Duke Hildebrod went from place to 
 place to exercise his authority, and to see the windows fastened, 
 and the doors of the apartment locked up. The news communi- 
 cated by Lowestoffe's messenger were not the most pleasant. They 
 were intimated in a courteous whisper to Nigel to the following 
 effect :— That Master Lowestoffe prayed him to consult his safety 
 by instantly leaving Whitefriars, for that a warrant from the 
 Lord Chief-Justice had been issued out for apprehending him, and 
 would be put in force to-morrow, by the assistance of a party of 
 musketeers, a force which the Alsatians neither would nor dared to 
 resist. 
 
 " And so, squire," said the aquatic emissary, " my wherry is to 
 wait you at the Temple Stairs yonder, at five this morning, and, 
 if you would give the blood-hounds the slip, why, you may." 
 
 " Why did not Master Lowestoffe write to me ? " said Nigel. 
 
 " Alas ! the good gentleman lies up in lavender for it himself, 
 and has as little to do with pen and ink as if he were a parson." 
 
 " Did he send any token to me ?" said Nigel. 
 
 " Token ! — ay, marry, did he— token enough, an I have not forgot 
 it," said the fellow ; then, giving a hoist to the waistband of his 
 breeches, he said, — " Ay, I have it — you were to believe me, because 
 your name was written with an O, for Grahame. Ay, that was it, 
 I think. — Well, shall we meet in two hours, when tide turns, and 
 go down the river like a twelve-oared barge ? " 
 
 "Where is the king just now, knowest thou?" answered Lord 
 Glenvarloch. 
 
 " The King ? why he went down to Greenwich yesterday by water, 
 like a noble sovereign as he is, who will always float where he can. 
 He was to have hunted this week, but that purpose is broken, they 
 say ; and the Prince, and the Duke, and all of them at Greenwich, 
 are as merry as minnows." 
 
 " Well," replied Nigel, " I will be ready to go at five ; do thou 
 come hither to carry my baggage." 
 
 " Ay, ay, master," replied the fellow, and left the house, mixing 
 himself with the disorderly attendants of Duke Hildebrod, who 
 were now retiring. That potentate entreated Nigel to make fast 
 the doors behind him, and, pointing to the female who sat by the 
 expiring fire with her limbs outstretched, like one whom the hand 
 of Death had already arrested, he whispered " Mind your hits, and 
 mind your bargain, or I will cut your bow-string for you before you 
 can draw it." 
 
 Feeling deeply the ineffable brutality which could recommend 
 the prosecuting such views over a wretch in such a condition. Lord 
 Glenvarloch yet commanded his temper so far as to receive the 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 293 
 
 advice in silence, find attend to the former part of it, by barring 
 the door carefully behind Duke Hildebrod and his suite, with the 
 tacit hope that he should never again see or hear of them. He 
 then returned to the kitchen, in which the unhappy woman re- 
 mained, her hands still clenched, her eyes fixed, and her limbs 
 extended, like those of a person in a trance. Much moved by her 
 situation, and with the prospect which lay before her, he endea- 
 voured to awaken her to existence by every means in his power, 
 and at length apparently succeeded in dispelling her stupor, and 
 attracting her attention. He then explained to her that he was in 
 the act of leaving Whitefriars in a few hours — that his future desti- 
 nation was uncertain, but that he desired anxiously to know whether 
 he could contribute to her protection by apprising any friend of her 
 situation, or otherwise. With some difficulty she seemed to com- 
 prehend his meaning, and thanked him with her usual short ungi'a- 
 cious manner. " He might mean well," she said, "but he ought to 
 know that the miserable had no friends." 
 
 Nigel said, " He would not willingly be importunate, but, as he 
 was about to leave the Friars " She interrupted him — 
 
 " You are about to leave the Friars ? I will go with you." 
 
 " You go with me ! " exclaimed Lord Glenvarloch. 
 
 " Yes," she said, " I will persuade my father to leave this mur- 
 dering den." But, as she spoke, the more perfect recollection of 
 what had passed crowded on her mind. She hid her face in her 
 hands, and burst out into a dreadful fit of sobs, moans, and lamen- 
 tations, which terminated in hysterics, violent in proportion to the 
 uncommon strength of her body and mind. 
 
 Lord Glenvarloch, shocked, confused, and inexperienced, was 
 about to leave the house in quest of medical, or at least female 
 assistance ; but the patient, when the paroxysm had somewhat 
 spent its force, held him fast by the sleeve with one hand, covering 
 her face with the other, while a copious flood of tears came to 
 relieve the emotions of grief by which she had been so violently 
 agitated. 
 
 ." Do not leave me," she said — " do not leave me, and call no one- 
 I have never been in this way before, and would not now," she said, 
 sitting upright, and wiping her eyes with her apron, — " would not 
 now — but that — but that he loved me, if he loved nothing else that 
 was human — To die so, and by such hands ! " 
 
 And again the unhappy woman gave way to a paroxysm of sor- 
 row, mingling her tears with sobbing, wailing, and all the abandon- 
 ment of female grief, when at its utmost height. At length, she 
 gradually recovered the austerity of her natural composure, and 
 maintained it as if by a forcible exertion of resolution, repelling. 
 
294 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 as she spoke, the repeated returns of the hysterical affection,' by 
 such an effort as that by which epileptic patients are known to 
 suspend the recurrence of their fits. Yet her mind, however 
 resolved, could not so absolutely overcome the affection of her 
 nerves, but that she was agitated by strong fits of trembling, which, 
 for a minute or two at a time, shook her whole frame in a manner 
 frightful to witness. Nigel forgot his own situation, and, indeed, 
 every thing else, in the interest inspired by the unhappy woman 
 before him — an interest which affected a proud spirit the more 
 deeply, that she herself, with corresponjient highness of mind, 
 seemed determined to owe as little as possible either to the humanity 
 or the pity of others. 
 
 " I am not wont to be in this way," she said, — " but — but — 
 Nature will have power over the frail beings it has hiade. Over 
 you, sir, I have some right ; for, without you, I had not survived 
 this awful night. I wish your aid had been either earlier or later — 
 but you have saved my life, and you are bound to assist in making 
 it endurable to me." 
 " If you will show me how it is possible," answered Nigel. 
 " You are going hence, you say, instantly — carry me with you," 
 said the unhappy woman. " By my own efforts, I shall never 
 escape from this wilderness of guilt and misery." 
 
 " Alas ! what can I do for you ? " replied Nigel. " My own way, 
 and I must not deviate from it, leads me, in aU probability, to a 
 dungeon. I might, indeed, transport you from hence with me, if 
 ■you could afterwards bestow yourself with any friend." 
 
 " Friend ! " she exclaimed — " I have no friend — they have long 
 since discarded us. A spectre arising from the dead were more 
 welcome than I should be at the doors of those who have dis- 
 claimed us ; and, if they were willing to restore their friendship to 
 me now, I would despise it, because they withdrew it from him — 
 from him" — (here she underwent strong but suppressed agitation, 
 and then added firmly) — " from Az;« who lies yonder. — I have no 
 friend." Here she paused ; and then- suddenly, as if recollecting 
 herself, added, " I have no friend, but I have that will purchase 
 many^=^I have that which will purchase both friends and avengers. 
 — It is well thought of; I must not leave it for a prey to cheats and 
 ruffians. — Stranger, you must return to yonder room. Pass through 
 it boldly to his — that is, to the sleeping apartment ; push the bed- 
 stead aside ; beneath each of the posts is a brass plate, as if to 
 support the weight, but it is that upon the left, nearest to the wall, 
 which must serve your turn— press the corner of the plate, and it 
 will spring up and show a keyhole, which this key will open. You 
 will then lift a concealed trap-door, and in a cavity of the floor you 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 295 
 
 will discover a small chest. Bring it hither ; it shall accompany 
 our journey, and it will be hard if the contents cannot purchase me 
 a place of refuge." 
 
 " But the door communicating with the kitchen has been locked 
 by these people," said Nigel. 
 
 " True, I had forgot ; they had their reasons for hat, doubtless,'' 
 answered she. " But the secret passage from your apartment is 
 open, and you may go that way." 
 
 Lord Glenvarloch took the key, and, as he lighted a lamp to 
 show him the way, she read in his countenance some unwillingness 
 to the task imposed 
 
 "You fear?" she said — "there is no cause; the murderer and 
 his victim are both at rest. Take courage, I will go with you my- 
 self—you cannot know the trick of the spring, and the chest will be 
 too heavy for you." 
 
 " No fear, no fear," answered Lord Glenvarloch, ashamed of the 
 construction she put upon a momentary hesitation, arising from a dis- 
 like to look upon what is horrible, oAen connected with those high- 
 wrought minds which are the last to fear what is merely dangerous 
 — " I will do your errand as you desire ; but, for you, you must not 
 — cannot go yonder." 
 
 " I can — I will," she said. " I am composed. You shall see that 
 I am so." She took from the table a piece of unfinished sewing- 
 work, and, with sfeadiness and composure, passed a silken thread 
 into the eye of a fine needle. — " Could I have done that," she said, 
 with a smile yet more ghastly than her previous look of fixed 
 despair, " had not rrty heart and hand been both steady ? " 
 
 She then led the way rapidly up stairs to Nigel's chamber, and 
 proceeded through the secret passage with the same haste, as if she 
 had feared her resolution might have failed her ere her purpose was 
 executed. At the bottom of the stairs she paused a moment, before 
 entering the fatal apartment, then hurried through with a rapid step 
 to the sleeping chamber beyond, followed closely by Lord Glenvar- 
 loch, whose reluctance to approach the scene of butchery was 
 altogether lost in the anxiety which he felt on account of the sur- 
 vivor of the tragedy. 
 
 Her first action was to pull aside the curtains of her father's bed. 
 The bed-clothes were thrown aside in confusion, doubtless m the 
 action of his starting from sleep to oppose the entrance of the 
 villains into the next apartment. The hard mattress scarcely 
 showed the slight pressure where the emaciated body of the old 
 miser had been deposited. His daughter sank beside the bed, 
 clasped her hands, and prayed to Heaven, in a short and affecting 
 manner, for support in her affliction, and for vengeance on the 
 
296 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 villains who had made her fatherless. A low-muttered and still 
 more brief petition recommended to Heaven the soul of the sufc 
 ferer, and invoked pardon for his sins, in virtue of the great Chris- 
 tian atonement. 
 
 This duty of piety performed, she signed to Nigel to aid her ; 
 and, having pushed aside the heavy bedstead, they saw the brass 
 plate which Martha had described. She pressed the spring, and, 
 at once, the plate starting up, showed the keyhole, and a large iron 
 ring used in lifting the trap-door, which, when raised, displayed the 
 strong-box, or small chest, she had mentioned, and which proved 
 indeed so very weighty, that it might perhaps have been scarcely 
 possible for Nigel, though a very strong man, to have raised it 
 without assistance. 
 
 Having replaced every thing as they had found it, Nigel, with 
 such help as his companion was able to afford, assumed his load, 
 and made a shift to carry it into the next apartment, where lay the 
 miserable owner, insensible to sounds and circumstances, which, 
 if any thing could have broken his' long last slumber, would 
 certainly have done so. 
 
 His unfortunate daughter went up to his body, and had even the 
 courage to remove the sheet which had been decently disposed over 
 it. She put her hand on the heart, but there was no throb — held a 
 feather to the lips, but there was no motion — then kissed with deep 
 reverence the starting veins of the pale' forehead, and then the 
 emaciated hand. 
 
 " I would you could hear me,'' she said, — " Father ! I would you 
 could heaV me swear, that, if I now save what you most valued on 
 earth, it is only to assist me in obtaining vengeance for your 
 death!" ' 
 
 She replaced the covering, and, without a tear, a sigh, or an 
 additional word of any kind, renewed her efforts, until they con- 
 veyed the strong-box betwixt them into Lord Glenvarloch's sleeping 
 apartment. " It must pass," she said, " as part of your baggage. I 
 will be in readiness so soon as the waterman calls." 
 
 She retired ; and Lord Glenvarloch, who saw the hour of their 
 departure approach, tore down a part of the old hanging to make 
 a covering, which he corded upon the trunk, lest the peculiarity of 
 its shape, and the care with which it was banded and counter- 
 banded with bars of steel, might afford suspicions respecting the 
 treasure which it contained. Having taken this measure of pre- 
 caution, he changed the rascally disguise, which he had assumed 
 on entering Whitefriars, into a suit becoming his quality, and 
 then, unable to sleep, though exhausted with the events of the 
 night, he threw himself on his bed to await the summons of the 
 ■waterman. 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 257 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 Give us good voyage, gentle stream — we stun not 
 Thy sober ear with sounds of revelry ; 
 Wake not the slumbering echoes of thy banks 
 With voice of flute and horn — we do but seek 
 On the broad pathway of thy swelling bosom 
 To glide in silent safety. 
 
 The Double Bridal. 
 
 Grey, or rather yellow light, was beginning to twinkle through 
 the fogs of Whitefriars, when a low tap at the door of the unhappy 
 mieer announced to Lord Glenvarloch the summons of the boatman. 
 He found at the door the man whom he had seen the night before, 
 with a companion. 
 
 " Come, come, master, let us get afloat," said one of them, in a 
 rough impressive whisper, " time and tide wait for no man." 
 
 " They shall not wait for me," said Lord Glenvarloch ; " but I 
 have some things to carry with me." 
 
 " Ay, ay — no man will take a pair of oars now. Jack, unless he 
 means to load the wherry like a six-horse waggon. When they 
 don't want to shift the whole kitt, they take a sculler, and be d — d 
 to them. — Come, come, where be your rattle-traps ? " 
 
 One of the men was soon sufficiently loaded, in his own estima- 
 tion at least, with Lord Glenvarloch's mail and its accompaniments, 
 with which burden he began to trudge towards the Temple Stairs. 
 His comrade, who seemed the principal, began to handle the trunk 
 which contained the miser's treasure, but pitched it down again in 
 an instant, declaring, with a great oath, that it was as reasonable 
 to expect a man to carry Paul's on his back. The daughter of 
 Trapbois, who had by this time joined them, muffled up in a long 
 dark hood and mantle, exclaimed to Lord Glenvarloch — " Let them 
 leave it if they will — let them leave it all ; let us but escape from 
 this horrible place." 
 
 We have mentioned elsewhere, that Nigel was a very athletic 
 young man, and, impelled by a strong feeling of compassion and 
 indignation, he showed his bodily strength singularly on this occa- 
 sion, by seizing on the ponderous strong-box, and, by means of the 
 rope he had cast around it-, throwing it on his shoulders, and 
 marching resolutely forward under a weight, which would have 
 sunk to the earth three young gallants, at the least, of our dege- 
 nerate day. The waterman followed him in amazement, calling 
 out, " Why, master, master, you might as well gie me t'other end 
 
sgS THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 on't ! " and anon offered his assistance to support it in some de- 
 gree behind, which after the first minute or two Nigel was fain to 
 accept. His strength was almost exhausted when he reached the 
 wherry, which was lying at tha Temple Stairs according to 
 appointment ; and, when he pitched the trunk into it, the weight 
 sank the bow of the boat so low in the water as wellnigh to over- 
 set it. 
 
 " We shall have as hard a fare of it," said the waterman to his 
 companionj^"as if we were ferrying over an honest bankrupt with 
 all his secreted goods — Ho, ho ! good woman, what are you step- 
 ping in for ? — our gunwale lies deep enough in the water without 
 live lumber to boot." 
 
 " This person comes with me," said Lord Glenvarloch ; " she is 
 for the present under my protection." 
 
 " Come, come, master," rejoined the fellow, "that is out of my 
 commission. You must not double my freight on me — she may go 
 by land — and, as for protection, her face will protect her from 
 Berwick to the Land's End." 
 
 " You will not except at my doubling the loading, if I double the 
 fare ? " said Nigel, determined on no account to relinquish the pro- 
 tection of this unhappy woman, for which he had already devised 
 some sort of plan, likely now to be baffled by the characteristic 
 rudeness of the Thames watermen. 
 
 " Ay, by G — , but I will except, though," said the fellow with the 
 green plush jacket ; " I will overload my wherry neither for love 
 nor money — I love my boat as well as my wife, and a thought 
 better." 
 
 " Nay, nay, comrade," said his mate, " that is speaking no true 
 water language. For double fare we are bound to row a witch 
 in her eggshell if she bid us ; and so pull away. Jack, and let us 
 have no more prating." 
 
 They got into the stream-way accordingly, and, although heavily 
 laden, began to move down the river with reasonable speed 
 
 The lighter vessels which passed, overtook, or crossed them, in 
 their course, failed not to assail them with the boisterous raillery, 
 which was then called water-wit ; for which the extreme plainness 
 of Mistress Martha's features, contrasted with the youth, handsome 
 figure, and good looks of Nigel, furnished the principal topics ; 
 while the circumstance of the boat being somewhat overloaded, did 
 not escape their notice. They were hailed successively, as a grocer's 
 wife upon a party of pleasure with her eldest apprentice— as an old 
 woman carrying her grandson to school— and as a young strapping 
 Irishmen, conveying an ancient maiden to Dr. Rigmarole's at 
 Redriffe, who buckles beggars for a tester and a dram of Geneva. 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 299 
 
 All this abuse was retorted in a similar strain of humour by Green- 
 jacket and his companion, who maintained the war of wit with the 
 same alacrity with which they were assailed. 
 
 Meanwhile, Lord Glenvarloch asked his desolate companion if 
 she had thought on any place where she could remain in safety 
 with her property. She confessed, in more detail than formerly, 
 that her father's character had left her no friends ; and that, from 
 the time he had betaken himself to Whitefriars, to escape certain 
 legal consequences of his eager pursuit of gain, she had lived a life 
 of total seclusion ; not associating with the society which the place 
 afforded, and, by her residence there, as well as her father's 
 parsimony, effectually cut off from all other company. What she 
 now wished, was, in the first place,-to obtain the shelter of a decent 
 lodging, and the countenance of honest people, however low in life, 
 until she should obtain legal advice as to the mode of obtaining 
 justice on her father's murderer. She had no hesitation to charge 
 the guilt upon Colepepper, (commonly called PeppercuU,) whom she 
 knew to be as capable of any act of treacherous cruelty as he was 
 cowardly, where actual manhood was required. He had been 
 strongly suspected of two robberies before, one of which was 
 coupled with an atrocious murder. He had, she intimated, made 
 pretensions to her hand as the easiest and safest way of obtaining 
 possession of her father's wealth ; and, on her refusing his addresess, 
 if they could be termed so, in the most positive terms, he had 
 thrown out such obscure hints of vengeance, as, joined with some 
 imperfect assaults upon the house, had kept her in frequent alarm 
 both on her father's account and her own. 
 
 Nigel, but that his feeling of respectful delicacy to the un- 
 fortunate woman forbade him to do so, could here have com- 
 municated a circumstance corroborative of her suspicions, which 
 had already occurred to his own mind. He recollected the hint 
 that old Hildebrod threw forth on the preceding night, that some 
 communication betwixt himself and Colepepper had hastened the 
 catastrophe. As this communication related to the plan which 
 Hildebrod had been pleased to form, of promoting a marriage 
 betwixt Nigel himself and the rich heiress of Trapbois, the fear of 
 losing an opportunity not be regained, together with the mean 
 malignity of a low-bred ruffian, disappointed in a favourite scheme, 
 was most likely to instigate the bravo to the deed of violence which 
 had been committed. The reflection that his own name was in 
 some degree implicated with the causes of this horrid tragedy, 
 doubled Lord Glenvarloch's anxiety in behalf of the victim whom 
 he had rescued, while at the same time he formed the tacit resolu- 
 tion, that, so soon as his own affairs were put upon some footing 
 
30O THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 he would contribute all in his power towards the investigation of this 
 bloody affair. 
 
 After ascertaining from his companion that she could form no 
 better plan of her own, he recommended to her to take up her 
 lodging for the time, at the house of his old landlord, Christie the ship- 
 chandler, at Paul's Wharf, describing the decency and honesty of 
 that worthy couple, and expressing his hopes that they would 
 receive her into their own house, or recommend her at least to that 
 of some person for whom they would be responsible, until she 
 should have time to enter upon other arrangements for herself. 
 
 The poor woman received advice so grateful to her in her desolate 
 condition, with an expression of thanks, brief indeed, but deeper 
 than any thing had yet extracted from the austerity of her natural 
 disposition. 
 
 Lord Glenvarloch then proceeded to inform Martha, that certain 
 reasons, connected with his personal safety, called him immediately 
 to Greenwich, and, therefore, it would not be in his power to ac- 
 company her to Christie's house, which he would otherwise have 
 done with pleasure ; but, tearing a leaf from his tablet, he wrote on 
 it a few lines addressed to his landlord, as a man of honesty and 
 humanity, in which he described the bearer as a person who stood 
 in singular necessity of temporary protection and good advice, for 
 which her circumstances enabled her to make ample acknowledg- 
 ment." He therefore requested John Christie, as his old and good 
 friend, to afford her the shelter of his roof for a short time ; or, if 
 that might not be consistent with his convenience, at least to direct 
 her to a proper lodging — and, finally, he imposed on him the ad- - 
 ditional, and somewhat more difficult commission, to recommen{r 
 her to the counsel and services of an honest, at least a reputable 
 and skilful attorney, for the transacting some law business of im- 
 portance. This note he subscribed with his real name, and, deliver* 
 ing it to his protegee, who received it with another deeply uttered 
 " I thank you," which spoke the sterling feelings of her gratitude 
 better than a thousand combined phrases, he commanded the 
 watermen to pull in for Paul's wharf, which they were now ap- 
 proaching. 
 
 " We have not time," said Green-jacket ; " we cannot be stopping 
 every instant." 
 
 But, upon Nigel insisting upon his commands being obeyed, and 
 adding, that it was for the purpose of putting the lady ashore, the 
 waterman declared he would rather have her room than her 
 company, and put the wherry alongside of the wharf accordingly. 
 Here two of the porters, who ply in such places, were easily induced 
 to undertake the charge of the ponderous strong-box, and at the 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 30t 
 
 same time to guide the owner to the well-known mansion of John 
 Christie, with whom all who lived in that neighbourhood were 
 perfectly acquainted. 
 
 The boat, much lightened of its load, went down the Thames at 
 a rate increased in proportion. But we must forbear to pursue her 
 in her voyage for a few minutes, since we have previously to 
 mention the issue of Lord Glenvarloch's recommendation. 
 
 Mistress Martha Trapbois reached the shop in perfect safety, 
 and was about to enter it, when a sickening sense of the uncertainty 
 of her situation, and of the singularly painful task of telling her 
 story, came over her so strongly, that she paused a moment at the 
 very threshold of her proposed place of refuge, to think in what 
 manner she could best second the recommendation of the friend 
 whom Providence had raised up to her. Had she possessed that 
 knowledge of the world, from which her habits of life had com- 
 pletely excluded her, she might have known that the large sum of 
 money which she brought along with her, might, judiciously 
 managed, have been a passport to her into the mansions of nobles, 
 and the palaces of princes. But, however conscious of its general 
 power, which assumes so many forms and complexions, she was so 
 inexperienced as to be most unnecessarily afraid that the means by 
 which the wealth had been acquired, might exclude its inheretrix 
 from shelter even in the house of a humble tradesman. 
 
 While she thus delayed, a more reasonable cause for hesitation 
 arose, in a considerable noise and altercation within the house, which 
 grew louder and louder as the disputants issued forth upon the 
 street or lane before the door. 
 
 The first who entered upon the scene was a tall, raw-boned, hard- 
 favoured man, who stalked out of the shop hastily, with a gait like 
 that of a Spaniard in a passion, who, disdaining to add speed to his 
 locomotion by running, only condescends, in the utmost extremity 
 of his angry haste, to add length to his stride. He faced about, so 
 soon as he was out of the house, upon his pursuer, a decent-looking, 
 elderly, plain tradesman — no other than John Christie himself, the 
 owner of the shop and tenement, by whom he seemed to be followed, 
 and who was in a state of agitation more than is usually expressed 
 from such a person. 
 
 " I'll hear no more on't," said the personage who first appeared on 
 the scene. — " Sir, I will hear no more on it. Besides being a most 
 false and impudent figment, as I can testify — it is Scandaalitm 
 Magnaatum, sir — Scandaalum Magnaatum" he reiterated with a 
 broad accentuation of the first vowel, well known in the colleges of 
 Edinburgh and Glasgow, which we can only express in print by 
 doubling the said first of letters and of vowels, and which would 
 
302 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 have cheered the cockles of the reigning monarch had he been 
 within hearing, — as he was a severer stickler for what he deemed 
 the genuine pronunciation of the Roman tongue, than for any of 
 the royal prerogatives, for which he was at times disposed to insist 
 so strenuously in his speeches to Parliament. 
 
 " I care not an ounce of rotten cheese," said John Christie in 
 reply, " what you call it— but it is true ; and I am a free English- 
 man, and have right to speak the truth in my own concerns ; and 
 your master is little better than a villain, and you no more than a 
 swaggering coxcomb, whose head I will presently break, as I have 
 known it well broken before on lighter occasions." 
 
 And, so saying, he flourished the paring-shovel which usually 
 made clean the steps of his little shop, and which he had caught up 
 as the readiest weapon of working his foeman damage, and ad- 
 vanced therewith upon him. The cautious Scot (for such our 
 readers must have already pronounced him, from his language and 
 pedantry) drew back as the enraged ship-chandler approached, but 
 in a surly manner, and bearing his hand on his sword-hilt rather in 
 the act of one who was losing habitual forbearance and caution of 
 deportment, than as alarmed by the attack of an antagonist inferior 
 to himself in youth, strength, and weapons. 
 
 " Bide back," he said, " Maister Christie — I say bide back, and 
 consult your safety, man. I have evited striking you in your ain 
 house under muckle provocation, because I am ignorant how the 
 laws here may pronounce respecting burglary and hame-sucken, 
 and such matters ; and, besides, I would not willingly hurt ye, man, 
 e'en on the causeway, that is free to us baith, because I mind your 
 kindness of lang syne, and partly consider ye as a poor deceived 
 creature. But deil d — n me, sir, and I am not wont to swear, but 
 if you touch my Scotch shouther with that shule of yours, I will 
 make six inches of my Andrew Ferrara deevilish intimate with your 
 guts, neighbour." 
 
 And therewithal, though still retreating from the brandished 
 shovel, he made one-third of the basket-hilted broadsword which 
 he wore, visible from the sheath. The wrath of John Christie was 
 abated, either by his natural temperance of disposition, or perhaps 
 in part by the ghmmer of cold steel, which flashed on him from 
 his adversary's last action. 
 
 " I would do well to cry clubs on thee, and have thee ducked at 
 the wharf," he said, grounding his shovel, however, at the same 
 time, " for a paltry swaggerer, that would draw thy bit of iron there 
 .on an honest citizen before his own door 5 but get thee gone, and 
 reckon on a salt eel for thy supper, if thou shouldst ever come near 
 my house again. I wish it had been at the bottom of Thames when 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL, 303 
 
 it first gave the use of its roof to smooth-faced, oily-tongued, double- 
 minded Scots thieves ! " 
 
 " It's an ill bird that fouls its own nest," replied his adversary, 
 not perhaps the less bold that he saw matters were taking the turn 
 of a pacific debate ; " and a pity it is that a kindly Scot should ever 
 have married in foreign parts, and given life to a purse-proud, 
 pudding-headed, fat-gutted, lean-brained Southron, e'en such as 
 you,- Maister Christie. But fare ye weel — fare ye weel, for ever and 
 a day ; and, if you quarrel wi' a Scot again, man, say as mickle ill 
 o' himsell as ye like, but say nane of his patron or of his country- 
 men, or it will scarce be your flat-cap that will keep your lang lugs 
 from the sharp abridgement of a Highland whinger, man." 
 
 " And if you continue your insolence to me before my own door, 
 were it but two minutes longer," retorted John Christie, " I will call 
 the constable, and make your Scottish ankles acquainted with an 
 English pair of stocks ! " 
 
 So saying, he turned to retire into his shop with some show of 
 victory; for his enemy, whatever might be his innate valour, 
 manifested no desire to drive matters to extremity — conscious, 
 perhaps, that whatever advantage he might gain in single combat 
 with John Christie, would be more than overbalanced by incurring 
 an affair with the constituted authorities of Old England, not at 
 that time apt to be particularly favourable to their new fellow- 
 subjects, in the various successive broils which were then con- 
 stantly taking place between the individuals of two proud nations, 
 who still retained a sti'onger sense of their national animosity during 
 centuries, than of their late union for a few years under the govern- 
 ment of the same prince. 
 
 Mrs. Martha Trapbois had dwelt too long in Alsatia, to be either 
 surprised or terrified at the altercation she had witnessed. Indeed, 
 she only wondered that the debate did not end in some of those 
 acts of violence by which they were usually terminated in the 
 Sanctuary. As the disputants separated from each other, she, who 
 had no idea that the cause of the quarrel was more deeply rooted 
 than in the daily scenes of the same nature which she had heard of 
 or witnessed, did not hesitate to stop Master Christie in his return 
 to his shop, and present to him the letter which Lord Glenvarloch 
 had given to her. Had she been better acquainted with life and its 
 business, she would certainly have waited for a more temperate 
 moment ; and she had reason to repent of her precipitation, when, 
 without saying a single word, or taking the trouble to gather more 
 of the information contained in the letter than was expressed in the 
 subscription, the incensed ship-chandler threw it down on the 
 ground, trampled it in high disdain, and, without addressing a 
 
304 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 single word to the bearer, except, indeed, something much more 
 like a hearty curse than was perfectly consistent with his own grave 
 appearance, he retired into his shop, and shut the hatch-door. 
 
 It was with the most inexpressible anguish that the desolate, 
 friendless, and unhappy female, thus beheld her sole hope of suc- 
 cour, countenance, and protection, vanish at once, without being 
 able to conceive a reason ; for, to do her justice, the idea that her 
 friend, whom she knew by the name of Nigel Grahame, had 
 imposed on her, a solution which might readily have occurred to 
 many in her situation, never once entered her mind. Although it 
 was not her temper easily to bend her mind to entreaty, she could 
 not help exclaiming after the ireful and retreating ship-chandler, — 
 " Good Master, hear me but a moment ! for mercy's sake, for 
 honesty's sake ! " 
 
 " Mercy and honesty from him, mistress ! " said the Scot, who, 
 though he essayed not to interrupt the retreat of his antagonist, 
 still kept stout possession of the field of action, — " ye might as weel 
 expect brandy from bean-stalks, or milk from a craig of blue whun- 
 stane. The man is mad, horn mad, to boot." 
 
 " I must have mistaken the p£rson to whom the letter was ad- 
 dressed, then ; " and, as she spoke, Mistress Martha Trapbois was 
 in the act of stooping to lift the paper which had been so uncour- 
 teously received. Her companion, with natural civility, anticipated 
 her purpose ; but, what was not quite so much in etiquette, he took 
 a sly glance at it as he was about to hand it to her, and his eye 
 having caught the subscription, he said, with surprise, " Glenvar- 
 loch — Nigel Olifaunt of Glenvarloch ! Do you know the Lord 
 Glenvarloch, mistress ? " 
 
 " I know not of whom you speak," said Mrs. Martha, peevishly. 
 " I had that paper from one Master Nigel Gram." 
 
 " Nigel Grahame ! — umph. — O, ay, very true— I had forgot," said 
 the Scotsman. "A tall, well-set young man,- about my height; 
 bright blue eyes like a hawk's ; a pleasant speech, something lean- 
 ing to the kindly north-country accentuation, but not much, in 
 respect of his having been resident abroad ? " 
 
 " All this is true— and what of it all ? " said the daughter of the 
 miser. 
 
 " Hair of my complexion ? " 
 
 " Yours is red," replied she. 
 
 " I pray you peace," said the Scotsman. " I was going to say— 
 of my complexion, but with a deeper shade of the chestnut. Weel, 
 mistress, if I have guessed the man aright, he is one with whom I 
 am, and have been, intimate and familiar,— nay, I may truly say I 
 have done him much service in my time, and may live to do him 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 305 
 
 more. I had indeed a sincere good-will for him, and I doubt he 
 has been much at a loss since we parted ; but the fault is not mine. 
 Wherefore, as this letter will not avail you with him to whom it is 
 directed, you may believe that Heaven hath sent it to me, who have 
 a special regard for the writer — I have, besides, as much mercy and 
 honesty within me as man can weel make his bread with, and am 
 willing to aid any distressed creature, that is my friend's friend, 
 with niy counsel, and otherwise, so that I am not put to much 
 charges, being in a strange country, like a poor lamb that has wan- 
 dered from its ain native hirsel, and leaves a tait of its woo' in 
 every d — d Southron bramble that comes across it." While he 
 spoke thus, he read the contents of the letter, without waiting for 
 permission, and then continued, — " And so this is all that you are 
 wanting, my dore ? nothing more than safe and honourable lodging, 
 and sustenance, upon your own charges ?" 
 
 " Nothing more," said she. " If you are a man and a Christian, 
 you will help me to what I need so much." 
 
 " A man I am," replied the formal Caledonian, " e'en sic as ye 
 see me ; and a Christian I may call myself, though unworthy, and 
 though I have heard little pure doctrine since I came hither — a' 
 polluted with men's devices — ahem ! Weel, and if ye be an honest 
 woman " (here he peeped under her muffler,) " as an honest woman 
 
 ye seem likely to be though, let me tell you, they are a kind of 
 
 cattle not so rife in the streets of this city as I would desire them — 
 I was almost strangled with my own band by twa rampallians, wha 
 wanted yestreen, nae farther gane, to harle me into a change-house 
 — however, if ye be a decent honest woman," (here he took another 
 peep at features certainly bearing no beauty which could infer sus- 
 picion,) " as decent and honest ye seem to be, why, I will advise 
 you to a decent house, where you will get douce, quiet entertain- 
 ment, on reasonable terms, and the occasional benefit of my own 
 counsel and direction — that is, from time to time, as my other 
 avocations may permit." 
 
 " May I venture to accept of such an offer from a stranger ? " 
 said Martha, with natural hesitation. 
 
 "Troth, I see nothing to hinder you, mistress,'' replied the bonny 
 Scot ; " ye can but see the place, and do after as ye think best. Be- 
 sides, we are nae such strangers, neither ; for I know your friend, 
 and you, it's like, know mine, whilk knowledge, on either hand, is a 
 medium of communication between us, even as the middle of the 
 string connecteth its twa ends or extremities. But I will enlarge 
 on this farther as we pass along, gin ye hst to bid your twa lazy 
 loons of porters there hft up your little kist between tnem, whilk 
 ae true Scotsman might carry under his arm. Let me tell you, 
 
 X 
 
3o6 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 mistress, ye will soon make a toom pock-end of it in Lon'on, if you 
 hire twa knaves to do the work of ane." 
 
 So saying, he led the way, followed by Mistress Martha Trap, 
 bois, whose singular destiny, though it had heaped her witli 
 wealth, had left her, for the moment, no wiser counsellor, or more 
 distinguished protector, than honest Richie Moniplies, a discarded 
 serving-man. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 This way lie safety and a sure retreat ; 
 
 Yonder lie danger, shame, and punishment. 
 
 Most welcome danger then — Nay, let me say, 
 
 Though spoke with swelling heart — welcome e'en shame ; 
 
 And welcome punishment — for, call me guilty, 
 
 I do but pay the tax that's due to justice ; 
 
 And call me guiltless, then that punishment 
 
 Is shame to those alone who do inflict it. 
 
 The Tribunal. 
 
 We left Lord Glenvarloch, to whose fortunes our story chiefly 
 attaches itself, gliding swiftly down the Thames. He was not, as 
 the reader may have observed, very affable in his disposition, or 
 apt to enter into conversation with those into whose company he 
 was casually thrown. This was, indeed, an error in his conduct, 
 arising less from pride, though of that feeling we do not pretend to 
 exculpate him, than from a sort of bashful reluctance to mix in the 
 conversation of those with whom he was not familiar. It is a 
 fault only to be cured by experience and knowledge of the world, 
 which soon teaches every sensible and acute person the important 
 lesson, that amusement, and, what is of more consequence, that 
 information and increase of knowledge, are to be derived from the 
 conversation of every individual whatever, with whom he is thrown 
 into a natural train of communication. For ourselves, we can 
 assure the reader — and perhaps if we have ever been able to afford 
 him amusement, it is owing in a great degree to this cause — that 
 we never found ourselves in company With the stupidest of all pos- 
 sible companions in a post-chaise, or with the most arrant cumber- 
 corner that ever occupied a place in the mail-coach, without finding, 
 that, in the course of our conversation with him, we had some idea 
 suggested to us, either grave or gay, or some information commu- 
 nicated in the course of our journey, which we should have regretted 
 not to have learned, and which we should be sorry to have imme- 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 307 
 
 diately forgotten. But Nigel was somewhat immured within the 
 Bastile of his rank, as some philosopher (Tom Paine, we think) has 
 happily enough expressed that sort of shyness which men of dig- 
 nified situations are apt to be beset with, rather from not exactly 
 knowing how far, or with whom, they ought to be familiar, than 
 from any real touch of aristocratic pride. Besides, the immediate 
 pressure of our adventurer's own affairs was such as exclusively to 
 engross his attention. 
 
 He sat, therefore, wrapt in his cloak, in the stern of the boat, 
 with his mind entirely bent upon the probable issue of the interview 
 with his Sovereign, which it was his purpose to seek ; for which 
 abstraction of mind he may be fully justified, although perhaps, by 
 questioning the watermen who were transporting him down the 
 river, he might have discovered matters of high concernment to 
 him. 
 
 At any rate, Nigel remained silent till the wherry approached the 
 town of Greenwich, when he commanded the men to put in for the 
 nearest landing-place, as it was his purpose to go ashore there, and 
 dismiss them from further attendance. 
 
 " That is not possible," said the fellow with the green jacket, who, 
 as we have already said, seemed to take on himself the charge of 
 pilotage. " We must go," he continued, " to Gravesend, where a 
 Scottish vessel, which dropt down the river last tide for the very 
 purpose, lies with her anchor a-peak, waiting to carry you to your 
 own dear northern country. Your hammock is slung, and all is 
 ready for you, and you talk of going ashore at Greenwich, as 
 seriously as if such a thing were possible ! " 
 
 " I see no impossibility," said Nigel, " in your landing me where 
 I desire to be landed ; but very little possibiUty of your carrying 
 me anywhere I am not desirous of going." 
 
 " Why, whether do you manage the wherry, or we, master ? " 
 asked Green-jacket, in a tone betwixt jest and earnest ; " I take it 
 she will go the way we row her." 
 
 " Ay," retorted Nigel, " but I take it you will row her on the 
 course I direct you, otherwise your chance of payment is but a 
 poor one." 
 
 " Suppose we are content to risk that," said the undaunted 
 waterman, " I wish to know how you, who talk so big — I mean no 
 offence, master, but you do talk big — would help yourself in such a 
 case ? " 
 
 " Simply thus," answered Lord Glenvarloch— " You saw me, an 
 hour since, bring down to the boat a trunk that neither of you 
 could lift. If we are to contest the destination of our voyage, the 
 same strength which tossed that chest into the wherry, will suffice 
 
 X 2 
 
3oB THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 to fling you out of it ; wherefore, before we begin the scuffle, I pray 
 you to remember, that, whither I would go, there I will oblige you 
 to carry me." 
 
 " Gramercy for your kindness," said Green-jacket ; " and now 
 mark me in return. My comrade and I are two men— and you, 
 were you as stout as George-a- Green, can pass but for one ; and 
 two, you will allow, are more than a match for one. You mistake 
 in your reckoning, my friend." 
 
 " It is you who mistake," answered Nigel, who began to grow 
 warm ; " it is I who am three to two, sirrah — I carry two men's 
 lives at my girdle." 
 
 So saying, he opened his cloak and showed the two pistols which 
 he had disposed at his girdle. Green-jacket was unmoved at the 
 display. 
 
 " I have got," said he, " a pair of barkers that will match yours," 
 and he showed that he also was armed with pistols ; " so you may 
 begin as soon as you list." 
 
 " Then," said Lord Glenvarloch, drawing forth and cocking a 
 pistol, " the sooner the better. Take notice, I hold you as a ruffian, 
 who have declared you will put force on my person ; and that I 
 will shoot you through the head if you do not instantly put me 
 ashore at Greenwich." 
 
 The other waterman, alarmed at Nigel's gesture, lay upon his oar ; 
 but Green-jacket replied coolly — " Look you, master, I should not 
 care a tester to venture a life with you on this matter ; but the 
 truth is, I am employed to do you good, and not to do you harm." 
 
 " By whom are you employed ? " said the Lord Glenvarloch ; 
 " or who dare concern themselves in me, or my affairs, without my 
 authority?" 
 
 " As to that," answered the waterman, in the same tone of indif- 
 ference, " I shall not show my commission. For myself, I care not, 
 as I said, whether you land at Greenwich to get yourself hanged, 
 or go down to get aboard the Royal Thistle, to make your escape 
 to your own country ; you will be equally out of my reach either 
 way. But it is fair to put the choice before you." 
 
 " My choice is made," said Nigel. " I have told you thrice 
 already it is my pleasure to be landed at Greenwich." 
 
 " Write it on a piece of paper," said the waterman, " that such is 
 your positive will ; I must have something to show to my em- 
 ployers, that the transgression of their orders lies with yourself, not 
 with me." 
 
 " I choose to hold this trinket in my hand for the present," said 
 Nigel, showing his pistol, " and will write you the acquittance when 
 I go ashore." 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 309 
 
 " I would not go ashore with you for a hundred pieces," said the 
 waterman. " 111 luck has ever attended you, except in small 
 gaming ; do me fair justice, and give me the testimony I desire. 
 If you are afraid of foul play while you write it, you may hold my 
 pistols, if you will." He offered the weapons to Nigel accordingly, 
 who, while they were under his control, and all possibility of his 
 being taken at advantage was excluded, no longer hesitated to give 
 the waterman an acknowledgment, in the following terms ; — 
 
 "Jack in the Green, with his mate, belonging to the wherry 
 called the Jolly Raven, have done their duty faithfully by me, land- 
 ing me at Greenwich by my express command ; and being them- 
 selves willing and desirous to carry me on board the Royal Thistle, 
 presently lying at Gravesend." Having finished this acknowledg- 
 ment, which he signed with the letters, N. O. G. as indicating his 
 name and title, he again requested to know of the waterman, to 
 whom he delivered it, the name of his employers. 
 
 " Sir," replied Jack in the Green, " I have respected your secret, 
 do not you seek to pry into mine. It-woulft do you no good to 
 know for whom I am taking this present trouble ; and, to be brief, 
 you shall not know it — and, if you will fight in the quarrel, as you 
 said even now, the sooner we begin the better. Only this you may 
 be cock-sure of, that we designed you no harm, and that, if you fall 
 into any, it will be of your own wilful seeking." As he spoke, they 
 approached the landing-place, where Nigel instantly jumped ashore. 
 The waterman placed his small mail-trunk on the stairs, observing 
 that there were plenty of spare hands about, to carry it where he 
 would. 
 
 " We part friends, I hope, my lads," said the young nobleman, 
 offering at the same time a piece of money more than double the 
 usual fare, to the boatmen. 
 
 " We part as we met," answered Green-jacket ; " and, for your 
 money, I am paid sufficiently with' this bit of paper. Only, if you 
 owe me any love for the cast I have given you, I pray you not to 
 dive so deep into the pockets of the next apprentice that you find 
 fool enough to play the cavalier. — And you, you greedy swine," 
 said he to his companion, who still had a longing eye fixed on the 
 money which Nigel continued to offer, " push off, or, if I take a 
 stretcher in hand, I'll break the knave's pate of thee." The fellow 
 pushed off, as he was commanded, but still could not help mutter- 
 ing, " This was entirely out of waterman's rules." 
 
 Glenvarloch, though without the devotion of the "injured 
 Thales " of the moralist, to the memory of that great princess, had 
 now attained 
 
 " The hallow'd soil which gave Eliza birth," 
 
310 THP: fortunes of NIGEL. 
 
 whose halls were now less respectably occupied by her successor. 
 It was not, as has been well shown by a late author, that James 
 was void either of parts or of good intentions ; and his predecessor 
 was at least as arbitrary in effect as he was in theory. But, while 
 Elizabeth possessed a sternness of masculine sense and determina- 
 tion which rendered even her weaknesses, some of which were in 
 themselves sufficiently ridiculous, in a certain degree respectable, 
 James, on the other hand, was so utterly devoid of " firm resolve," 
 so well called by the Scottish bard, 
 
 " The stalk of carle-hemp in man," 
 
 that even his virtues and his good meaning became laughable 
 from the whimsical uncertainty of liis conduct ; so that the wisest 
 things he ever said, and the best actions he ever did, were often 
 touched with a strain of the ludicrous and fidgety character of the 
 man. Accordingly, though at different periods of his reign he 
 contrived to acquire vHth his people a certain degree of temporary 
 popularity, it never long outlived the occasion which produced it ; 
 so true it is, that the mass of mankind will respect a monarch 
 stained with actual guilt, more than one whose foibles render him 
 only ridiculous. 
 
 To return from this digression, Lord Glenvarloch soon received, 
 as Green-jacket had assured him, the offer of an idle bargeman to 
 transport his baggage where he listed ; but that where was a ques- 
 tion of momentary doubt. At length, recollecting the necessity that 
 his hair and beard should be properly arranged before he attempted 
 to enter the royal presence, and desirous, at the same time, of ob- 
 taining some information of the motions of the Sovereign and of 
 the Court, he desired to be guided to the next barber's shop, which 
 we have already mentioned as the place where news of every kind 
 circled and centred. He was speedily shown the way to such an 
 emporium of intelligence, and soon found he was likely to hear all 
 he desired to know, and much more, while his head was subjected 
 to the art of a nimble tonsor, the glibness of whose tongue kept 
 pace with the nimbleness of his fingers, while he ran on, without 
 stint or stop, in the following excursive manner : — 
 
 " The Court here, master ? — yes, master— much to the advantage 
 of trade— good custom stirring. His Majesty loves Greenwich — 
 hunts every morning in the Park— all decent persons admitted that 
 have the entries of the Palace— no rabble — frightened the King's 
 horse with their hallooing, the uncombed slaves. — Yes, sir, the 
 beard more peaked .? Yes, master, so it is worn. I know the last 
 cut— dress several of the courtiers— one valet-of-the-chamber, two 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 311 
 
 pages of the body, the clerk of the kitchen, three running footmen, 
 two dog-boys, and an honourable Scottish knight, Sir Mungo 
 Malgrowler." 
 
 " Malagrowther, I suppose ? " said Nigel, thrusting in his con- 
 jectural emendation, with infinite difficulty, betwixt two clauses of 
 the barber's text. 
 
 "Yes, sir — Malcrowder, sir, as you say, sir — hard names the 
 Scots have, sir, for an English mouth. Sir Munko is a handsome 
 person, sir — perhaps you know him — bating the loss of his fingers, 
 and the lameness of his leg, and the length of his chin. Sir, it 
 takes me one minute, twelve seconds, more time to trim that chin 
 of his, than any chin that I know in the town of Greenwich, sir. 
 But he is a very comely gentleman, for all that ; and a pleasant — a 
 very pleasant gentleman, sir — and a good-humoured, saving that 
 he is so deaf he can never hear good of any one, and so wise, that 
 he can never believe it ; but he is a very good-natured gentleman 
 for all that, except when one speaks too low, or when a hair turns 
 awry. — Did I graze you, sir? We shall put it to rights in a 
 moment, vifith one drop of styptic — my styptic, or rather my wife's, 
 sir — She makes the water herself. One drop of the styptic, sir, 
 and a bit of black taffeta patch, just big enough to be the saddle to 
 a flea, sir — Yes, sir, rather improves than otherwise. The Prince 
 had a patch the other day, and so had the Duke ; and, if you will 
 believe me, there are seventeen yards three quarters of black taffeta 
 already cut into patches for the courtiers." 
 
 "But Sir Mungo Malagrowther?" again interjected Nigel, with 
 difficulty. 
 
 " Ay, ay, sir— Sir Munko, as you say ; a pleasant, good-humoured 
 gentleman as ever — To be spoken with, did you say ? O ay, easily 
 to be spoken withal, that is, as easily as his infirmity will permit. 
 He will presently, unless some one hath asked him forth to break- 
 fast, be taking his bone of broiled beef at my neighbour Ned 
 Kilderkin's yonder, removed from over the way. Ned keeps an 
 eating-house, sir, famous for pork-griskins ; but Sir Munko cannot 
 abide pork, no more than the King's most Sacred Majesty,* nor 
 my Lord Duke of Lennox, nor Lord Dalgamo, — nay, I am sure, 
 sir, if I touched you this time, it was your fault, not mine. — But a 
 single drop of the styptic, another little patch that would make a 
 doublet for a flea, just under the left moustache ; it will beconve 
 you when you smile, sir, as well as a dimple ; and if you would 
 salute your fair mistress^but I beg pardon, you are a grave gentle- 
 man, very grave to be so young. — Hope I have given no offence ; it 
 is my duty to entertain customers — my duty, sir, and my pleasure 
 —Sir Munko Malcrowther?— yes, sir, I dare say he is at this 
 
312 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 moment in Ned's eating-house, for few folks ask him out, now 
 Lord Huntinglenis gone to London. You will get touched again— 
 yes, sir— there you shall find him with his can of single ale, stirred 
 with a sprig of rosemary, for he never drinks strong potations, sir, 
 unless to oblige Lord Huntinglen— take heed, sir— or any other 
 person who asks him forth to breakfast— but single beer he always 
 drinks at Ned's, with his broiled bone of beef or mutton— or, it 
 may be, lamb at the season — but not pork, though Ned is famous 
 for his griskins. But the Scots never eat pork— strange that! 
 some folk think they are a sort of Jews. There is a resemblance, 
 sir, — Do you not think so? Then they call our most gracious 
 Sovereign the second Solomon, and Solomon, you know, was King 
 of the Jews ; so the thing bears a face, you see. I believe, sir, you 
 will find yourself trimmed now to your content. I will be judged 
 by the fair mistress of your affections. Crave pardon — no offence, 
 I trust. Pray, consult the glass — one touch of the crisping tongs, 
 to reduce this straggler. — Thank your munificence, sir — hope your 
 custom while you stay in Greenwich. Would you have a tune on 
 that ghittern, to put your temper in concord for the day ? — Twang, 
 twang — twang, twang, dillo. Something out of tune, sir— too 
 many hands to touch it — we cannot keep these things like artists. 
 Let me help you with your cloak, sir — yes, sir — You would not 
 play yourself, sir, would you ? — Way to Sir Munko's eating-house .■' 
 — Yes, sir ; but it is Ned's eating-house, not Sir Munko's. — The 
 knight, to be sure, eats there, and that makes it his eating-house in 
 some sense, sir — ha, ha ! Yonder it is, removed from over the 
 way, new whitewashed posts, and red lattice — fat man in his 
 doublet at the door — Ned himself, sir — worth a thousand pounds, 
 they say — better singeing pigs' faces than trimming courtiers — but 
 ours is the less mechanical vocation. — Farewell, sir ; hope your 
 custom." So saying, he at length permitted Nigel to depart, whose 
 ears, so long tormented with his continued babble, tingled when it 
 had ceased, as if a bell had been rung close to them for the same 
 space of time. 
 
 Upon his arrival at the eating-house, where he proposed to meet 
 with Sir Mungo Malagrowther, from whom, in despair of better 
 advice, he trusted to receive some information as to the best mode 
 of introducing himself into the royal presence. Lord Glenvarloch 
 found, in the host with whom he communed, the consequential 
 taciturnity of an Englishman well to pass in the world. Ned 
 Kilderkin spoke as a banker writes, only touching the needful. 
 Being asked if Sir Mungo Malagrowther was there? he replied. 
 No. Being interrogated whether he was expected ? he said. Yes, 
 And being again required to say when he was expected, he 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 313 
 
 answered, Presently. As Lord Glenvarloch next enquired, whether 
 he himself could have any breakfast .'' the landlord wasted not even 
 a syllable in reply, but, ushering him into a neat room where there 
 were several tables, he placed one of them before an arm-chair, 
 and beckoning Lord Glenvarloch to take possession, he set before 
 him, in a very few minutes, a substantial repast of roast-beef, 
 together with a foaming tankard, to which refreshment the keen air 
 of the river disposed him, notwithstanding his mental embarrass- 
 ments, to do much honour. 
 
 While Nigel was thus engaged in discussing his commons, but 
 raising his head at the same time whenever he heard the door of 
 the apartment open, eagerly desiring the arrival of Sir Mungo 
 Malagrowther, (an event which had seldom been expected by any 
 one with so much anxious interest,) a personage, as it seemed, of at 
 least equal importance with the knight, entered into the apartment, 
 and began to hold earnest colloquy with the publican, who thought 
 proper to carry on the conference on his side unbonneted. This 
 important gentleman's occupation might be guessed from his dress. 
 A milk-white jerkin, and hose of white kersey; a white apron 
 twisted around his body in the manner of a sash, in which, instead 
 of a warlike dagger, was stuck a long-bladed knife, hilted with 
 buck's-horn ; a white nightcap on his head, under which his hair 
 was neatly tucked, sufficiently pourtrayed him as one of those 
 priests of Comus whom the vulgar call cooks ; and the air with 
 which he rated the publican for having neglected to send some 
 provisions to the Palace, showed that he ministered to royalty 
 itself 
 
 " This will never answer," he said, " Master Kilderkin — the King 
 twice asked for sweetbreads, and fricasseed coxcombs, which are a 
 favourite dish of his most Sacred Majesty, and they were not to 
 be had, because Master Kilderkin had not supplied them to the 
 clerk of the kitchen, as by bargain bound." Here Kilderkin made 
 some apology, brief, according to his own nature, and muttered in 
 a lowly tone after the fashion of all who find themselves in a scrape. 
 His superior replied, in a lofty strain of voice, " Do not tell me of 
 the carrier and his wain, and of the hen-coops coming from Norfolk 
 with the poultry ; a loyal man would have sent an express — he 
 would have gone upon his stumps, like Widdrington. What if the 
 King had lost his appetite. Master Kilderkin ? What if his most 
 Sacred Majesty had lost his dinner? O Master Kilderkin, if you 
 had but the just sense of the dignity of our profession, which is told 
 of by the witty African slave, for so the King's most excellent 
 Majesty designates him, Publius Terentius, Tanquam in specula — 
 in patinas inspicere jubeo" 
 
314 tttE fORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 " You are learned, Master Linklater," replied the English pub- 
 lican, compelling, as it were with difficulty, his mouth to utter three 
 Of four words consecutively. 
 
 "A poor smatterer," said Mr. Linklater ; but it would be a shame 
 to us, who are his most excellent Majesty's countrymen, not in 
 some sort to have cherished those arts wherewith he is so deeply 
 embned—Hegis ad exemplar, Master Kilderkin, totus componitur 
 orbis—'^'hSxHa. is as much as to say, as the King quotes the cook 
 learns. In brief, Master Kilderkin, having had the luck to be bred 
 where humanities may be had at the matter of an English five 
 groats by the quarter, I, like others, have acquired — ahem— hem ! " 
 
 Here, the speaker's eye having fallen upon Lord Glenvarloch, 
 
 he suddenly stopped in his learned harangue, with such symptoms 
 of embarrassment as induced Ned Kilderkin to stretch his taci- 
 turnity so far as not only to ask him what he ailed, but whether he 
 would take anything. 
 
 "Ail nothing," repHed the learned rival of the philosophical 
 Syrus ; " Nothing — and yet I do feel a little giddy. I could taste 
 a glass of your dame's aqua mirabilis." 
 
 " I will fetch it," said Ned, giving a nod ; and his back was no 
 sooner turned, than the cook walked near the table where Lord 
 Glenvarloch was seated, and regarding him with a look of signifi- 
 cance, where more was meant than met the ear, said, — " You are a 
 stranger in Greenwich, sir. I advise you to take the opportunity 
 to step into the Park — the western wicket was ajar when I came 
 hither ; I think it will be locked presently, so you had better make 
 the best of your way — that is, if you have any curiosity. The 
 venison are coming into season just now, sir, and there is a pleasure 
 in looking at a hart of grease. I always think when they are 
 bounding so blithely past, what a pleasure it would be, to broach 
 their plump haunches on a spit, and to embattle their breasts in a 
 noble fortification of puff-paste, with plenty of black pepper." 
 
 He said no more, as Kilderkin re-entered with the cordial, but 
 edged off from Nigel without waiting any reply, only repeating the 
 same look of intelligence with which he had accosted him. 
 
 Nothing makes men's wits so alert as personal danger. Nigel 
 took the first opportunity which his host's attention to the yeoman 
 of the royal kitchen permitted, to discharge his reckoning, and 
 readily obtained a direction to the wicket in question. He found 
 it upon the latch, as he had been taught to expect ; and perceived 
 that it admitted him to a narrow footpath, which traversed a close 
 and tangled thicket, designed for the cover of the does and the 
 young fawns. Here he conjectured it would be proper to wait ; 
 nor had he been stationary above five minutes, when the cook. 
 
THE FORTlTl^ES OF NIGEL. 315 
 
 scalded as much with heat of motion as ever he had been at his 
 huge fire-place, arrived almost breathless, and with his pass-key 
 hastily locked the wicket behind him. 
 
 Ere Lord Glenvarloch had time to speculate upon this action, 
 the man approached with anxiety, and said — " Good lord, my Lord 
 Glenvarloch ! — why will you endanger yourself thus ? " 
 
 " You know me then, my friend ? " said Nigel. 
 
 " Not much of that, my lord — but I know your honour's noble 
 house well. — My name is Laurie Linklater, my lord." 
 
 " Linklater !" repeated Nigel. " I should recollect" 
 
 " Under your lordship's favour," he continued, " I was 'prentice, 
 my lord, to old Mungo Moniplies, the flesher at the wanton West- 
 Port of Edinburgh, which I wish I saw again before I died. And, 
 your honour's noble father having taken Richie Moniplies into his 
 house to wait on your lordship, there was a sort of connexion, your 
 lordship sees." 
 
 " Ah ! " said Lord Glenvarloch, " I had almost forgot your name, 
 but not your kind purpose. You tried to put Richie in the way of 
 presenting a supplication to his Majesty ? " 
 
 " Most true, my lord," replied the King's cook. " I had like to 
 have come by mischief in the job ; for Richie, who was always 
 wilful, ' wadna be guided by me,' as the sang says. But nobody 
 amongst these brave English cooks can kittle up his Majesty's most 
 sacred palate with our own gusty Scottish dishes. So I e'en betook 
 myself to my craft, and concocted a mess of friar's chicken for 
 the soup, and a savoury hachis, that made the whole cabal coup 
 the crans ; ' and, instead of disgrace, I came by preferment. I am 
 one of the clerks of the kitchen now, make me thankful — with a 
 finger in the purveyor's office, and may get my whole hand in by 
 and by." 
 
 "I am truly glad," said Nigel, "to hear that you have not 
 suffered on my account, — still more so at your good fortune." 
 
 " You bear a kind heart, my lord," said Linklater, " and do not 
 forget poor people ; and, troth, I see not why they should be 
 forgotten, since the King's errand may sometimes fall in the 
 cadger's gate. I have followed your lordship in the street, just to 
 look at such a stately shoot of the old oak-tree ; and my heart 
 jumped into my throat, when I saw you sitting openly in the 
 eating-house yonder, and knew there was such danger to your 
 person." 
 
 " What ! there are warrants against me, then ? " said Nigel. 
 
 " It is even true, my lord ; and there are those are willing to 
 blacken you as much as they can. — God forgive them, that would 
 sacrifice an honourable house for their own base ends ! " 
 
3i6 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 "Amen/' said Nigel. 
 
 " For, say your lordship may have been a little wild, like other 
 young gentlemen " 
 
 "We have little time to talk of it, my friend," said Nigel. 
 "The point in question is, how am I to get speech of the 
 King ? " 
 
 " The King, my lord ! " said Linklater, in astonishment ; " why, 
 will not that be rushing wilfully into danger ?— scalding yourself, as 
 I may say, with your own ladle?" 
 
 " My good friend," answered Nigel, " my experience of the Court, 
 and my knowledge of the circumstances in which I stand, tell me, 
 that the manliest and most direct road is, in my case, the surest 
 and the safest. The King has both a head to apprehend what is 
 just, and a heart to do what is kind." 
 
 " It is e'en true, my lord, and so we, his old servants, laiow," 
 added Linklater ; " but, woe's me, if you knew how many folks 
 make it their daily and nightly purpose to set his head against his 
 heart, and his heart against his head — to make him do hard things 
 because they are called just, and unjust things because they are 
 represented as kind. Woe's me, it is with his Sacred Majesty, and 
 the favourites who work upon him, even according to the homely 
 proverb that men taunt my calling with, — ' God sends good meat, 
 but the devil sends cooks.' " 
 
 " It signifies not talking of it, my good friend," said Nigel. " I 
 must take my risk — my honour peremptorily demands it. They 
 may maim me, or beggar me, but they shall not say I fled from my 
 accusers. My peers shall hear my vindication." 
 
 " Your peers ? " exclaimed the cook — " Alack-a-day, my lord, we 
 are not in Scotland, where the nobles can bang it out bravely, were 
 it even with the King himself, now and then. This mess must be 
 cooked in the Star- Chamber, and that is an oven seven times 
 heated, my lord ; — and yet, if you are determined to see the King, 
 I will not say but you may find some favour, for he likes well any 
 thing that is appealed directly to his own wisdom, and sometimes, 
 in the like cases, I have known him stick by his own opinion, which 
 is always a fair one. Only mind, if you will forgive me, my lord— 
 mind to spice high with Latin ; a curn or two of Greek would not 
 be amiss-; and, if you can bring in any thing about the judgment 
 of Solomon, in the original Hebrew, and season with a merry jest 
 or so, the dish will be the more palatable.— Truly, I think, that, 
 besides my skill in art, I owe much to the stripes of the Rector of 
 the High School, who imprinted on my mind that cooking scene in 
 the Heauton-timorumenos." 
 " Leaving that aside, my friend," said Lord Glenvarloch, " can 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 317 
 
 you inform me which way I shall most readily get to the sight and 
 speech of the King ? " 
 
 " To the sight of him readily enough," said Linklater ; " he is 
 galloping about these alleys, to see them strike the hart, to get him 
 an appetite for a nooning — and that reminds me I should be in the 
 kitchen. To the speech of the King you will not come so easily, 
 unless you could either meet him alone, which rarely chances, or 
 wait for him among the crowd that go to see him alight. And now, 
 farewell, my lord, and God speed ! — if I could do more for you, I 
 would offer it." 
 
 " You have done enough, perhaps, to endanger yourself," said 
 Lord Glenvarloch, " I pray you to be gone, and leave me to my 
 fate." 
 
 The honest cook lingered, but a nearer burst of the horns 
 apprized him that there was no time to lose ; and, acquainting 
 Nigel that he would leave the postern-door on the latch to secure 
 his retreat in that direction, he bade God bless him, and fare- 
 well. 
 
 In the kindness of this humble countryman, flowing partly from 
 national partiality, partly from a sense of long-remembered bene- 
 fits, which had been scarce thought on by those who had 
 bestowed them. Lord Glenvarloch thought he saw the last touch 
 of sympathy which he was to receive in this cold and courtly re- 
 gion, and felt that he must now be sufficient to himself, or be 
 utterly losl. 
 
 He traversed more than one alley, guided by the sounds of the 
 chase, and met several of the inferior attendants upon the King's 
 sport, who regarded him only as one of the spectators who were 
 sometimes permitted to enter the Park by the concurrence of the 
 officers about the Court. Still there was no appearance of James, 
 or any of his principal courtiers, and Nigel began to think whether, 
 at the risk of incurring disgrace similar to that which had at- 
 tended the rash exploit of Richie Moniplies, he should not repair 
 to the Palace-gate, in order to address the King on his return, 
 when Fortune presented him the opportunity of doing so, in her 
 own way. 
 
 He was in one of those long walks by which the Park was tra- 
 versed, when he heard, first a distant rustUng, then the rapid 
 approach of hoofs shaking the firm earth on which he stood ; then 
 a distant halloo, warned by which he stood up by the side of the 
 avenue, leaving free room for the passage of the chase. The stag, 
 reeling, covered with foam, and blackened with sweat, his nostrils 
 expanded as he gasped for breath, made a shift to come up as far 
 as where Nigel stood, and, without turning to bay, was there pulled 
 
3i8 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 down by two tall greyhounds of the breed still used by the hardy 
 Heer-stalkers of the Scottish Highlands, but which has been long 
 unknown in England. One dog struck at the buck's throat, ano- 
 ther dashed his sharp nose and fangs, I might almost say, into the 
 animal's bowels. It would have been natural for Lord Glenvarloch, 
 himself persecuted as if by hunters, to have thought upon the 
 occasion like the melancholy Jacques ; but habit is a strange 
 matter, and I fear that his feelings on the occasion were rather 
 those of the practised huntsman than of the moralist. He had no 
 time, however, to indulge them, for mark what befell. 
 
 A single horseman followed the chase, upon a steed so thoroughly 
 subjected to the rein, that it obeyed the touch of the bridle as if it 
 had been a mechanical impulse operating on the nicest piece of 
 machinery ; so that, seated deep in his demi-pique saddle, and so 
 trussed up there as to make falling almost impossible, the rider, 
 without either fear or hesitation, might increase or diminish the 
 speed at which he rode, which, even on the most animating occa- 
 sions of the chase, seldom exceeded three-fourths of a gallop, the 
 horse keeping his haunches under him, and never stretching for- 
 ward beyond the managed pace of the academy. The security 
 with which he chose to prosecute even this favourite, and, in the 
 ordinary case, somewhat dangerous amusement, as well as the rest 
 of his equipage, marked King James. No attendant was within 
 sight ; indeed, it was often a nice strain of flattery to permit the 
 Sovereign to suppose he had outridden and distanced all the rest 
 of the chase. 
 
 " Weel dune. Bash — weel dune, Battie ! " he exclaimed, as he 
 came up. " By the honour of a king, ye are a credit to the Braes 
 of Balwhither ! — Haud my horse, man," he called out to Nigel, 
 without stopping to see to whom he had addressed himself — " Haud 
 my naig, and help me doun out o' the saddle — deil ding your saul, 
 sirrah, canna ye mak haste before these lazy smaiks come up ?— 
 haud the rein easy — dinna let him swerve — now haud the stirrup — 
 that will do, man, and now we are on terra firma." So saying, 
 without casting an eye on his assistant, gentle King Jamie, un- 
 sheathing the short, sharp hanger, {couteau de chasse^ which was 
 the only thing approaching to a sword that he could willingly 
 endure the sight of, drew the blade with great satisfaction across 
 the throat of the buck, and put an end at once to its struggles and 
 its agonies. 
 
 Lord Glenvarloch, who knew well the silvan duty which the 
 occasion demanded, hung the bridle of the King's palfrey on the 
 branch of a tree, and, kneeling duteously down, turned the slaugh- 
 tered deer upon its back, and kept the quarrh in that position, 
 
r^S 
 
 ^ 
 
 ^ 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 319 
 
 while the King, too intent upon his sport to observe any thing else, 
 drew his couteau down the breast of the animal, secundum artem ; 
 and, having made a cross cut, so as to ascertain the depth of the 
 fat upon the chest, exclaimed, in a sort of rapture, " Three inches 
 of white fat on the brisket !— prime— prime — as I am a crowned 
 sinner — and deil ane o' the lazy loons in but mysell ! Seven — aught 
 — aught tines on the antlers. By G — d, a hart of aught tines, and 
 the first of the season ! Bash and Battle, blessings on the heart's- 
 root of ye ! Buss me, my bairns, buss me." The dogs accord- 
 ingly fawned upon him, licked him with bloody jaws, and soon put 
 him in such a state that it might have seemed treason had been 
 doing its full work upon his anointed body. " Bide doun, with a 
 mischief to ye — bide doun, with a wanion," cried the King, almost 
 overturned by the obstreperous caresses of the large stag-hounds. 
 " But ye are just like ither folks, gie ye an inch and ye take an ell. 
 — And wha may ye be, friend ? " he said, now finding leisure to take 
 a nearer view of Nigel, and observing what in hi! first emotion of 
 silvan delight had escaped him, — " Ye are nane of our train, man. 
 In the name of God, what the devil are ye ? " 
 
 " An unfortunate man, sire," replied Nigel. 
 
 " I dare say that," answered the King, snappishly, " or I wad 
 have seen naething of you. My lieges keep a' their happiness to 
 themselves ; but let bowls row wrang wi' them, and I am sure to 
 hear of it." 
 
 " And to whom else can we carry our complaints but to your 
 Majesty, who is Heaven's viceregent over us ? " answered Nigel. 
 
 "Right, man,, right, — very weel spoken," said the King; "but 
 you should leave Heaven's viceregent some quiet on earth, too." 
 
 " If your Majesty will look on me," (for hitherto the King had 
 been so busy, first with the dogs, and then with the mystic opera- 
 tion of breaking, in vulgar phrase, cutting up the deer, that he had 
 scarce given his assistant above a transient glance,) " you will see 
 whom necessity makes bold to avail himself of an opportunity 
 which may never again occur." 
 
 King James looked ; his blood left his cheek, though it continued 
 stained with that of the animal which lay at his feet, he dropped 
 the knife from his hand, cast behind him a faltering eye, as if he 
 either meditated flight or . looked out for assistance, and then ex- 
 claimed, — " Glenvarlochides ! as sure as I was christened James 
 Stewart. Here is a bonny spot of work, and me alone, and on foot 
 too I " he added, bustling to get upon his horse. 
 
 " Forgive me that I interrupt you, my liege,'' said Nigel, plac- 
 ing himself between the King and the steed ; " hear me but a 
 moment ! " 
 
320 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 " I'll hear ye best on horseback," said the King. " I canna hear 
 a word on foot, man, not a word ; and it is not seemly to stand 
 cheek-for-chowl confronting us that gate. Bide out of our gate, sir, 
 we charge you on your allegiance. — The deil's in them a', what can 
 they be doing." 
 
 " By the crown which you wear, my liege," said Nigel, " and for 
 which my ancestors have worthily fought, I conjure you to be com- 
 posed, and to hear me but a moment ! " 
 
 That which he asked was entirely out of the monarch's power to 
 grant. The timidity which he showed was not the plain down- 
 right cowardice, which, like a natural impulse, compels a man to 
 flight, and which can excite little but pity or contempt, but a much 
 more ludicrous, as well as more mingled sensation. The poor 
 King was frightened at once and angry, desirous of securing his 
 safety, and at the same time ashamed to compromise his dignity ; so 
 that without attending to what Lord Glenvarloch endeavoured to 
 explain, he kept making at his horse, and repeating, " We are a 
 free King, man — we are a free King — we will not be controlled by 
 a subject. — In the name of God, what keeps Steenie ? And, praised 
 be his name, they are coming— Hillo, ho — here, here — Steenie, 
 Steenie ! " 
 
 The Duke of Buckingham galloped up, followed by several cour- 
 tiers and attendants of the royal chase, and commenced with his 
 usual familiarity, — " I see Fortune has graced our dear dad, as 
 usual. — But what's this ? " 
 
 " What is it ? It is treason for what I ken," said the King ; "and 
 a' your wyte, Steenie. Your dear dad and gossip might have been 
 murdered, for what you care." 
 
 " Murdered ? Secure the villain ! " exclaimed the Duke. " By 
 Heaven, it is Olifaunt himself ! " A dozen of the hunters dis- 
 mounted at once, letting their horses run wild through the park. 
 Some seized roughly on Lord Glenvarloch, who thought it folly to 
 offer resistance, while others busied themselves with the King. 
 " Are you wounded, my liege — are you wounded ? " 
 
 " Not that I ken of," said the King, in the paroxysm of his ap- 
 prehension, (which, by the way, might be pardoned in one of so 
 timorous a temper, and who, in his time, had been exposed to so 
 many strange attempts) — " Not that I ken of— but search him— 
 search him. I am sure I saw fire-arms under his cloak. I am sure 
 I smelled powder — I am dooms sure of that." 
 
 Lord Glenvarloch's cloak being stripped off, and his pistols dis- 
 covered, a shout of wonder and of execration on the supposed 
 criminal purpose, arose from the crowd now thickening every 
 moment. Not that celebrated pistol, which, though resting on a 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL, 321 
 
 bosom as gallant and as loyal as Nigel's, spread such causeless 
 alarm among knights and dames at a late high solemnity — not that 
 very pistol caused more temporary consternation than was so 
 groundlessly excited by the arms which were taken from Lord 
 Glenvarloch's person ; and not Mhic-AUastar-More himself could 
 repel with greater scorn and indignation, the insinuations that they 
 were worn for any sinister purposes.* 
 
 "Away with the wretch— the parricide — the bloody-minded 
 villain ! " was echoed on all hands ; and the King, who naturally 
 enough set the same value on his own life at which it was, or seemed 
 to be, rated by others, cried out, louder than all the rest, " Ay, ay — 
 away with him. I have had enough of him, and so has the country. 
 But do him no bodily harm — and, for God's sake, sirs, if ye are 
 sure that ye have thoroughly disarmed him, put up your swords, 
 dirks, and skenes, for you will certainly do each other a mischief." 
 
 There was a speedy sheathing of weapons at the King's command ; 
 for those who had hitherto been brandishing them in loyal bravado, 
 began thereby to call to mind the extreme dislike which his Majesty 
 nourished against naked steel, a foible which seemed to be as con- 
 stitutional as his timidity, and was, usually ascribed to the brutal 
 murder of Rizzio having been perpetrated in his unfortunate 
 mother's presence before he yet saw the light. 
 
 At this moment, the Prince, who had been hunting in a different 
 part of the then extensive Park, and had received some hasty and 
 confused information of what was going forward, came rapidly up, 
 with one or two noblemen in his train, and amongst others Lord 
 Dalgarno. He sprung from his horse, and asked eagerly if his 
 father were wounded. 
 
 " Not that I am sensible of. Baby Charles — but a wee matter 
 exhausted, with struggling single-handed with the assassin. — 
 Steenie, fill us a cup of wine — the leathern bottle is hanging at our 
 pommel. Buss me, then, Baby Charles," continued the monarch, 
 after he had taken this cup of comfort ; * " O man, the Common- 
 wealth and you have had a fair escape from the heavy and bloody 
 loss of a dear father ; for we are pater patrim, as weel as pater 
 amilias. — Quis desiderio sitpudor aut modus tam cart capitis ! — 
 Woe is me, black cloth would have been dear in England, and dry 
 een scarce ! " 
 
 And, at the very idea of the general grief which must have 
 attended his death, the good-natured monarch cried heartily 
 himself. 
 
 "Is this possible ? " said Charles, sternly ; for his pride was hurt 
 at his father's demeanour on the one hand, while on the other, he 
 felt the resentment of a son and a subject, at the supposed attempt 
 
 Y 
 
322 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 on the King's life. " Let some one speak who has seen what 
 happened — My Lord of Buckingham ! " 
 
 " I cannot say, my lord," replied the Duke, " that I saw any 
 actual violence offered to his Majesty, else I should have avenged 
 him on the spot." 
 
 "You would have done wrong, then, in your zeal, George," 
 answered the Prince ; " such offenders were better left to be dealt 
 with by the laws. But was the villain not struggling with his 
 Majesty ? " 
 
 " I cannot term it so, my lord," said the Duke, who, with many 
 faults, would have disdained an untruth ; " he seemed to desire to 
 detain his Majesty, who, on the contrary, appeared to wish to mount 
 his horse ; but they have found pistols on his person, contrary to 
 the proclamation, and, as it proves to be Nigel Olifaunt, of whose 
 ungoverned disposition your Royal Highness has seen some 
 samples, we seem to be justified in apprehending the worst." 
 
 " Nigel Olifaunt ! " said the Prince ; " can that unhappy man so 
 soon have engaged in a new trespass ? Let me see those pistols," 
 
 " Ye are not so unwise as to meddle with such snap-haunces, 
 Baby Charles ? " said James — " Do not give him them, Steenie — I 
 command you on your allegiance ! They may go off of their own 
 accord, whilk often befalls. — You will do it, then ? — Saw ever man 
 sic wilful bairns as we are cumbered with ! — Havena we guardsmen 
 and soldiers enow, but you must urdoad the weapons yoursell — you, 
 the heir of our body and dignities, and sae mony men around that 
 are paid for venturing life in our cause ? " 
 
 But without regarding his father's exclamations. Prince Charles, 
 with the obstinacy which characterised him in trifles, as well as 
 matters of consequence, persisted in unloading the pistols with his 
 own hand, of the double bullets with which each was charged, The 
 hands of all around were held up in astonishment at the horror of 
 the crime supposed to have been intended, and the escape which 
 was presumed so narrow. 
 
 iv igd had not yet spoken a word — ^he now calmly desired to be 
 heard. 
 
 " To what purpose ? " answered the Prince coldly. " You knew 
 yourself accused of a heavy offence, and, instead of rendering your- 
 self up to justice, in terms of the proclamation, you are here found 
 intruding yourself on his Majesty's presence, and armed with un- 
 lawful weapons." 
 
 " May it please you, sir," answered Nigel, " I v/ore these unhappy 
 weapons for my own defence ; and not very many hours since they 
 were necessary to protect the lives of others." 
 
 " Doubtless, my lord," answered the Prince, still calm and un- 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 323 
 
 moved, — " your late mode of life, and the associates with whom you 
 have lived, have made you familiar with scenes and weapons of 
 violence. But it is not to me you are to plead your cause." 
 
 " Hear me — hear me, noble Prince ! " said Nigel, eagerly. " Hear 
 me ! You — even you yourself— may one day ask to be heard, and 
 in vain." 
 
 " How, sir," said the Prince, haughtily — " how am I to construe 
 that, my lord?" 
 
 " If not on earth, sir," replied the prisoner, ''yet to Heaven we 
 must all pray for patient and favourable audience." 
 
 " True, my lord," said the Prince, bending his head with haughty 
 acquiescence ; " nor would I now refuse such audience to you, 
 could it avail you. But you shall suffer no wrong. We will ourselves 
 look into your case." 
 
 "Ay, ay," answered the King, "he hath made appellatio ad 
 Casarem — we will interrogate Glenvarlochides ourselves, time and 
 place fitting ; and, in the meanwhile, have him and his weapons 
 away, for I am weary of the sight of them." 
 
 In consequence of directions hastily given, Nigel was accordingly 
 removed from the presence, where, however, his words had not 
 altogether fallen to the ground.* " This is a most strange matter, 
 George," said the Prince to the favourite ; " this gentleman hath a 
 good countenance, a happy presence, and much calm firmness in 
 his look and speech. I cannot think he would attempt a crime so 
 desperate and useless." 
 
 " I profess neither love nor favour to the young man," answered 
 Buckingham, whose high-spirited ambition bore always an open 
 character ; "but I cannot but agree with your Highness, that our 
 dear gossip hath been something hasty in apprehending personal 
 danger from him." * 
 
 " By my saul, Steenie, ye are not blate, to say so ! " said the 
 King. " Do I not ken the smell of powther, think ye ? Who else 
 nosed out the Fifth of November, save our royal selves ? Cecil, 
 and Suffolk, and all of them, were at fault, like sae mony mongrel 
 tikes, when I puzzled it out ; and trow ye that I cannot smell 
 powther ? Why, 'sblood, man, Joannes Barclaius thought my ingine 
 was in some measure inspiration, and terms his history of the plot, 
 Series patefacti divinitus parricidiij and Spondanus, in like 
 manner, saith of us, Divinitus evasit." 
 
 " The land was happy in your Majesty's escape," said the Duke 
 of Buckingham, " and not less in the quick wit which tracked that 
 labyrinth of treason by so fine and almost invisible a clew." 
 
 " Saul, man, Steenie, ye are right ! There are few youths 
 have sic true judgment as you, respecting the wisdom of their 
 
 V 3 
 
3:.4 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 elders ; and, as for this fause, traitorous smaik, I doubt he is a 
 hawk of( the same nest. Saw ye not something papistical about 
 him? Let them look that he bears not a crucifix, or some sic 
 Roman trinket, about him." 
 
 " It would ill become me to attempt the exculpation of this 
 unhappy man," said Lord Dalgarno; "considering the height 
 of his present attempt, which has made all true men's blood curdle 
 in their veins. Yet I cannot avoid intimating, with all due sub- 
 mission to his Majesty's infallible judgment, in justice to one who 
 showed himself formerly only my enemy, though he now displays 
 himself in much blacker colours, that this Olifaunt always appeared 
 to me more as a Puritan than as a Papist." 
 
 " Ah, Dalgarno, art thou there, man ? " said the King. " And ye 
 behoved to keep back, too, and leave us to our own natural 
 strength and the care of Providence, when we were in grips with 
 the villain ! " 
 
 " Providence, may it please your most Gracious Majesty, would 
 not fail to aid, in such a strait, the care of three weeping kingdoms," 
 said Lord Dalgarno. 
 
 "Surely, man— surely," replied the King — "but a sight of your 
 father, with his long whinyard, would have been a blithe matter a 
 short while syne ; and in future we will aid the ends of Providence 
 in our favour, by keeping near us two stout beefeaters of the 
 guard. — And so this Olifaunt is a Puritan ?— not the less like to be a 
 Papist, for all that— for extremities meet, as the scholiast proveth. 
 There are, as I have proved in my book, Puritans of papistical 
 principles — it is just a new tout on an auld horn." 
 
 Here the King was reminded by the Prince, who dreaded, perhaps, 
 that he was going to recite the whole Basilicon Doron, that it would 
 be best to move towards the Palace, and consider what was to be 
 done for satisfying the public mind, in whom the morning's ad- 
 venture was likely to excite much speculation. As they entered the 
 gate of the Palace, a female bowed and presented a paper, which 
 the King received, and, with a sort of groan, thrust it into his side 
 pocket. The Prince expressed some curiosity to know its contents. 
 " The valet in waiting will tell you them," said the King, " when I 
 strip off my cassock. D'ye think. Baby, that I can read all that is 
 thrust into my hands ? See to me, man," — (he pointed to the pockets 
 of his great trunk breeches, which were stuffed with papers) — "We 
 are like an ass — that we should so speak — stooping betwixt two 
 burdens. Ay, ay, Asinus fortis accumbens inter terminos, as the 
 "Vulgate hath it — Ay, ay, Vidi terram quod esset optima, et supposu 
 humerum ad portandum, et /actus sum tributis serviens — I saw 
 this land of England, and became an overburdened king thereof," 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 325 
 
 " You are indeed well loaded, my dear dad and gossip," said the 
 Duke of Buckingham, receiving the papers which King James 
 emptied out of his pockets. 
 
 " Ay, ay," continued the monarch ; " take them to you per 
 aversionem, bairns — the one pouch stuffed with petitions, t'other 
 with pasquinadoes ; a fine time we have on't. On my conscience, 
 I believe the tale of Cadmus was hieroglyphical, and that the 
 dragon's teeth whilk he sowed were the letters he invented. Ye 
 are laughing, Baby Charles ? — Mind what I say. — When I came 
 here first frae our ain country, where the men are as rude as the 
 weather, by my conscience, England was a bieldy bit ; one would 
 have thought the King had little to do but to walk by quiet waters, 
 j)er aquavt refectionis. But, I kenna how or why, the place is sair 
 changed — read that libel upon us and on our regimen. The dragon's 
 teeth are sown. Baby Charles ; I pray God they bearna their armed 
 harvest in your day, if I suld not live to see it. God forbid I should, 
 for there will be an awful day's kemping at the shearing of 
 them." 
 
 " I shall know how to stifle the crop in the blade, — ha, George ? " 
 said the Prince, turning to the favourite with a look expressive of 
 some contempt for his father's apprehensions, and full of confidence 
 in the superior firmness and decision of his own counsels. 
 
 While this discourse was passing, Nigel, in charge of a pur- 
 suivant-at-arms, was pushed and dragged through the small town, 
 all the inhabitants of which, having been alarmed by the report of an 
 attack on the King's life, now pressed forward to see the supposed 
 traitor. Amid the confusion of the moment, he could descry the 
 face of the victualler, arrested into a stare of stolid wonder, and that 
 of the barber grinning betwixt horror and eager curiosity. He 
 thought that he also had a glimpse of his waterman in the green 
 jacket. 
 
 He had no time for remarks, being placed in a boat with the 
 pursuivant and two yeomen of the guard, and rowed up the river as 
 fast as the arms of six stout watermen could pull against the tide. 
 They passed the groves of masts which even then astonished the 
 stranger with the extended commerce of London, and now ap- 
 proached those low and blackened walls of curtain and bastion, 
 which exhibit here and there a piece of ordnance, and here and 
 there a solitary sentinel under arms, but have otherwise so little 
 of the military terrors of a citadel. A projecting low-browed arch, 
 which had loured over many an innocent and many a guilty head, 
 in similar circumstances, now spread its dark frowns over that of 
 Nigel.* The boat was put close uptothe broad steps against which 
 the tide was lapping its lazy wave. The warder on duty looked from 
 
326 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 the wicket, and spoke to the pursuivant in whispers. In a few minutes 
 the Lieutentant of the Tower appeared, received, and granted an 
 acnowledgnient for the body of Nigel, Lord Glenvarloch. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 Ye towers of Julius ! London's lasting shame ; 
 With many a foul and midnight murder fed ! — Gray. 
 
 Such is the exclamation of Gray. Bandello, long before him, 
 has said something like it ; and the same sentiment must, in some 
 shape or other, have frequently occurred to those, who, remember- 
 ing the fate of other captives in that memorable state-prison, may 
 have had but too much reason to anticipate their own. The dark 
 and low arch, which seemed, like the entrance to Dante's Hell, to 
 forbid hope of regress — the muttered sounds of the warders, and 
 petty formalities observed in opening and shutting the grated 
 wicket— the cold and constrained salutation of the Lieutenant of 
 the fortress, who showed his prisoner that distant and measured 
 respect which authority pays as a tax to decorum, all struck upon 
 Nigel's heart, impressing on him the cruel consciousness of 
 captivity. 
 
 " I am a prisoner," he said, the words escaping from him almost 
 unawares ; " I am a prisoner, and in the Tower ! " 
 
 The Lieutenant bowed — " And it is my duty," he said, " to show 
 your lordship your chamber, where, I am compelled to say, my 
 orders are to place you under some restraint. I will make it as 
 easy as my duty permits." 
 
 Nigel only bowed in return to this compliment, and followed the 
 Lieutenant to the ancient buildings on the western side of the 
 parade, and adjoining to the chapel, used in those days as a state- 
 prison, but in ours as the mess-room of the officers of the guard 
 upon duty at the fortress. The double doors were unlocked, the 
 prisoner ascended a few steps, followed by the Lieutenant, and a 
 warder of the higher class. They entered a large but irregular, 
 low-roofed, and dark apartment, exhibiting a very scanty proper' 
 tion of furniture. The warder had orders to light a fire, and attend 
 to Lord Glenvarloch's commands in all things consistent with his 
 duty ; and the Lieutenant, having made his reverence "with the 
 customary compliment, that he trusted his lordship would not long 
 remain under his guardianship, took his leave. 
 
 Nigel would have asked some questions of the warder, who re- 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 327 
 
 mained to put the apartment into order, but the man had caught 
 the spirit of his office. He seemed not to hear some of the 
 prisoner's questions, though of the most ordinary Idnd, did not reply 
 to others, and when he did speak, it was in a short and sullen tone, 
 which, though not positively disrespectful, was such as at least to 
 encourage no farther communication. 
 
 Nigel left him,, therefore, to do his work in silence, and proceeded 
 to amuse himself with the melancholy task of deciphering the 
 names, mottoes, verses, and hieroglyphics, with which his predeces- 
 sors in captivity had covered the walls of their prison-house. There 
 he saw the names of many a forgotten sufferer mingled with others 
 which will continue in remembrance until English history shall 
 perish. There were the pious effusions of the devout Catholic, 
 poured forth on the eve of his sealing his profession at Tyburn, 
 mingled with those of the firm Protestant, about to feed the fires of 
 Smithfield. There the slender hand of the unfortunate Jane Grey, 
 whose fate was to draw tears from future generations, might be 
 contrasted with the bolder touch which impressed deep on the walls 
 the Bear and Ragged Staff, the proud emblem of the proud Dud- 
 leys. It was like the roll of the prophet, a record of lamentation 
 and mourning, and yet not unmixed with brief interjections of 
 resignation, and sentences expressive of the firmest resolution. * 
 
 In the sad task of examining the miseries of his predecessors in 
 captivity, Lord Glenvarloch was interrupted by the sudden opening 
 of the door of his prison-room. It was the warder, who came to 
 inform him, that, by order of the Lieutenant of the Tower, his lord- 
 ship was to have the society and attendance of a fellow-prisoner in 
 his place of confinement. Nigel replied hastily, that he wished no 
 attendance, and would rather be left alone ; but the warder gave 
 him to understand, with a kind of grumbling civihty, that the Lieu- 
 tenant was the best judge how his prisoners should be accom- 
 modated, and that he would have no trouble with the boy, who was 
 such a slip of a thing as was scarce worth turning a key upon.— 
 "There, Giles," he said, "bring the child in." 
 
 Another warder put the " lad before him " into the room, and, 
 both withdrawing, bolt crashed and chain clanged, as they replaced 
 these ponderous obstacles to freedom. The boy was clad in a grey 
 suit of the finest cloth, laid down with silver lace, with a buff- 
 coloured cloak of the same pattern. His cap, which was a 
 Montero of black velvet, was pulled over his brows, and, with the 
 profusion of his long ringlets, almost concealed his face. He stood 
 on the very spot where the warder had quitted his collar, about two 
 steps from the door of the apartment, his eyes fixed on the ground, 
 and every joint trembling with confusion and terror. Nigel could 
 
3S8 tHE t-ORTUMES OP NiGeL. 
 
 well have dispensed with his society, but it was not in his nature to 
 behold distress, whether of body or mind, without endeavouring to 
 relieve it. '' 
 
 ' Cheer up," he said, " my pretty lad. We are to be companions, 
 it seems, for a Uttle time— at least I trust your confinement will be 
 short, since you are too young to have done aught to deserve long 
 restraint. Come, come, do not be discouraged. Your hand is cold 
 and trembles ? the air is warm too — ^but it may be the damp of this 
 darksome room. Place you by the fire. — What ! weeping-ripe, my 
 little man ? I pray you, do not be a child. You have no beard 
 yet, to be dishonoured by your tears, but yet you should not cry like 
 a girl. Think you are only shut up for playing truant, and you can 
 pass a day without weeping, surely." 
 
 The boy suffered himself to be led and seated by the fire, but, 
 after retaining for a long time the very posture which he assumed 
 in sitting down, he suddenly changed it in order to wring his hands 
 with an air of the bitterest distress, and then, spreading them before 
 his face, wept so plentifully, that the tears found their way in floods 
 through his slender fingers. 
 
 Nigel was in some degree rendered insensible to his own situa- 
 tion, by his feelings for the intense agony by which so young and 
 beautiful a creature seemed to be utterly overwhelmed ; and, sitting 
 down close beside the boy, he applied the most soothing terms 
 which occurred, to endeavour to alleviate his distress ; and with an 
 action which the difference of their age rendered natural, drew his 
 hand kindly along the long hair of the disconsolate child. The lad 
 appeared so shy as even to shrink from this slight approach to 
 familiarity — yet, when Lord Glenvarloch, perceiving and allowing 
 for his timidity, sat down on the farther side of the fire, he appeared 
 to be more at his ease, and to hearken with some apparent interest 
 to the arguments which from time to time Nigel used, to induce him 
 to moderate, at least, the violence of his grief. As the boy listened, 
 his tears, though they continued to flow freely, seemed to escape 
 from their source more easily, his sobs were less convulsive, and 
 became gradually changed into low sighs, which succeeded each 
 ether, indicating as much sorrow, perhaps, but less alarm, than his 
 ■first transports had shown. 
 
 " Tell me who and what you are, my pretty boy," said Nigel.— 
 " Consider me, child, as a companion, who wishes to be kind to 
 you, would you but teach him how he can be so." 
 
 " Sir— my lord, I mean," answered the boy, very timidly, and in 
 a voice which could scarce be heard even across the brief distance 
 which divided them, "you are very good — and I — am very un- 
 happy " 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 329 
 
 A second fit of tears interrupted what else he had intended to say, 
 and it required a renewal of Lord Glenvarloch's good-natured ex- 
 postulatiotis and encouragements, to bring him once more to such 
 composure as rendered the lad capable of expressing himself in- 
 telligibly. At length, however, he was able to say — " I am sensible 
 of your goodness, my lord — and grateful for it — but I am a poor 
 unhappy creature, and, what is worse, have myself only to thank 
 for my misfortunes." 
 
 " We are seldom absolutely miserable, my young acquaintance," 
 said Nigel, "without being ourselves more or less responsible for it 
 — I may well say so, otherwise I had not been here to-day — but 
 you are very young, and can have but little to answer for." 
 
 " O sir ! I wish I could say so — I have been self-willed and 
 obstinate — and rash and ungovernable — and now — now, how 
 dearly do I pay the price of it ! " 
 
 " Pshaw, my boy," replied Nigel; "this must be some childish 
 frolic — some breaking out of bounds — some truant trick — And yet 
 how should any of these have brought you to the Tower ? — There 
 is something mysterious about you, young man, which I must 
 enquire into." 
 
 " Indeed, indeed, my lord, there is no harm about me," said the 
 boy, more moved it would seem to confession by the last words, by 
 which he seemed considerably alarmed, than by all the kind ex- 
 postulations and arguments which Nigel had previously used. " I 
 am innocent — that is, I have done wrong, but nothing to deserve 
 being in this frightful place." 
 
 " Tell me the truth, then," said Nigel, in a tone in which com- 
 mand mingled with encouragement ; " you have nothing to fear 
 from me, and as little to hope, perhaps — vet, placed as I am, I 
 would know with whom I speak." 
 
 " With an unhappy— boy, sir— and idle and truantly disposed, 
 as your lordship said," answered the lad, looking up, and showing a 
 countenance in which paleness and blushes succeeded each other, 
 as fear and shamefacedness alternately had influence. " I left my 
 father's house without leave, to see the King hunt in the Park at 
 Greenwich ; there came a cry of treason, and all the gates were 
 shut — I was frightened, and hid myself in a thicket, and I was 
 found by some of the rangers and examined— and they said I gave 
 no good account of myself — and so I was sent hither." 
 
 " I am an unhappy, a most unhappy being," said Lord Glenvar- 
 loch, rising and walking through the apartment ; " nothing ap- 
 proaches me but shares my own bad fate ! Death and imprison- 
 ment dog my steps, and involve all who are found near me. Yet 
 this boy's story sounds strangely.— You say you were examined, 
 
330 THE FORTUNES GF NIGEL. 
 
 my young friend — Let me pray you to say whether you told your 
 name, and your means of gaining admission into the Park — if so, 
 they surely would not have detained you ? " 
 
 " O my lord," said the boy, " I took care not to tell them the 
 name of the friend that let me in ; and as to my father— I would 
 not he knew where I now am for all the wealth in London ! " 
 
 " But you do not expect," said Nigel, " that they will dismiss you 
 till you let them know who and what you are ? " 
 
 " What good will it do thein to keep so useless a creature as 
 myself?" said the boy; "they must let me go, were it but out of 
 shame." 
 
 " Do not trust to that — tell me your name and station — I will 
 communicate them to the Lieutenant — he is a man of quality and 
 honour, and will not only be willing to procure your liberation, but 
 also, I have no doubt, will intercede with your father. I am partly 
 answerable for such poor aid as I can afford, to get you out of this 
 embarrassment, since I occasioned the alarm owing to which you 
 were arrested ; so tell me your name, and your father's name." 
 
 " My name to you ? O never, never ! " answered the boy, in a 
 tone of deep emotion, the cause of which Nigel could not com- 
 prehend. 
 
 " Are you so much afraid of me, young man,"- he replied, " because 
 I am here accused and a prisoner ? Consider, a man may be both, 
 and deserve neither suspicion nor restraint. Why should you dis- 
 trust me ? You seem friendless, and I am myself so much in the 
 same circumstances, that I cannot but pity your situation when I 
 reflect on my own. Be wise ; I have spoken kindly to you — I 
 mean as kindly as I speak." 
 
 " O, I doubt it not, I doubt it not, my lord," said the boy, " and I 
 could tell you all — that is, almost all." 
 
 " Tell me nothing, my young friend, excepting what may assist 
 me in being useful to you," said Nigel. 
 
 " You are generous, my lord," said the boy ; " and I am sure — 
 sure, I might safely trust to your honour— But yet — ^but yet — I am 
 so sore beset — I have been so rash, so unguarded — I can never tell 
 you of my folly. Besides, I have already told too much to one 
 whose heart I thought I had moved — yet I find myself here." 
 " To whom did you make this disclosure ? " said Nigel. 
 " I dare not tell," replied the youth. 
 
 " There is something singular about you, my young friend," said 
 Lord Glenvarloch, withdrawing with a gentle degree of compulsion 
 the hand with which the boy had again covered his eyes ; " do not 
 pain yourself with thinking on your situation just at present — your 
 pulse is high, and your hand feverish — lay yourself on yonder pallet, 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 331 
 
 and try to compose yourself to sleep. It is the readiest and best 
 remedy for the fancies with which you are worrying yourself." 
 
 " I thank you for your considerate kindness, my lord," said the 
 boy ; "with your leave I will remain for a little space quiet in this 
 chair — I am better thus than on the couch. I can think undis- 
 turbedly on what I have done, and have still to do ; and if God 
 sends slumber to a creature so exhausted, it shall be most wel- 
 come.'' 
 
 So saying, the boy drew his hand from Lord Nigel's, and, draw- 
 ing around him and partly over his face the folds of his ample 
 cloak, he resigned himself to sleep or meditation, while his com- 
 panion, notwithstanding the exhausting scenes of this and the 
 preceding day, continued his pensive walk up and down the 
 apartment. 
 
 Every reader has experienced, that times occur, when, far from 
 being lords of external circumstances, man is unable to rule even 
 the wayward realm of his own thoughts. It was Nigel's natural 
 wish to consider his own situation coolly, and fix on the course 
 which it became him as a man of sense and courage to adopt ; and 
 yet, in spite of himself, and notwithstanding the deep interest of 
 the critical state in which he was placed, it did so happen that his 
 fellow-prisoner's situation occupied more of his thoughts than did 
 his own. There was no accounting for this wandering of the im- 
 agination, but also there was no striving with it. The pleading 
 tones of one of the sweetest voices he had ever heard still rung in 
 his ear, though it seemed that sleep had now fettered the tongue of 
 the speaker. He drew near on tiptoe to satisfy himself whether it 
 were so. The folds of the cloak hid the lower part of his face 
 entirely ; but the bonnet, which had fallen a little aside, permitted 
 him to see the forehead streaked with blue veins, the closed eyes, 
 and the long silken eyelashes. 
 
 "Poor child," said Nigel to himself, as he looked on him, 
 nestled up as it were in the folds of his mantle, " the dew is yet on 
 thy eyelashes, and thou hast fairly wept thyself asleep. Sorrow is 
 a rough nurse to one so young and delicate as thou art. Peace be 
 to thy slumbers, I will not disturb them. My own misfortunes 
 require my attention, and it is to their contemplation that I must 
 resign myself." 
 
 He attempted to <lo so, but was crossed at every turn by con- 
 jectures which intruded themselves as before, and which all re- 
 garded the sleeper rather than himself. He was angry and 
 vexed, and expostulated with himself concerning the overweening 
 interest which he took in the concerns of one of whom he knew 
 nothing, saving that the boy was forced into his company, perhaps 
 
332 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 as a spy, by those to whose custody he was committed— but the 
 spell could not be broken, and the thoughts which he struggled to 
 dismiss, continued to haunt him. 
 
 Thus passed half an hour, or more ; at the conclusion of which, 
 the harsh sound of the revolving bolts was again heard, and the 
 voice of the warder announced that a man desired to speak with 
 Lord Glenvarloch. " A man to speak with me, under my present 
 circumstances !— Who can it be ? " And John Christie, his land- 
 lord of Paul's Wharf, resolved his doubts, by entering the apart- 
 ment. " Welcome— most welcome, mine honest landlord ! " said 
 Lord Glenvarloch, " How could I have dreamt of seeing you in 
 my present close lodgings ? " And at the same time, with the 
 frankness of old kindness, he walked up to Christie and offered his 
 hand ; but John started back as from the look of a basilisk. 
 
 " Keep your courtesies to yourself, my lord," said he, gruffly ; " I 
 have had as many of them already as may serve me for my life." 
 
 " Why, Master Christie," said Nigel, "what means this ? I trust 
 I have not offended you ? " 
 
 " Ask me no questions, my lord," said Christie, bluntly. " I am 
 a man of peace — I came not hither to wrangle with you at this 
 place and season. Just suppose that I am well informed of all the 
 obligements from your honour's nobleness, and then acquaint me, 
 in as few words as may be, where is the unhappy woman — What 
 have you done with her?" 
 
 " What have I done with her ! " said Lord Glenvarloch — " Done 
 with whom ? I know not what you are speaking of." 
 
 " Oh, yes, my lord," said Christie ; " play surprise as well as you 
 will, you must have some guess that I am speaking of the poor fool 
 that was my wife, till she became your lordship's light-o'-love." 
 
 " Your wife ! Has your wife left you ? and, if she has, do you 
 come to ask her of me ?" 
 
 " Yes, my lord, singular as it may seem," returned Christie, in a 
 tone of bitter irony, and with a sort of grin widely discording from 
 the discomposure of his features, the gleam of his eye, and the 
 froth which stood on his lip, " I do come to make that demand of 
 your lordship. Doubtless, you are surprised I should take the 
 trouble ; but, I cannot tell, great men and little men think dif- 
 ferently. She has lain in my bosom, and drunk of my cup ; and, 
 such as she is, I cannot forget that — though I will never see her 
 again— she must not starve, my lord, or do worse, to gain bread, 
 though I reckon your lordship may think I am robbing the public 
 in trying to change her courses." 
 
 " By my faith as a Christian, by my honour as a gentleman," 
 said Lord Glenvarloch, " if aught amiss has chanced with your 
 
THE FORTUNES DF NIGEL. 333 
 
 wife, I know nothing of it. I trust in Heaven you are as much 
 mistaken in imputing guilt to her, as in supposing me her partner' 
 in it." 
 
 " Fie ! fie ! my lord," said Christie, " why will you make it so 
 tough ? She is but the wife of a clod-pated old chandler, who was 
 idiot enough to marry a wench twenty years younger than himself. 
 Your lordship cannot have more glory by it than you have had 
 already ; and, as for advantage and solace, I take it Dame Nelly 
 is now unnecessary to your gratification. I should be sorry to 
 interrupt the course of your pleasure ; an old wittol should have 
 more consideration of his condition. But, your precious lordship 
 being mewed up here among other choice jewels of the kingdom. 
 Dame Nelly cannot, I take it, be admitted to share the hours of 
 
 dalliance which" Here the incensed husband stammered, 
 
 broke off his tone of irony, and proceeded, striking his staff against 
 the ground — " O that these false limbs of yours, which I wish had 
 been hamstrung when they first crossed my honest threshold, were 
 free from the fetters they have well deserved ! I would give you the 
 odds of your youth, and your weapon, and would bequeath my 
 soul to the foul fiend if I, with this piece of oak, did not make you 
 such an example to all ungrateful, pick-thank courtiers, that it 
 should be a proverb to the end of time, how John Christie swad- 
 dled his wife's fine leman ! " 
 
 " I understand not your insolence," said Nigel, " but I forgive it, 
 because you labour under some strange delusion. In so far as I 
 can comprehend your vehement charge, it is entirely undeserved 
 on my part. You seem to impute to me the seduction of your 
 wife — I trust she is innocent. For me, at least, she is as innocent 
 as an angel in bliss. I never thought of her — never touched her 
 hand or cheek, save in honourable courtesy." 
 
 " O, ay — courtesy ! — that is the very word. She always praised 
 your lordship's honottrable courtesy. Ye have cozened me between 
 ye, with your courtesy. My lord — my lord, you came to us no very 
 wealthy man — you know it. It was for no lucre of gain I took you 
 and your swash-buckler, your Don Diego yonder, under my poor 
 roof. I never cared if the little room were let or no ; I could live 
 without it. If you could not have paid for it, you should never 
 have been asked. All the wharf knows John Christie has the 
 means and spirit to do a kindness. When you first darkened my 
 honest doorway, I was as happy as a man need to be, who is no 
 youngster, and has the rheumatism, Nelly was the kindest and 
 best-humoured wench — we might have a word now and then about 
 a gown or a ribbon, but a kinder soul on the whole, and a more 
 careful, considering her years, till you came— and what is she now ! 
 
334 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 But I will not be a fool to cry, if I can help it. W/iai she is 
 
 is not the question, but lu/iere she is ; and that I must learn, sir, of 
 you." 
 
 " How can you, when I tell you," 'replied Nigel, " that I am as 
 ignorant as yourself, or rather much more so ? Till this moment, I 
 never heard of any disagreement betwixt your dame and you." 
 
 " That is a lie," said John Christie, bluntly. 
 
 " How, you base villain ! " said Lord Glenvarloch — " do you pre- 
 sume on my situation? If it were not that I hold you mad, and 
 perhaps made so by some wrong sustained, you should find my 
 being weaponless were no protection, I would beat your brains out 
 against the wall." 
 
 " Ay, ay," answered Christie, " bully as ye list. Ye have been at 
 the ordinaries, and in Alsatia, and learned the ruffian's rant, I 
 doubt not. But I repeat, you have spoken an untruth, when you 
 said you knew not of my wife's falsehood ; for, when you were 
 twitted with it among your gay mates, it was a common jest among 
 you, and your lordship took all the credit they would give you for 
 your gallantry and gratitude." 
 
 There was a mixture 'of truth in this part of the charge, which 
 disconcerted Lord Glenvarloch exceedingly ; for he could not, as a 
 man of honour, deny that Lord Dalgarno, and others, had occa- 
 sionally jested with him on the subject of Dame Nelly, and that, 
 though he had not played exactly lefanfaron des vices gu'il n'avoit 
 pas, he had not at least been sufficiently anxious to clear himself of 
 the suspicion of such a crime to men who considered it as a merit. 
 It was therefore with some hesitation, and in a sort of qualifying 
 tone, that he admitted that some idle jests had passed upon such a 
 supposition, although without the least foundation in truth. John 
 Christie would not listen to his vindication any longer. " By your 
 own account," he said, " you permitted lies to be told of you in 
 jest. How do I know you are speaking truth, now you are serious ? 
 You thought it, I suppose, a fine thing to wear the reputation of 
 having dishonoured an honest family, — who will not think that you 
 had real grounds for your base bravado to rest upon ? I will not 
 believe otherwise for one, and therefore, my lord, mark what I have 
 to say. You are now yourself in trouble— As you hope to come 
 through it safely, and without loss of life and property, tell me 
 where this unhappy woman is. Tell me, if you hope for heaven- 
 tell me, if you fear hell— tell me, as you would not have the curse 
 of an utterly ruined woman, and a brokenhearted man, attend you 
 through hfe, and bear witness against you at the Great Day, which 
 ghall come after death. You are moved, my lord, I see it. I 
 cannot forget the wrong you have done me. 1 cannot even promise 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 333 
 
 to forgive it — but — tell me, and you shall never see me again, or 
 hear more of my reproaches." 
 
 "Unfortunate man," said Lord Glenvarloch, "you have said 
 more, far more than enough, to move me deeply. Were I at 
 liberty, I would lend you my best aid to search out him who has 
 wronged you, the rather that I do suspect my having been your 
 lodger has been in some degree the remote cause of bringing the 
 spoiler into the sheepfold." 
 
 " I am glad your lordship grants me so much," said John Christie, 
 resuming the tone of embittered irony with which he had opened 
 the singular conversation ; " I will spare you farther reproach and 
 remonstrance — your mind is made up, and so is mine. — So, ho, 
 warder!" The warder entered, and John went on, — "I want to 
 get out, brother. Look well to your charge — it were better that 
 half the wild beasts in their dens yonder were turned loose upon 
 Tower-Hill, than that this same smooth-faced, civil-spoken gentle- 
 man, were again returned to honest men's company !" 
 
 So saying, he hastily left the apartment ; and Nigel had full 
 leisure to lament the waywardness of his fate, which seemed never 
 to tire of persecuting him for crimes of which he was innocent, and 
 investing him with the appearances of guilt which his mind abhorred. 
 He could not, however, help acknowledging to himself, that all the 
 pain which he might sustain from the present accusation of John 
 Christie, was so far deserved, from his having suffered himself, out 
 of vanity, or rather an unwillingness to encounter ridicule, to be 
 supposed capable of a base inhospitable crime, merely because 
 fools called it an affair of gallantry ; and it was no balsam to the 
 wound, when he recollected what Richie had told him of his having 
 been ridiculed behind his back by the gallants of the ordinary, for 
 affecting the reputation of an intrigue which he had not in reality 
 spirit enough to have carried on. His simulation had, in a word, 
 placed him in the unlucky predicament of being rallied as a brag- 
 gart amongst the dissipated youths, with whom the reality of the 
 amour would have given him credit ; whilst, on the other hand, he 
 was branded as an inhospitable seducer by the injured husband- 
 who was obstinately persuaded of his guilt. 
 
336 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 How fares the man on whom good men would look 
 With eyes where scorn and censure combated, 
 But that kind Christian love hath taught the lesson — 
 That they who merit most contempt and hate, 
 Do most deserve our pity,— — 
 
 Old Play. 
 
 It might have seemed natural that the visit of John Christie 
 should have entirely diverted Nigel's attention from his slumbering 
 companion, and, for a time, such was the immediate effect of the 
 chain of new ideas which the incident introduced ; yet, soon after 
 the injured man had departed, Lord Glenvarloch began to think it 
 extraordinary that the boy should have slept so soundly, while they 
 talked loudly in his vicinity. Yet he certainly did not appear to 
 have stirred. Was he well — was he only feigning sleep ? He went 
 close to him to make his observations, and perceived that he had 
 wept, and was still weeping, though his eyes were closed. He 
 touched him gently on the shoulder— the boy shrunk from his 
 touch, but did not awake. He pulled him harder, and asked him 
 if he was sleeping. 
 
 " Do they waken folk in your country to know whether they are 
 asleep or no ? " said the boy, in a peevish tone. 
 
 " No, my young sir," answered Nigel ; " but when they weep in 
 the manner you do in your sleep, they awaken them to see what 
 ails them." 
 
 " It signifies little to any one what ails me," said the boy. 
 
 " True," replied Lord Glenvarloch ; " but you knew before you 
 went to sleep how little I could assist you in your difficulties and 
 you seemed disposed, notwithstanding, to put some confidence in 
 me." 
 
 " If I did, I have changed my mind," said the lad. 
 
 "And what may have occasioned this change of mind, I trow?" 
 said Lord Glenvarloch.—" Some men speak through their sleep- 
 perhaps you have the gift of hearing in it ? " 
 
 " No, but the Patriarch Joseph never dreamt truer dreams than 
 I do." 
 
 "Indeed!" said Lord Glenvarloch. "And, pray, what dream 
 have you had that has deprived me of your good opinion ; for that, 
 I think, seems the moral of the matter ? " 
 
 " You shall judge yourself," answered the boy. " I dreamed I 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 337 
 
 was in a wild forest, where there was a cry of hounds, and winding 
 of horns, exactly as I heard in Greenwich Park." 
 
 " That was because you were in the Park this morning, you 
 simple child," said Nigel. 
 
 " Stay, my lord," said the youth. " I went on in my dream, till, 
 at the top of a broad green alley, I saw a noble stag which had 
 fallen into the toils ; and methought I knew that he was the very 
 stag which the whole party were hunting, and that if the chase came 
 up, the dogs would tear him to pieces, or the hunters would cut his 
 throat ; and I had pity on the gallant stag, and though I was of a 
 different kind from him, and though I was somewhat afraid of him, 
 I thought I would venture something to free so stately a creature ; 
 and I pulled out my knife, and just as I was beginning to cut the 
 meshes of the net, the animal started up in my face in the likeness 
 of a tiger, much larger and fiercer than any you may have seen in 
 the ward of the wild beasts yonder, and was just about to tear me 
 limb from limb, when you awaked me." 
 
 " Methinks," said Nigel, " I deserve more thanks than I have 
 got, for rescuing you from such a danger by waking you. But, my 
 pretty master, methinks all this tale of a tiger and a stag has little 
 to do with your change of temper towards me." 
 
 " I know not whether it has or no," said the lad ; " but I will not 
 tell you who I am." 
 
 " You will keep your secret to yourself then, peevish boy," said 
 Nigel, turning from him, and resuming his walk through the room ; 
 then stopping suddenly, he said, — " And yet you shall not escape 
 from me without knowing that I penetrate your mystery." 
 
 " My mystery ! " said the youth, at once alarmed and irritated, — 
 " what mean you, my lord ? " 
 
 " Only that I can read your dream without the assistance of a 
 Chaldean interpreter, and my exposition is — that my fair com- 
 panion does not wear the dress of her sex." 
 
 " And if I do not, my lord," said his companion, hastily starting 
 up, and folding her cloak tight around her, " my dress, such as it 
 is, covers one who will not disgrace it." 
 
 " Many would call that speech a fair challenge," said Lord Glen- 
 varloch, looking on her fixedly ; " women do not masquerade in 
 men's clothes, to make use of men's weapons." 
 
 " I have no such purpose," said the seeming boy ; " I have other 
 means of protection, and powerful — but I would first know what is 
 your purpose." 
 
 " An honourable and a most respectful one," said Lord Glenvar- 
 loch ; " whatever you are — whatever motive may have brought you 
 into this ambiguous situation, I am sensible— every look, word, and 
 
 z 
 
338 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 action of yours, makes me sensible, that you are no proper subject 
 of importunity, far less of ill usage. What circumstances can have 
 forced you into so doubtful a situation, I know not ; but I feel as- 
 sured there is, and can be, nothing in them of premeditated wrong, 
 which should expose you to cold-blooded insult. From me you 
 have nothing to dread." 
 
 " I expected nothing less from your nobleness, my lord," an- 
 swered the female j " my adventure, though I feel it was both 
 desperate and foolish, is not so very foolish, nor my safety here so 
 utterly unprotected, as at first sight — and in this strange dress, it 
 may appear to be. I have suffered enough, and more than enough, 
 by the degradation of having been seen in this unfeminine attire, 
 and the comments you must necessarily have made on my conduct 
 — but I thank God that I am so far protected, that I could not have 
 been subjected to insult unavenged." 
 
 When this extraordinary explanation had proceeded thus far, the 
 warder appeared, to place before Lord Glenvarloch a meal, which, 
 for his present situation, might be called comfortable, and which, 
 if not equal to the cookery of the celebrated Chevalier Beaujeu, 
 was much superior in neatness and cleanliness to that of Alsatia. 
 A warder attended to do the honours of the table, and made a sign 
 to the disguised female to rise and assist him in his functions. But 
 Nigel, declaring that he knew the youth's parents, interfered, and 
 caused his companion to eat along with him. She consented with 
 a sort of embarrassment, which rendered her pretty features yet 
 more interesting. Yet she maintained with a natural grace that 
 sort of good breeding which belongs to the table ; and it seemed to 
 Nigel, whether already prejudiced in her favour by the extraordi- 
 nary circumstances of their meeting, or whether really judging 
 from what was actually the fact, that he had seldom seen a young 
 person comport herself with more decorous propriety, mixed with 
 ingenuous simplicity j while the consciousness of the peculiarity of 
 her situation threw a singular colouring over her whole demeanour, 
 which could be neither said to be formal, nor easy, nor embarrassed, 
 but was compounded of, and shaded wkh, an interchange of all 
 these three characteristics. Wine was placed on the table, of which 
 she could not be prevailed on to taste a glass. Their conversation 
 was, of course, limited by the presence of the warder to the busi- 
 ness of the table ; but Nigel had, long ere the cloth was removed, 
 formed the resolution, if possible, of making himself master of this 
 young person's history, the more especially as he now began to 
 think that the tones of her voice and her features were not so strange 
 to him as he had originally supposed. This, however, was a 
 conviction which he adopted slowly, and only as it dawned 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 339 
 
 upon him from particular circumstances during the course of the 
 repast. 
 
 At length the prison-meal was finished, and Lord Glenvarloch 
 began to think how he might most easily enter upon the topic he 
 meditated, when the warder announced a visitor. 
 
 " Soh ! " said Nigel, something displeased, " I find even a prison 
 does not save one from importunate visitations." 
 
 He prepared to receive his guest, however, while his alarmed 
 companion flew to the large cradle-shaped chair, which had first 
 served her as a place of refuge, drew her cloak around her, and 
 disposed herself as much as she could to avoid observation. She 
 had scarce made her arrangements for that purpose when the door 
 opened, and the worthy citizen, George Heriot, entered the prison- 
 chamber. 
 
 He cast around the apartment his usual sharp, quick glance of 
 observation, and, advancing to Nigel, said — " My lord. I wish I 
 could say I was happy to see you." 
 
 " The sight of those who are unhappy themselves. Master Heriot, 
 seldom produces happiness to their friends — I, however, am glad to 
 see you." 
 
 He extended his hand, but Heriot bowed with much formal com- 
 plaisance, instead of accepting the courtesy, which in those times, 
 when the distinction of ranks was much guarded by etiquette and 
 ceremony, was considered as a distinguished favour. 
 
 " You are displeased with me, Master Heriot," said Lord Glen- 
 varloch, reddening, for he was not deceived by the worthy citizen's 
 affectation of extreme reverence and respect. 
 
 " By no means, my lord," replied Heriot ; " but I have been in 
 France, and have thought it as well to import, along with other 
 more substantial articles, a small sample of that good-breeding 
 which the French are so renowned for." 
 
 " It is not kind of you," said Nigel, " to bestow the first use of it 
 on an old and obliged friend." 
 
 Heriot only answered to this observation with a short dry cough, 
 and then proceeded. 
 
 " Hem ! hem ! I say, ahem ! My lord, as my French politeness 
 may not carry me far, I would willingly know whether I am to 
 speak as a friend, since your lordship is pleased to term me such ; 
 or whether I am, as befits my condition, to confine myself to the 
 needful business which must be treated of between us." 
 
 " Speak as a friend by all means. Master Heriot," said Nigel ; " I 
 perceive you have adopted some of the numerous prejudices against 
 me, if not all of them. Speak out, and frankly — what I cannot deny 
 I will at least confess." 
 
 z 2 
 
340 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 " And I trust, my lord, redress," said Heriot. 
 
 " So far as is in my power, certainly," answered Nigel. 
 
 " Ah ! my lord," continued Heriot, " that is a melancholy though 
 a necessaiy restriction ; for how lightly may any one do a hundred 
 times more than the degree of evil which it may be within his 
 power to repair to the sufferers and to society ! But we are not 
 alone here," he said, stopping, and darting his shrewd eye towards 
 the muffled figure of the disguised maiden, whose utmost efforts 
 had not enabled her so to adjust her position as altogether to 
 escape observation. More anxious to prevent her being dis- 
 covered than to keep his own affairs private, Nigel hastily an- 
 swered — 
 
 " 'Tis a page of mine ; you may speak freely before him. He is 
 of France, and knows no English." 
 
 " I am then to speak freely," said Heriot, after a second glance 
 at the chair ; " perhaps my words may be more free than weU 
 come." 
 
 " Go on, sir," said Nigel, " I have told you I can bear reproof." 
 
 " In one word, then, my lord— why do I find you in this place, 
 and whelmed with charges which must blacken a name rendered 
 famous by ages of virtue !" 
 
 " Simply then, you find me here," said Nigel, " because, to begin 
 from my original error, I would be wiser than my father." 
 
 It was a difficult task, my lord," replied Heriot ; " your father 
 was voiced generally as the wisest and one of the bravest men of 
 Scotland." 
 
 " He commanded me," continued Nigel, " to avoid all gambling; 
 and I took upon me to modify this injunction into regulating 
 my play according to my skill, means, and the course of my luck." 
 ' Ay, self opinion, acting on a desire of acquisition, my lord — 
 you hoped to touch pitch and not to be defiled," answered Heriot. 
 " Well, my lord, you need not say, for 1 have heard with much 
 regret, how far this conduct diminished your reputation. Your 
 next error I may without scruple remind you of— My lord, my 
 lord, in whatever degree Lord Dalgarno may have failed towards 
 you, the son of his father should have been sacred from your 
 violence." 
 
 " You speak in cold blood, Master Heriot, and 1 was smarting 
 under a thousand wrongs inflicted on me under the mask of friend- 
 ship." 
 
 "That is, he gave your lordship bad advice, and you," said 
 Heriot 
 
 " Was fool enough to follow his counsel," answered Nigel—" But 
 we will pass this, Master Heriot, if you please. Old men and 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 341 
 
 young men, men of the sword and men of peaceful occupation, 
 always have thought, always will think, differently on such sub- 
 jects." 
 
 " I grant," answered Heriot, " the distinction between the old 
 goldsmith and -the young nobleman — still you should have had 
 patience for Lord Huntinglen's sake, and prudence for your own. 
 Supposing your quarrel just" 
 
 " I pray you to pass on to some other charge," said Lord Glen- 
 varloch. 
 
 " I am not your accuser, my lord ; but I trust in Heaven, that 
 your own heart has already accused you bitterly on the inhospitable 
 wrong which your late landlord has sustained at your hand." 
 
 " Had I been guilty of what you allude to," said Lord Glenvar- 
 loch, — "had a moment of temptation hurried me away, I had long 
 ere now most bitterly repented it. But whoever may have wronged 
 the unhappy woman, it was not I — I never heard of her folly until 
 within this hour." 
 
 " Come, my lord," said Heriot, with some severity, " this sounds 
 too much like affectation. I know there is among our modern 
 youth a new creed respecting adultery as well as homicide — I would 
 rather hear you speak of a revision of the Decalogue, with miti- 
 gated penalties in favour of the privileged orders — I would rather 
 hear you do this, than deny a fact in which you have been known 
 to glory." 
 
 " Glory ! — I never did, never would have taken honour to myself 
 from such a cause," said Lord Glenvarloch. " I could not pre- 
 vent other idle tongues, and idle brains, from making false infer- 
 ences." 
 
 " You would have known well enough how to stop their mouths, 
 my lord," replied. Heriot, " had they spoke of you what was un- 
 pleasing to your ears, and what the truth did not warrant. — Come, 
 my lord, remember your promise to confess ; and, indeed, to con- 
 fess is, in this case, in some slight sort to redress. I will grant you 
 are young — the woman handsome — and, as I myself have observed, 
 light-headed enough. Let me know where she is. Her foolish 
 husband has still some compassion for her — will save her from 
 infamy — perhaps, in time, receive her back ; for we are a good- 
 natured generation we traders. Do not, my lord, emulate those 
 who work mischief merely for the pleasure of doing so — it is the 
 very devil's worst quality." 
 
 " Your grave remonstrances will drive me mad," said Nigel. 
 " There is a show of sense and reason in what you say ; and yet, 
 it is positively insisting on my telling the retreat of a fugitive of 
 whom I know nothing earthly." 
 
342 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 " It is well, my lord," answered Heriot, coldly. "You have a 
 right, such as it is, to keep your own secrets ; but, since my dis- 
 course on these points seems so totally unavailing, we had better 
 proceed to business. Yet your father's image rises before me, and 
 seems to plead that I should go on." 
 
 " Be it as you will, sir," said Glenvarloch ; " he who doubts my 
 word shall have no additional security for it." 
 
 " Well, my lord. — In the Sanctuary at Whitefriars— a place of 
 refuge so unsuitable to a young man of quality and character— I am 
 told a murder was com.mitted." 
 
 " And you believe that I did the deed, I suppose ? " 
 
 " God forbid, my lord ! " said Heriot. " The coroner's inquest 
 hath sat, and it appeared that your lordship, under your assumed 
 name of Grahame, behaved with the utmost bravery." 
 
 " No compliment, I pray you," said Nigel ; " I am only too happy 
 to find, that I did not murder, or am not believed to have murdered, 
 the old man." 
 
 " True, my lord, said Heriot ; " but even in tliis affair there lacks 
 explanation. Your lordship embarked this morning in a wherry 
 with a female, and, it is said, an immense sum of money, in 
 specie and other valuables — but the woman has not since been 
 heard of." 
 
 " I parted with her at Paul's Wharf," said Nigel, " where she went 
 ashore with her charge. I gave her a letter to that very man, John 
 Christie." 
 
 " Ay, that is the waterman's story ; but John Christie denies that 
 he remembers any thing of the matter." 
 
 " I am sorry to hear this," said the young nobleman ; " I hope in 
 Heaven she has not been trepanned, for the treasure she had with 
 her." 
 
 " I hope not, my lord," replied Heriot ; " but men's minds are 
 much disturbed about it. Our national character suffers on all 
 hands. Men remember the fatal case of Lord Sanquhar, hanged 
 for the murder of a fencing-master ; and exclaim, they will not have 
 their wives whored, and their property stolen, by the nobihty of 
 Scotland." 
 
 "And all this is laid to my door !" said Nigel; "my exculpation 
 is easy." 
 
 " I trust so, my lord," said Heriot ;— " nay, in this particular, I 
 do not doubt it. — But why did you leave Whitefriars under such 
 circumstances ? " 
 
 " Master Reginald Lowestoffe sent a boat for me, with intimation 
 to provide for my safety," 
 
 "I am sorry to say," replied Heriot, "that he denies all know- 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 343 
 
 ledge of your lordship's motions, after having dispatched a messen- 
 ger to you with some baggage." 
 
 " The watermen told me they were employed by him." 
 
 " Watermen ! " said Heriot ; " one of these proves to be an idle 
 apprentice, an old acquaintance of mine — the other has escaped ; 
 but the fellow who is in custody persists in saying he was employed 
 by your lordship, and you only." 
 
 " He lies ! " said Lord Glenvarloch, hastily ; — " He told me 
 Master Lowestoffe had sent him. — I hope that kind-hearted gentle- 
 man is at liberty ? " 
 
 " He is," answered Heriot ; " and has escaped with a rebuke 
 from the benchers, for interfering in such a matter as your lord- 
 ship's. The Court desire to keep well with the young Templars in 
 these times of commotion, or he had not come off so well." 
 
 " That is the only word of comfort I have heard from you," re- 
 plied Nigel. " But this poor woman, — she and her trunk were 
 committed to the charge of two porters." 
 
 " So said the pretended waterman ; but none of the fellows who 
 ply at the wharf will acknowledge the employment. — I see the idea 
 makes you uneasy, my lord ; but every effort is made to discover 
 the poor woman's place of retreat — if, indeed, she yet lives. — And 
 now, my lord, my errand is spoken, so far as it relates exclusively 
 to your lordship ; what remains, is matter of business of a more 
 formal kind." 
 
 " Let us proceed to it without delay," said Lord Glenvarloch. " I 
 would hear of the affairs of any one rather than of my own." 
 
 " You cannot have forgotten, my lord," said Heriot, " the trans- 
 action which took place some weeks since at Lord Huntinglen's 
 — by which a large sum of money was advanced for the redemption 
 of your lordship's estate ? " 
 
 "I remember it perfectly," said Nigel; "and your present 
 austerity cannot make me forget your kindness on the occasion." 
 
 Heriot bowed gravely, and went on. — " That money was advanced 
 under the expectation and hope that it might be replaced by the 
 contents of a grant to your lordship, under the royal sign-manual, 
 in payment of certain monies due by the crown to your father. — I 
 trust your lordship understood the transaction at the time — I trust 
 you now understand my resumption of its import, and hold it to be 
 correct ? " 
 
 " Undeniably correct," answered Lord Glenvarloch. " If the 
 sums contained in the warrant cannot be recovered, my lands 
 become the property of those who paid off the original holders of 
 the mortgage, and now stand in their right." 
 
 " Even so, my lord," said Heriot. " And your lordship's unhappy 
 
344 THE FORTUNES OF NIGKL. 
 
 circumstances having, it would seem, alarmed these creditors, 
 they are now, I am sorry to say, pressing for one or other of 
 these alternatives— possession of the land, or payment of their 
 debt." 
 
 " They have a right to one or other," answered Lord Glenvar- 
 loch ; " and as I cannot do the last in my present condition, I sup- 
 pose they must enter on possession." 
 
 " Stay, my lord," replied Heriot ; " if you have ceased to call me 
 a friend to your person, at least you shall see I am willing to 
 be such to your father's house, were it but for the sake of your 
 father's memory. If you will trust me with the warrant under the 
 sign-manual, I believe circumstances do now so stand at Court, 
 that I may be able to recover the money for you." 
 
 " I would do so gladly," said Lord Glenvarloch, " but the casket 
 which contains it is not in my possession. It was seized when I 
 was arrested at Greenwich." 
 
 " It will be no longer withheld from you," said Heriot ; " for, I 
 understand, my Master's natural good sense, and some information 
 which he has procured, I know not how, has induced him to con- 
 tradict the whole charge of the attempt on his person. It is 
 entirely hushed up ; and you will only be proceeded against for 
 your violence on Lord Dalgarno, committed within the verge of the 
 Palace — and that you will find heavy enough to answer." 
 
 " I will not shrink under the weight," said Lord Glenvarloch. 
 " But that is not the present point. — If I had that casket "— — 
 
 " Your baggage stood in the little anteroom, as I passed," said 
 the citizen ; " the casket caught my eye. I think you had it of me. 
 — It was my old friend Sir Faithful Frugal's. Ay ; he, too, had a 
 son " 
 
 Here he stopped short. 
 
 " A son who, like Lord Glenvarloch's, did no credit to his father. 
 — Was it not so you would have ended the sentence. Master 
 Heriot ? " asked the young nobleman. 
 
 " My lord, it was a word spoken rashly,'' answered Heriot. 
 " God may mend all in his own good time. This, however, I will 
 say, that I have sometimes envied my friends their fair and flourish- 
 ing families ; and yet have I seen such ' changes when death has 
 removed the head, so many rich men's sons penniless, the heirs of 
 so many knights and nobles acreless, that I think mine own estate 
 and memory, as I shall order it, has a fair chance of outliving those 
 of greater men, though God has given me no heir of my name. 
 But this is from the purpose.— Ho ! warder, bring in Lord Glenvar- 
 loch's baggage." The officer obeyed. Seals had been placed upon 
 the trunk and casket, but were now removed, the warder said, in 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 343 
 
 consequence of the subsequent orders from Court, and the whole was 
 placed at the prisoner's free disposal. 
 
 Desirous to bring this painful visit to a conclusion, Lord Glen- 
 varloch opened tlie casket, and looked through the papers which 
 it contained, first hastily, and then more slowly and accurately ; 
 but it was all in vain. The Sovereign's signed warrant had dis- 
 appeared. 
 
 " I thought and expected nothing better," said George Heriot, 
 bitterly. " The beginning of evil is the letting out of water. Here 
 is a fair heritage lost, I dare say, on a foul cast at dice, or a con- 
 juring trick at cards ! — My lord, your surprise is well played. I 
 give you full joy of your accomplishments. I have seen many as 
 young brawlers and spendthrifts, but never so young and accom- 
 plished a dissembler. — Nay, man, never bend your angry brows on 
 me. I speak in bitterness of heart, from what I remember of your 
 worthy father j and if his son hears of his degeneracy from no one 
 else, he shall hear it from the old goldsmith." 
 
 This new suspicion drove Nigel to the very extremity of his 
 patience ; yet the motives and zeal of the good old man, as well as 
 the circumstances of suspicion which created his displeasure, were 
 so excellent an excuse for it, that they formed an absolute curb on 
 the resentment of Lord Glenvarloch, and constrained him, after 
 two or three hasty exclamations, to observe a proud and sullen 
 silence. At length, Master Heriot resumed his lecture. 
 
 " Hark you, my lord," he said, " it is scarce possible that this 
 most important paper can be absolutely assigned away. Let me 
 know in what obscure corner, and for what petty sum, it lies 
 pledged — something may yet be done." 
 
 " Your eiforts in my favour are the more generous," said Lord 
 Glenvarloch, " as you offer them to one whom .you believe you 
 have cause to think hardly of— but they are altogether unavailing. 
 P'ortune has taken the field against me at every point. Even let 
 her win the battle." 
 
 " Zouns ! " exclaimed Heriot, impatiently, — " you would make a 
 saint swear ! Why, I tell you, if this paper, the loss of which 
 seems to sit so light on you, be not found, farewell to the fair lord- 
 ship of Glenvarloch — firth and forest — lea and furrow — lake and 
 stream — all that has been in the house of Olifaunt since the days 
 of Wilham the Lion ! " 
 
 " Farewell to them, then," said Nigel, — " and that mOan is soon 
 made." 
 
 " 'Sdeath ! my lord, you will make more moan for it ere you 
 die," said Heriot, in the same tone of angry impatience. 
 
 "Not I, my old friend," said Nigel. "If I mourn, Master 
 
346 THK FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 Heriot, it will be for having lost the good opinion of a worthy man, 
 and lost it, as I must say, most undeservedly." 
 
 " Ay, ay, young man," said Heriot, shaking his head, " make me 
 believe that if you can. —To sum the matter up," he said, rising 
 from his seat, and walking towards that occupied by the disguised 
 female, " for our matters are now drawn into small compass, you 
 shall as soon make me believe that this masquerading mummer, 
 on whom I now lay the hand of paternal authority, is a French 
 page, who understands no English." 
 
 So saying, he took hold of the supposed page's cloak, and, not 
 without some gentle degree of violence, Jed into the middle of the 
 apartment the disguised fair one, who in vain attempted to cover her 
 face, first with her mantle, and afterwards with her hands ; both 
 which impediments Master Heriot removed, something uncere- 
 moniously, and gave to view the detected daughter of the old 
 chronologist, his own fair god-daughter, Margaret Ramsay. 
 
 " Here is goodly gear ! " he said ; and, as he spoke, he could not 
 prevent himself from giving her a slight shake, for we have else- 
 where noticed that he was a severe disciplinarian. — " How comes 
 it, minion, that I find you in so shameless a dress, and so unworthy 
 a situation ? Nay, your modesty is now mistimed — it should have 
 come sooner. Speak or I will " 
 
 " Master Heriot," said Lord Glenvarloch, " whatever right you 
 may have over this maiden elsewhere, while in my apartment she 
 is under my protection." 
 
 " Your protection, my lord !— a proper protector ! — And how 
 long, mistress, have you been under my lord's protection ? Speak 
 out, forsooth ! " 
 
 " For the matter of two hours, godfather," answered the maiden, 
 with a countenance bent to the ground, and covered with blushes, 
 " but it was against my will." 
 
 " Two hours ! " repeated Heriot,—" space enough for mischief. 
 —My lord, this is, I suppose, another victim offered to your 
 character of gallantry— another adventure to be boasted of at 
 Beaujeu's ordinary ? Methinks the roof under which you first met 
 this silly maiden should have secured her, at least, from such a 
 fate." 
 
 " On my honour, Master Heriot," said Lord Glenvarloch, " you 
 remind me now, for the first time, that I saw this young lady in 
 your family. Her features are not easily forgotten, and yet I was 
 trying in vain to recollect where I had last looked on them. For 
 your suspicions, they are as false as they are injurious both to her 
 and me. I had but discovered her disguise as you entered. I am 
 satisfied, from her whole behaviour, that her presence here in this 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 347 
 
 dress was involuntary ; and God forbid tliat I had been capable of 
 taking advantage of it to her prejudice." 
 
 " It is well mouthed, my lord," said Master Heriot ; " but a 
 cunning clerk can read the Apocrypha as loud as the Scripture. 
 Frankly, my lord, you are come to that pass, where your words 
 will not be received without a warrant." 
 
 " I should not speak, perhaps," said Margaret, the natural 
 vivacity of whose temper could never be long suppressed by any 
 situation, however disadvantageous, " but I cannot be silent. God- 
 father, you do me wrong — and no less wrong to this young noble- 
 man. You say his words want a warrant. I know where to find a 
 warrant for some of them, and the rest I deeply and devoutly 
 believe without one." 
 
 " And I thank you, maiden," replied Nigel, " for the good opjnion 
 you have expressed. I am at that point, it seems, though how I 
 have been driven to it I know not, where every fair construction of 
 my actions and motives is refused me. I am the more obliged 
 to her who grants me that right which the world denies me. For 
 you, lady, were I at liberty, I have a sword and arm should know 
 how to guard your reputation." 
 
 " Upon my word, a perfect Amadis and Oriana ! " said George 
 Heriot. " I should soon get my throat cut betwixt the knight and 
 the princess, I suppose, but that the beef-eaters are happily within 
 halloo. — Come, come. Lady Light-o'-Love — if you mean to make 
 your way with me, it must be by plain facts, not by speeches 
 from romaunts and play-books. How, in Heaven's name, came 
 you here ? " 
 
 " Sir," answered Margaret, " since I must speak, I went to 
 Greenwich this morning with Monna Paula, to present a petition 
 to the King on the part of the Lady Hermione." 
 
 " Mercy-a-gad I " exclaimed Heriot, "is she in the dance, too ? 
 Could she not have waited my return to stir in her affairs .' But I 
 suppose the intelligence I sent her had rendered her restless. Ah ! 
 woman, woman — he that goes partner with you, had need of a 
 double share of patience, for you will bring none into the common 
 stock. — ^Well, but what on earth had this embassy of Monna 
 Paula's to do with your absurd disguise? Speak out." 
 
 " Monna Paula was frightened," answered Margaret, " and did 
 not know how to set about the errand, for you know she scarce 
 ever goes out of doors — and so — and so — I agreed to go with her 
 to give her courage ; and, for the dress, I am sure you remember 
 I wore it at a Christmas mumming, and you thought it not un- 
 beseeming." 
 
 " Yes, for a Christmas parlour," said Heriot, " but not to go a- 
 
348 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 masking through the country in. I do remember it, minion, and I 
 knew it even now ; that and your little shoe there, linked with a 
 hint I had in the morning from a friend, or one who called himself 
 such, led to your detection."— Here Lord Glenvarloch could not 
 help giving a glance at the pretty foot, which even the staid citizen 
 thought worth recollection— it was but a glance, for he saw how 
 much the least degree of observation added to Margaret's distress 
 and confusion. "And tell me, maiden," continued Master Heriot, 
 for what we have observed was by-play,—" did the Lady Hermione 
 know of this fair work ? " 
 
 " I dared not have told her for the world," said Margaret—" she 
 thought one of our apprentices went with Monna Paula." 
 
 It may be here noticed, that the words, "our apprentices," 
 seemed to have in. them something of a charm to break the fasci- 
 nation with which Lord Glenvarloch had hitherto listened to the 
 broken, yet interesting details of Margaret's history. 
 
 " And wherefore went he not ? — he had been a fitter companion 
 for Monna Paula than you, I wot," said the citizen. 
 
 " He was otherwise employed," said Margaret, in a voice scarce 
 audible. 
 
 Master George darted a hasty glance at Nigel, and when he saw 
 his features betoken no consciousness, he muttered to himself, — 
 " It must be better than I feared. — And so this cursed Spaniard, 
 with her head full, as they all have, of disguises, trap-doors, rope 
 ladders, and masks, was jade and fool enough to take you with her 
 on this wildgoose errand ? — And how sped you, I pray ? " 
 
 " Just as we reached the gate of the Park," replied Margaret, 
 "the cry of treason was raised. I know not what became of 
 Monna, but I ran till I fell into the arms of a very decent serving- 
 man, called Linklater ; and I was fain to tell him I was your god- 
 daughter, and so he kept the rest of them from me, and got me to 
 speech of his Majesty, as I entreated him to do." 
 
 " It is the only sign you showed in the whole matter that com- 
 mon sense had not utterly deserted your little skull," said Heriot. 
 
 " His Majesty," continued the damsel, " was so gracious as to 
 receive me alone, though the courtiers cried out against the 
 danger to his person, and would have searched me for arms, God 
 help me, but the King forbade it. I fancy he had a hint from 
 Linklater how the truth stood with me." 
 
 " Well, maiden, I ask not what passed," said Heriot ; " it 
 becomes not me to pry into my Master's secrets. Had you been 
 closeted with his grandfather the Red Tod of Saint Andrews, as 
 Davie Lindsay used to call him, by my faith, I should have had my 
 own thoughts of the matter ; hut our Master, God bless him, is 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 349 
 
 douce and temperate, and Solomon in every thing, save in the 
 chapter of wives and concubines." 
 
 " I know not what you mean, sir," answered Margaret. " His 
 Majesty was most kind and compassionate, but said I must be sent 
 hither, and that the Lieutenant's lady, the Lady Mansel, would 
 have a charge of me, and see that I sustain no wrong ; and the 
 King promised to send me in a tilted barge, and under conduct of 
 a person well known to you ; and thus I come to be in the 
 Tower." 
 
 " But how, or why, in this apartment, nymph ? " said George 
 Heriot — " Expound that to me, for I think the riddle needs read- 
 ing." 
 
 " I cannot explain it, sir, further, than that the Lady Mansel sent 
 me here, in spite of my earnest prayers, tears, and entreaties. I 
 was not afraid of any thing, for I knew I should be protected. But 
 I could have died then — could die now — for very shame and con- 
 fusion ! " 
 
 "Well, well, if your tears are genuine," said Heriot, "they may 
 the sooner wash out the memory of your fault. — Knows your father 
 aught of this escape of yours ? " 
 
 " I would not for the world he did," replied she ; " he believes me 
 with the Lady Hermione." 
 
 " Ay, honest Davy can regulate his horologes better than his 
 family. — Come, damsel, now I will escort you back to the Lady 
 Mansel, and pray her, of her kindness, that when she is again 
 trusted with a goose, she will not give it to the fox to keep. — The 
 warders will let us pass to my lady's lodgings, I trust." 
 
 " Stay but one moment," said Lord Glenvarloch. " Whatever 
 hard opinion you may have formed of me, I forgive you, for time 
 will show that you do me wrong ; and you yourself, I think, will be 
 the first to regret the injustice you have done me. But involve not 
 in your suspicions this young person, for whose, purity of thought 
 angels themselves should be vouchers. I have marked every look, 
 every gesture ; and whilst I can draw breath, I shall ever think o 
 her with " 
 
 " Think not at all of her, my lord," answered George Heriot, 
 interrupting him ; " it is, I have a notion, the best favour you can 
 do her ; — or think of her as the daughter of Davy Ramsay, the 
 clockmaker, no proper subject for fine speeches, romantic ad- 
 ventures, or high-flown Arcadian compliments. I give you god- 
 den, my lord. I think not altogether so harshly as my speech may 
 have spoken. If I can help— that is, if I saw my way clearly through 
 this labyrinth — but it avails not talking now. I give your lordship 
 god-den. — Here, warder ! Permit us to pass to the Lady Mansel's 
 apartment." 
 
3SO THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 The warder said he must have orders from the Lieutenant ; and 
 as he retired to procure them, the parties remained standing near 
 each other, but without speaking, and scarce looking at each other 
 save by stealth, a situation which, in two of the party at least, was 
 sufficiently embarrassing. The difference of rank, though in that 
 age a consideration so serious, could not prevent Lord Glenvarloch 
 from seeing that Margaret Ramsay was one of the prettiest young 
 women he had ever beheld— from suspecting, he could scarce tell 
 why, that he himself was not indifferent to her— from feeling assured 
 that he had been the cause of much of her present distress— ad- 
 miration, self-love, and generosity, acting in favour of the same 
 object ; and when the yeoman returned with permission to his 
 guests to withdraw, Nigel's obeisance to the beautiful daughter of 
 the mechanic was marked with an expression, which called up in 
 her cheeks as much colour as any incident of the eventful day had 
 hitherto excited. She returned the courtesy timidly and irresolutely 
 —clung to her god-father's arm, and left the apartment, which, 
 dark as it was, had never yet appeared so obscure to Nigel, as when 
 the door closed behind her. 
 
 CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 Yet though thou shouldst be dragg'd in scorn 
 
 To yonder ignominious tree. 
 Thou shalt not want one faithful friend 
 
 To share the cruel fates' decree. 
 
 Ballad of Jemmy Dawson. 
 
 Master George Heriot and his ward, as she might justly be 
 termed, for his affection to Margaret imposed on him all the cares 
 of a guardian, were ushered by the yeoman of the guard to the 
 lodging of the Lieutenant, where they found him seated with his 
 lady. They were received by both with that decorous civility which 
 Master Heriot's character and supposed influence demanded, even 
 at the hand of a punctilious old soldier and courtier like Sir Edward 
 Mansel. Lady Mansel received Margaret with like courtesy, and 
 informed Master George that she was now only her guest, and no 
 longer her prisoner. 
 
 " She is at liberty," she said, " to return to her friends under your 
 charge — such is his Majesty's pleasure." 
 
 " I am glad of it, madam," answered Heriot, " but only I could 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 351 
 
 have wished her freedom had taken place before her foolish inter- 
 view with that singular young man ; and I marvel your ladyship 
 permitted it." 
 
 " My good Master Heriot," said Sir Edward, " we act according 
 to the commands of one better and wiser than ourselves — our orders 
 from his Majesty must be strictly and literally obeyed ; and I 
 need not say that the wisdom of his Majesty doth more than 
 ensure " 
 
 " I know his Majesty's wisdom well," said Heriot ; " yet there is 
 an old proverb about fire and flax — well, let it pass." 
 
 " I see Sir Mungo Malagrowther stalking towards the door of the 
 lodging," said the Lady Mansel, " with the gait of a lame crane — 
 it is his second visit this morning.'' 
 
 " He brought the warrant for discharging Lord Glenvarloch of 
 the charge^of treason," said Sir Edward. 
 
 " And from him," said Heriot, " I heard much of what had 
 befallen ; for I came from France only late last evening, and 
 somewhat unexpectedly." 
 
 4.S they spoke. Sir Mungo entered the apartment— saluted the 
 Lieutenant of the Tower and his lady with ceremonious civility — 
 honoured George Heriot with a patronizing nod of acknowledg- 
 ment, and accosted Margaret with — " Hey ! my young charge, you 
 have not doffed your masculine attire yet ? " 
 
 " She does not mean to lay it aside, Sir Mungo," said Heriot, 
 speaking loud, " until she has had satisfaction from you, for betray- 
 ing her disguise to me, like a false knight — and in very deed. Sir 
 Mungo, I think when you told me she was rambling about in so 
 strange a dress, you might have said also that she was under Lady 
 Mansel's protection." 
 
 " That was the King's secret. Master Heriot," said Sir Mungo, 
 throwing himself into a chair with an air of atrabllarlous im- 
 portance ; " the other was a well-meaning hint to yourself, as the 
 girl's friend." 
 
 " Yes," replied Heriot, " It was done like yourself— enough told 
 to make me unhappy about her — not a word .which could relieve 
 my uneasiness." 
 
 " Sir Mungo will not hear that remark," said the lady j " we must 
 change the subject, — Is there any news from Court, Sir Mungo ? 
 you have been to Greenwich ? " 
 
 "You might as well ask me, madam," answered the Knight, 
 " whether there Is any news from hell." 
 
 " How, Sir Mungo, how ! " said Sir Edward, " measure your 
 words something better— You speak of the Court of King James." 
 
 " Sir Edward, if I spoke of the court of the twelve Kaisers, I 
 
352 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 would say it is as confused for the present as the infernal regions. 
 Courtiers of forty years' standing, and such I may write myself, 
 are as far to seek in the matter as a minnow in the Maelstrom. 
 Some folk say the King has frowned on the Prince— some that the 
 Prince has looked grave on the Duke— some that Lord Glenvarloch 
 will be hanged for high treason — and. some that there is matter 
 against Lord Dalgarno that may cost him as much as his head's 
 worth." 
 
 " And what do you, that are a courtier of iorty years' standing, 
 think of it all ? " said Sir Edward Mansel. 
 
 " Nay, nay, do not ask him. Sir Edward," said the lady, with an 
 expressive look to her husband. 
 
 " Sir Mungo is too witty," added Master Heriot, " to remember 
 that he who says aught that may be repeated to his own prejudice, 
 does but load a piece for any of the company to shoot him dead 
 with, at their pleasure and convenience." 
 
 "What !" said the bold Knight, "you think I am afraid of the 
 trepan ? Why now, what if I should say that Dalgarno has more 
 wit than honesty, — the Duke more sail than ballast, — the Prince 
 
 more pride than prudence, — and the King" The Lady Mansel 
 
 held up her finger in a warning manner — " that the King is my very 
 good master, who has given me, for forty years and more, dog's 
 wages, videlicet, bones and beating. — Why now, all this is said, and 
 Archie Armstrong * says worse than this of the best of them every 
 day." 
 
 " The more fool he," said George Heriot ; " yet he is not so 
 utterly wrong, for folly is his best wisdom. But do not you. Sir 
 Mungo, set your wit against a fool's, though he be a court fool." 
 
 " A fool, said you? "replied Sir Mungo, not having fully heard 
 what Master Heriot said, or not choosing to have it thought so, — 
 " I have been a fool indeed, to hang on at a close-fisted Court here, 
 when men of understanding and men of action have been making 
 fortunes in every other place of Europe. But here a man comes in- 
 differently off unless he gets a great key to turn," (looking at Sir 
 Edward,) " or can beat tattoo with a hammer on a pewter plate. — 
 Well, sirs, I must make as much haste back on mine errand as if 
 I were a fee'd messenger. — Sir Edward and my lady, 1 leave my 
 commendations with you — and my good-will with you, Master 
 Heriot— and for this breaker of bounds, if you will act by my 
 counsel, some maceration by fasting, and a gentle use of the rod, 
 is the best cure for her giddy fits." 
 
 " If you propose for Greenwich, Sir Mungo," said the Lieutenant, 
 " I can spare you the labour — the King comes immediately to 
 Whitehall." 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEI,. 3S3 
 
 " And that must be the reason the council are summoned to meet 
 in such hurry," said Sir Mungo. " Well — I will, with your per- 
 mission, go to the poor lad Glenvarloch, and bestow some comfort 
 on him." 
 
 The Lieutenant seemed to look up, and pause for a mo ment as if 
 in doubt. 
 
 " The lad will want a pleasant companion, who can tell him the 
 nature of the punishment which he is to suffer, and other matters of 
 concernment. I will not leave him until I show him how absolutely 
 he hath ruined himself from feather to spur, how deplorable is his 
 present state, and how small his chance of mending it." 
 
 " Well, Sir Mungo," replied the Lieutenant, " if you really think 
 all this likely to be very consolatory to the party concerned, I will 
 send a warder to conduct you." 
 
 " And I," said George Heriot, " will humbly pray of Lady Mansel 
 that she will lend some of her handmaiden's apparel to this giddy- 
 brained girl ; for I shall forfeit my reputation if I walk up Tower- 
 hill with her in that mad guise— and yet the silly lassie looks not so 
 ill in it neither." 
 
 " I will send my coach with you instantly," said the obliging 
 lady. 
 
 " Faith, madam, and if you will honour us by such courtesy, I 
 will gladly accept it at your hands," said the citizen, " for business 
 presses hard on me, and the forenoon is already lost, to little 
 purpose." 
 
 The coach being ordered accordingly, transported the worthy 
 citizen and his charge to his mansion in Lombard Street. There 
 he found his presence was anxiously expected by the Lady 
 Hermione, who had just received an order to be in readiness to 
 attend upon the Royal Privy Council in the course of an hour ; and 
 upon whom, in her inexperience of business, and long retirement 
 from society and the world, the intimation had made as deep an 
 impression as if it had not been the necessary consequence of the 
 petition which she had presented to the King by Monna Paula. 
 George Heriot gently blamed her for taking any steps in an affair 
 so important until his return from France, especially as he had 
 requested her to remain quiet, in a letter which accompanied the 
 evidence he had transmitted to her from Paris. She could only 
 plead in answer the influence which her immediately stirring in 
 the matter was likely to have on the affair of her kinsman Lord 
 Glenvarloch, for she was ashamed to acknowledge how much she 
 had been gained on by the eager importunity of her youthful com- 
 panion. The motive of Margaret's eagerness was, of course, the 
 safety of Nigel ; but we must leave it to time to show in what par- 
 
 A A 
 
354 THE FORTUNES OF NlCiJib. 
 
 ticulars that came to be connected with the petition of the Lady 
 Hermione. Meanwhile, we return to the visit with which Sir 
 Mungo Malagrowther favoured the afflicted young nobleman in his 
 place of captivity. 
 
 The Knight, after the usual salutations, and having prefaced his 
 discourse with a great deal of professed regret for Nigel's situation, 
 sat down beside him, and, composing his grotesque features into the 
 most lugubrious despondence, began his raven-song as follows : — 
 
 " I bless God, my lord, that I was the person who had the 
 pleasure to bring his Majesty's mild message to the Lieutenant, 
 discharging the higher prosecution against ye, for any thing 
 meditated against his Majesty's sacred person ; for, admit you be 
 prosecuted on the lesser offence, or breach of privilege of the palace 
 and its precincts, usque ad mutilationem, even to dismemberation, 
 as it is most likely you will, yet the loss of a member is nothing to 
 being hanged and drawn quick, after the fashion of a traitor." 
 
 " I should feel the shame of having deserved such a punishment," 
 answered Nigel, " more than the pain of undergoing it." 
 
 " Doubtless, my lord, the having, as you say, deserved it, must 
 be an excruciation to your own mind," replied his tormentor ; " a 
 kind of mental and metaphysical hanging, drawing, and quartering, 
 which may be in some measure equipollent with the external ap- 
 plication of hemp, iron, fire, and the like, to the outer man." 
 
 " I say, Sir Mungo," repeated Nigel, " and beg you to understand 
 my words, that I am unconscious of any error, save that of having 
 arms on my person when I chanced to approach that of my 
 Sovereign." 
 
 " Ye are right, my lord, to acknowledge nothing," said Sir Mungo. 
 " We have an old proverb, — Confess, and — so forth. And indeed, 
 as to the weapons, his Majesty has a special ill-will at all arms 
 whatsoever, and more especially pistols ; but, as I said, there is an 
 end of that matter.* I wish you as well through the next, which if 
 altogether unlikely." 
 
 " Surely, Sir Mungo," answered Nigel, '' you yourself might say 
 something in my favour concerning the affair in the Park. None 
 knows better than you that I was at that moment urged by wrongs 
 of the most heinous nature, offered to me by Lord Dalgarno, many 
 of which were reported to me by yourself, much to the inflammation 
 of my passion." 
 
 " Alack-a-day !— Alack-a-day ! " rephed Sir Mungo, " I remember 
 but too well how much your choler was inflamed, in spite of the 
 various remonstrances which I made to you respecting the sacred 
 nature of the place. Alas ! alas ! you cannot say you leaped into 
 the mire for want of warning." 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL, 3SS 
 
 " I see, Sir Mungo, you are determined to remember nothing 
 which can do me service," said Nigel. 
 
 " Blithely would I do ye service," said the Knight ; " and the 
 best whilk I can think of is, to tell you the process of the punish- 
 ment to the whilk you will be indubitably subjected, I having had 
 the good fortune to behold it performed in the Queen's time, on a 
 chield that had written a pasquinado. I was then in my Lord 
 Gray's train, who lay leaguer here, and being always covetous of 
 pleasing and profitable sights, I could not dispense with being 
 present on the occasion." 
 
 " I should be surprised indeed," said Lord Glenvarloch, " if you 
 had so far put restraint upon your benevolence, as to stay away 
 from such an exhibition." 
 
 " Hey ! was your lordship praying me to be present at your own 
 execution ? " answered the Knight. " Troth, my lord, it will be a 
 painful sight to a friend, but I will rather punish myself than baulk 
 you. It is a pretty pageant, in the main — a very pretty pageant. 
 The fallow came on with such a bold face, it was a pleasure to look 
 on him. He was dressed all in white, to signify harmlessness and 
 innocence. The thing was done on a scaffold at Westminster — 
 most likely yours will be at Charing. There were the Sheriff's 
 and the Marshal's men, and what not — the executioner, with his 
 cleaver and mallet, and his man, with a pan of hot charcoal," and 
 the irons for cautery. He was a dexterous fallow that Derrick. 
 This man Gregory is not fit to jipper a joint with him ; it might be 
 worth your lordship's while to have the loon sent to a barber- 
 surgeon's, to learn some needful scantling of anatomy — it may be 
 for the benefit of yourself and other unhappy sufferers, and also a 
 kindness to Gregory." 
 
 " I will not take the trouble,'' said Nigel. — " If the laws will de- 
 mand my hand, the executioner may get it off as he best can. If 
 the King leaves it where it is, it may chance to do him better 
 service." 
 
 " Vera noble— vera grand, indeed, my lord," said Sir Mungo ; 
 " it is pleasant to see a brave man suffer. This fallow whom I 
 spoke of— this Tubbs, or Stubbs, or whatever the plebeian was 
 called, came forward as bold as an emperor, and said to the people, 
 ' Good friends, I come to leave here the hand of a true English- 
 man,' and clapped it on the dressing-block with as much ease as if 
 he had laid it on his sweetheart's shoulder ; whereupon Derrick the 
 hangman, adjusting, d'ye mind me, the edge of his cleaver on the 
 very joint, hit it with the mallet with such force, that the hand flew 
 off as far from the owner as a gauntlet which the challenger casts 
 down in the tilt-yard. Well, sir, Stubbs, or Tubbs, lost no whit of 
 
 A A 2 
 
356 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 countenance, until the fallow clapped the hissing-hot iron on his 
 raw stump. My lord, it fizzed like a rasher of bacon, and the fallow 
 set up an elritch screech, which made some think his courage was 
 abated ; but not a whit, for he plucked off his hat with his left hand, 
 and waved it, crying, ' God save the Queen, and confound all evil 
 counsellors ! ' The people gave him three cheers, which he deserved 
 for his stout heart ; and, truly, I hope to see your lordship suffer 
 with the same magnanimity."* 
 
 " I thank you, Sir Mungo," said Nigel, who had not been able to 
 forbear some natural feelings of an unpleasant nature during this 
 lively detail, — " I have no doubt the exhibition will be a very en- 
 gaging one to you and the other spectators, whatever it may prove 
 to the party principally concerned." 
 
 " Vera engaging," answered Sir Mungo, "vera interesting— vera 
 interesting indeed, though not altogether so much so as an execution 
 for high treason. I saw Digby, the Winters, Fawkes, and the rest 
 of the gunpowder gang, suffer for that treason, whilk was a vera 
 grand spectacle, as well in regard to their sufferings, as to their 
 constancy in enduring." 
 
 " I am the more obliged to your goodness, Sir Mungo," replied 
 Nigel, " that has induced you, although you have lost the sight, to 
 congratulate me on my escape from the hazard of making the same 
 edifying appearance." 
 
 "As you say, my lord," answered Sir Mungo, "the loss is chiefly 
 in appearance. Nature has been very bountiful to us, and has given 
 duplicates of some organs, that we may endure the loss of one of 
 them, should some such circumstance chance in our pilgrimage. See 
 my poor dexter, abridged to one thumb, one finger, and a stump, — 
 by the blow of my adversary's weapon, however, and not by any 
 carnificial knife. Weel, sir, this poor maimed hand doth me, in 
 some sort, as much service as ever ; and, admit yours to be taken 
 off by the wrist, you have still your left hand for your service, and 
 are better off than the little Dutch dwarf here about town, who 
 threads a needle, limns, writes, and tosses a pike, merely by means 
 of his feet, without ever a hand to help him." 
 
 " Well, Sir Mungo," said Lord Glenvarloch, " this is all no doubt 
 very consolatory ; but I hope the King will spare my hand to fight 
 for him in battle, where, notwithstanding all your kind encourage- 
 ment, I could spend my blood much more cheerfully than on a 
 scaffold." 
 
 " It is even a sad truth," replied Sir Mungo, " that your lordship 
 was but too like to have died on a scaffold — not a soul to speak for 
 you but that deluded lassie, Maggie Ramsay." 
 
 " Whom mean you ? " said Nigel, with more interest than he had 
 hitherto shown in the Knight's communications. 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 357 
 
 " Nay, who should I mean, but that travestied lassie whom we 
 dined with when we honoured Heriot the goldsmith ? Ye ken best 
 how you have made interest with her, but I saw her on her knees to 
 the King for you. She was committed to my charge, to bring her 
 up hither in honour and safety. Had I had my own will, I would 
 have had her to Bridewell, to flog the wild blood out of her— a cutty 
 quean, to think of wearing the breeches, and not so much as married 
 yet ! " 
 
 " Hark ye. Sir Mungo Malagrowther," answered Nigel, " I would 
 have you talk of that young person with fitting respect." 
 
 " With all the respect that befits your lordship's paramour, and 
 Davy Ramsay's daughter, I shall certainly speak of her, my lord," 
 said Sir Mungo, assuming a dry tone of irony. 
 
 Nigel was greatly disposed to have made a serious quarrel of it, 
 but with Sir Mungo such an affair would have been ridiculous ; he 
 smothered his resentment, therefore, and conjured him to tell what 
 he had heard and seen respecting this young person. 
 
 "Simply, that I was in the anteroom when she had audience, and 
 heard the King say, to my great perplexity, ' Ptilchra sane puella;^ 
 and Maxwell, who hath but indifferent Latin ears, thought that his 
 Majesty called on him by his own name of Sawney, and thrust into 
 the presence, and there I saw our Sovereign James, with his own 
 hand, raising up the lassie, who, as I said heretofore, was travestied 
 in man's attire. I should have had my own thoughts of it, but our 
 gracious master is auld, and was nae great gillravager amang the 
 queans even in his youth ; and he was comforting her in his own 
 way, and saying, — ' Ye needna greet about it, my bonnie woman, 
 Glenvarlochides shall have fair play ; and, indeed, when the hurry 
 was off our spirits, we could not believe that he had any design on our 
 person. And touching his other offences, we will look wisely and 
 closely into the matter.' So I got charge to take the young fence- 
 louper to the Tower here, and deliver her to the charge of Lady 
 Mansel ; and his Majesty charged me to say not a word to her 
 about your offences, for, said he, the poor thing is breaking her 
 heart for him." 
 
 "And on this you have charitably founded the opinion to the 
 prejudice of this young lady, which you have now thought proper 
 to express ? " said Lord Glenvarloch. 
 
 " In honest truth, my lord," replied Sir Mungo, " what opinion 
 would you have me form of a wench who gets into male habili- 
 ments, and goes on her knees to the King for a wild young noble- 
 man ? I wot not what the fashionable word may be, for the phrase 
 changes, though the custom abides. But truly I must needs think 
 this young leddy — if you call Watchie Ramsay's daughter a young 
 
3S§ THE 'FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 ledd}»-demeans herself more like a leddy of pleasure than a leddy 
 of honour." 
 
 "You do her egregious wrong, Sir Mungo," said Nigel; "or 
 rather you have been misled by appearances." 
 
 " So will all the world be misled, my lord," replied the satirist, 
 " unless you were doing that to disabuse them which your father's 
 son will hardly judge it fit to do." 
 
 " And what may that be, I pray you ? " 
 
 " E'en marry the lass — make her Leddy Glenvarloch.— Ay, ay, ye 
 may start — but it's the course you are driving on. Rather marry 
 than do worse, if the worst be not done already." 
 
 " Sir Mungo," said Nigel, " I pray you to forbear this subject, 
 and rather return to that of the mutilation, upon which it pleased 
 you to enlarge a short while since." 
 
 " I have not time at present," said Sir Mungo, hearing the clock 
 strike four ; " but so soon as you shall have received sentence, my 
 lord, you may rely on my giving you the fullest detail of the whole 
 solemnity ; and I give you my word, as a knight and gentleman, 
 that I will myself attend you on the scaffold, whoever may cast 
 sour looks on me for doing so. I bear a heart, to stand by a friend 
 in the worst of times." 
 
 So saying, he wished Lord Glenvarloch farewell ; who felt as 
 heartily rejoiced at his departure, though it may be a bold word, 
 as any person who had ever undergone his society. 
 
 But, when left to his own reflections, Nigel could not help feeling, 
 solitude nearly as irksome as the company of Sir Mungo Malai 
 growther. " The total wreck of his fortune, — which seemed now to 
 be rendered unavoidable by the loss of the royal warrant, that had 
 afforded him the means of redeeming his paternal estate, — was an 
 unexpected and additional blow. When he had seen the warrant 
 he could not precisely remember ; but was inclined to think, it was 
 in the casket when he took out money to pay the miser for his 
 lodgings at Whitefriars. Since then, the casket had been almost 
 constantly under his own eye, except during the short time he was 
 separated from his baggage by the arrest in Greenwich Park. It 
 might, indeed, have been taken out at that time, for he had no 
 reason to think either his person or his property was in the hands 
 of those who wished hhn well ; but, on the other hand, the locks of 
 the strong-box had sustained no violence that he could observe, 
 and, being of a particular and complicated construction, he thought 
 they could scarce be opened without an instrument made on purpose, 
 adapted to their peculiarities, and for this there had been no time. 
 But, speculate as he would on the matter, it was clear that this im- 
 portant document was gone, and probable that it had passed into np 
 
THE FORTUNES OP NIGEL. 3S9 
 
 friendly hands. "Let it be so," said Nigel to himself; "I am 
 scarcely worse off respecting my prospects of fortune, than when I 
 first reached this accursed city. But to be hampered with cruel 
 accusations, and stained with foul suspicions — to be the object of 
 pity of the most degrading kind to yonder honest citizen, and of the 
 malignity of that envious and atrabilarious courtier, who can endure 
 the good fortune and good qualities of another no more than the 
 mole can brook sunshine — this is indeed a deplorable reflection ; 
 and the consequences must stick to my future life, and impede 
 whatever my head, or my hand, if it is left me, might be able to 
 execute in my favour." 
 
 The feeling, that he is the object of general dislike and derelic- 
 tion, seems to be one of the most unendurably painful to which a 
 human being can be subjected. The most atrocious criminals, 
 whose nerves have not shrunk from perpetrating the most horrid 
 cruelty, endure more from the consciousness that no man will sym- 
 pathize with their sufferings, than from apprehension of the personal 
 agony of their impending punishment ; and are known often to 
 attempt to palliate their enormities, and sometimes altogether to 
 deny what is established by the clearest proof, rather than to leave 
 life under the general ban of humanity. It was no wonder that 
 Nigel, labouring under the sense of general, though unjust suspicion, 
 should, while pondering on so painful a theme, recollect that one, 
 at least, had not only believed him innocent, but hazarded herself, 
 with all her feeble power, to interpose in his behalf. 
 
 " Poor girl ! " he repeated ; " poor, rash, but generous maiden ! 
 your fate is that of her in Scottish story, who thrust her arm into 
 the staple of the door, to oppose it as a bar against the assassins 
 who threatened the murder of her sovereign. The deed of devo- 
 tion was useless ; save to give an immortal name to her by whom 
 it was done, and whose blood flows, it is said, in the veins of my 
 house." 
 
 I cannot explain to the reader, whether the recollection of this 
 historical deed of devotion, and the lively effect which the com- 
 parison, a little over-strained perhaps, was likely to produce in 
 favour of Margaret Ramsay, was not qualified by the concomitant 
 ideas of ancestry and ancient descent with which that recollection 
 was mingled. But the contending feeUngs suggested a new train of 
 ideas. — " Ancestry," he thought, "and ancient descent, what are 
 they to me ? — My patrimony alienated — my title become a reproach 
 — for what can be so absurd as titled beggary ? — my character 
 subjected to suspicion, — I will not remain in this country; and 
 should I, at leaving it, procure the society of one so lovely, so 
 brave, and so faithful, who should say that I derogated from the 
 rank which I am virtually renouncing ? " 
 
36o THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 There was something romantic and pleasing, as he pursued this 
 picture of an attached and faithful pair, becoming all the world to 
 each other, and stemming the tide of fate arm in arm ; and to be 
 linked thus with a creature so beautiful, and who had taken such 
 devoted and disinterested concern in his fortunes, formed itself into 
 such a vision as romantic youth loves best to dwell upon. 
 
 Suddenly his dream was painfully dispelled, by the recollection 
 that its very basis rested upon the most selfish ingratitude on his, 
 own part. Lord of his castle and his towers, his forests and fields, 
 his fair patrimony and noble name, his mind would have rejected, 
 as a sort of impossibility, the idea of elevating to his rank^the 
 daughter of a mechanic ; but, when degraded from his nobility, and 
 plunged into poverty and difficulties, he was ashamed to 'feel him- 
 self not unwiUing, that this poor girl, in the blindness of her affec- 
 tion, should abandon all the better prospects of her own settled 
 condition, to embrace the precarious and doubtful course which he 
 himself was condemned to. The generosity of Nigel's mind re- 
 coiled from the selfishness of the plan of happiness which he pro- 
 jected ; and he made a strong effort to expel from his thoughts fjr 
 the rest of the evening this fascinating female, or, at least, not to 
 permit them to dwell upon the perilous circumstance, that she was 
 at present the only creature living who seemed to consider him as 
 an object of kindness. 
 
 He could not, however, succeed in banishing her from his 
 slumbers, when, after having spent a weary day, he betook himself 
 to a perturbed couch. The form of Margaret mingled with the 
 wild mass of dreams which his late adventures had suggested ; and 
 even when, copying the lively narrative of Sir Mungo, fancy pre- 
 sented to him the blood bubbhng and hissing on the heated iron, 
 Margaret stood behind him like a spirit of light, to breathe heahng 
 on the wound. At length nature was exhausted by these fantastic 
 creations, and Nigel slept, and slept soundly, until awakened in the 
 morning by the sound of a well-known voice, which had often 
 broken his slumbers about the same hour. 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 3<>i 
 
 CHAPTER XXXI, 
 
 Many, come up, sir, with your gentle blood ! 
 Here's a red stream beneath this coarse blue doublet, 
 That warms the heart as kindly as if drawn 
 From the far source of old Assyrian kings, 
 Who first made mankind subject to their sway. 
 
 Old Play. 
 
 The sounds to which we alluded in our last, were no other than 
 the grumbling tones of Richie Moniplies's voice. 
 
 This worthy, like some other persons who rank high in their own 
 opinion, was very apt, when he could have no other auditor, to hold 
 conversation with one who was sure to be a wiUing listener — I 
 mean with himself. He was now brushing and arranging Lord 
 Glenvarloch's clothes, with as much composure and quiet assiduity 
 as if he had never been out of his service, and grumbUng betwixt 
 whiles to the following purpose : — " Humph — ay, time cloak and 
 jerkin were through my hands — I question if horsehair has been 
 passed over them since they and I last parted. The embroidery 
 finely frayed too— and the gold buttons of the cloak — By my con- 
 science, and as I am an honest man, there is a round dozen of 
 them gane ! — This comes of Alsatian frolics — God keep us with 
 his grace, and not give us over to our own devices ! — I see no sword 
 — ^but that will be in respect of present circumstances." 
 
 Nigel for some time could not help believing that he was still in 
 a dream, so improbable did it seem that his domestic, whom he 
 supposed to be in Scotland, should have found him out, and ob- 
 tained access to him, in his present circumstances. Looking 
 through the curtains, however, he became well assured of the fact, 
 when he beheld the stiff and bony length of Richie, with a visage 
 charged with nearly double its ordinary degree of importance, em- 
 ployed sedulously in brushing his master's cloak, and refreshing 
 himself with whistling or humming, from interval to interval, some 
 snatch of an old melancholy Scottish ballad-tune. Although suffi- 
 ciently convinced of the identity of the party. Lord Glenvarloch 
 could not help expressing his surprise in the superfluous question — 
 " In the name of Heaven, Richie, is this you ?" 
 
 " And wha else suld it be, my lord ? " answered Richie ; " I 
 dreamna that your lordship's levee in this place is like to be 
 attended by ony that are not bounden thereto by duty." 
 
 " I am rather surprised," answered Nigel, " that it should be 
 attended by any one at all— especially by you, Richie ; for you 
 
363 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 know that we parted, and I thought you had reached Scotland long 
 since." 
 
 " I crave your lordship's pardon, but we have not parted yet, nor 
 are soon likely so to do ; for there gang twa folk's votes to the un- 
 making of a bargain, as to the making of ane. Though it was your 
 lordship's pleasure so to conduct yourself that we were like to have 
 parted, yet it was not, on reflection, my will to be gone. To be 
 plain, if your lordship does not ken when you have a good servant, 
 I ken when I have a kind master ; and to say truth, you will be 
 easier served now than ever, for there is not much chance of your 
 getting out of bounds." 
 
 " I am indeed bound over to good behaviour," said Lord Glen- 
 varloch, with a smile ; " but I hope you will not take advantage of 
 my situation to be too severe on my follies, Richie .-' " 
 
 " God forbid, my lord — God forbid I " replied Richie, with an 
 expression betwixt a conceited consciousness of superior wisdom 
 and real feeling — " especially in consideration of your lordship's 
 having a due sense of them. I did indeed remonstrate, as was my 
 humble duty, but I scorn to cast that up to your lordship now — Na, 
 na, I am myself an ening creature — very conscious of some small 
 weaknesses — there is no perfection in man." 
 
 " But, Richie," said Lord Glenvarloch, " although I am much 
 obliged to you for your proffered service, it can be of little use to 
 me here, and may be of prejudice to yourself." 
 
 " Your lordship shall pardon me again," said Richie, whom the 
 relative situation of the parties had invested with ten times his 
 ordinary dogmatism ; " but as I will manage the matter, your lord- 
 ship shall be greatly benefited by my service, and I myself no whit 
 prejudiced." 
 
 " I see not how that can be, my friend," said Lord Glenvarloch, 
 " since even as to your pecuniary affairs " 
 
 " Touching my pecuniars, my lord," replied Richie, " I am indif- 
 ferently weel provided ; and, as it chances, my living here will be 
 no burden to your lordship, or distress to myself. Only I crave 
 permission to annex certain conditions to my servitude with your 
 lordship." 
 
 " Annex what you will," said Lord Glenvarloch, " for you are 
 pretty sure to take your own way, whether you make any conditions 
 or not. Since you will not leave me, which were, I think, your 
 wisest course, you must, and I suppose will, serve me only on such 
 terms as you like yourself." 
 
 "All that I ask, my lord," said Richie, gravely, and with a tone 
 of great moderation, " is to have the uninterrupted command of 
 my own motions, for certain important purposes which I have now 
 
THE FORTUNES O? NIGEL. 3^3 
 
 in hand, always giving your lordship the solace of my company and 
 attendance at such times as may be at once convenient for me, and 
 necessary for your service." 
 
 " Of which, I suppose, you constitute yourself sole judge," replied 
 Nigel, smiling. 
 
 " Unquestionably, my lord," answered Richie, gravely ; " for your 
 lordship can only know what yourself want ; whereas I, who see 
 both sides of the picture, ken both what is the best for your affairs, 
 and what is the most needful for my own." 
 
 " Richie, my good friend," said Nigel, " I fear this arrangement, 
 which places the master much under the disposal of the servant, 
 would scarce suit us if we were both at large ; but a prisoner as I 
 am, I may be as well at your disposal as I am at that of so many 
 other persons ; and so you may come and go as you list, for I sup- 
 pose you will not take my advice, to return to your own country, 
 and leave me to my fate." 
 
 " The deil be in my feet if I do," said MonipHes, — " I am not 
 the lad to leave your lordship in foul weather, when I followed you 
 and fed upon you through the whole summer day. And besides, 
 there may be brave days behind, for a' that has come and gane yet ; 
 for 
 
 " It's hame, and it's hame, and it's hame we fain would be, 
 Though the cloud is in the lift, and the wind is on the lea; 
 For the sun through the mirk blinks blithe on mine ee, 
 Says, — ' I'll shine on ye yet in our ain country ! ' " 
 
 Having sung this stanza in the manner of a ballad-singer, whose 
 voice has been cracked by matching his windpipe against the bugle 
 of the north blast, Richie Moniplies aided Lord Glenvarloch to 
 rise, attended his toilet with every possible mark of the most 
 solemn and deferential respect, then waited upon him at breakfast, 
 and finally withdrew, pleading that he had business of importance, 
 which would detain him for some hours. 
 
 Although Lord Glenvarloch necessarily expected to be occa- 
 sionally annoyed by the self-conceit and dogmatism of Richie 
 Moniplies's character, yet he could not but feel the greatest pleasure 
 from the finn and devoted attachment which this faithful follower 
 had displayed in the present instance, and indeed promised him- 
 self an alleviation of the ennui of his imprisonment, in having the 
 advantage of his services. It was, therefore, with pleasure that he 
 learned from the warder, that his servant's attendance would be 
 allowed at all times when the general rules of the fortress permitted 
 the entrance of strangers. 
 
 In the meanwhile, the magnanimous Richie Moniplies had 
 
364 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL, 
 
 already reached Tower Wharf. Here, after looking with con- 
 tempt on several scullers by whom he was plied, and whose 
 services he rejected with a wave of his hand, he called with 
 dignity, " First oars ! " and stirred into activity several lounging 
 Tritons of the higher order, who had not, on his first appearance, 
 thought it worth while to accost him with proffers of service. He 
 now took possession of a wherry, folded his arms within his ample 
 cloak, and sitting down in the stern with an air of importance, 
 commanded them to row to Whitehall stairs. Having reached the 
 palace in safety, he demanded to see Master Linklater, the under- 
 clerk of his IMajesty's kitchen. The reply was, that he was not to 
 be spoken withal, being then employed in cooking a mess of cock- 
 a-leekie for the King's own mouth. 
 
 " Tell him,"' said Moniplies, "that it is a dear countryman of his, 
 who seeks to converse with him on matter of high import" 
 
 "A dear countryman?" said Linklater, when this pressing 
 message was delivered to him. " Well, let him come in and be 
 d — d, that I should say sae ! This now is some red-headed, long- 
 legged, gillie-white-foot frae the West Port, that, hearing of my pro- 
 motion, is come up to be a turn-broche, or deputy scullion, through 
 my interest. It is a great hinderance to any man who would rise in 
 the world, to have such friends to hang by his skirts, in hope of 
 being towed up along with him. — Ha ! Richie Moniplies, man, 
 is it thou ? And what has brought ye here ? If they should ken 
 thee for the loon that scared the horse the other day ! " 
 
 " No more o' that, neighbour," said Richie, — " I am just here on 
 the auld errand — I maun speak with the King." 
 
 " The King ? Ye are red wud," said Linklater ; then shouted to 
 his assistants in the kitchen, " Look to the broches, ye knaves — 
 pisces purga — Sahamentafac macerentur pulchre — I will make you 
 understand Latin, ye knaves, as becomes the scullions of King 
 James." Then in a cautious tone, to Richie's private ear, he con- 
 tinued, " Know ye not how ill your master came off the other day? 
 — I can tell you that job made some folk shake for their office." 
 
 " Weel, but, Laurie, ye maun befriend me this time, and get this 
 wee bit sifflication slipped into his Majesty's ain most gracious 
 hand. I promise you the contents will be most grateful to him." 
 
 " Richie," answered Linklater, " you have certainly sworn to say 
 your prayers in the porter's lodge, with your back bare ; and twa 
 grooms, with dog-whips, to cry amen to you." 
 
 " Na, na, Laurie, lad," said Richie, " I ken better what belangs 
 to sifflications than I did yon day ; and ye will say that yoursell, if 
 ye will but get that bit note to the King's hand." 
 
 " I will have neither hand nor foot in the matter^" said the 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 365 
 
 cautious Clerk of the Kitchen; "but there is his Majesty's mess 
 of cock-a-leekie just going to be served to him in his closet— I 
 cannot prevent you from putting the letter between the gilt bowl 
 and the platter ; his sacred Majesty will see it when he lifts the 
 bowl, for he aye drinks out the broth." 
 
 " Enough said," replied Richie, and deposited the paper accord- 
 ingly, just before a page entered to carry away the mess to his 
 Majesty. 
 
 " Aweel, aweel, neighbour," said Laurence, when the mess was 
 taken away, " if ye have done ony thing to bring yoursell to the 
 withy, or the scourging post, it is your ain wilful deed." 
 
 " I will blame no other for it," said Richie ; and with that un- 
 dismayed pertinacity of conceit, which made a fundamental part of 
 his character, he abode the issue, which was not long of arriving. 
 
 In a few minutes Maxwell himself arrived in the apartment, and 
 demanded hastily who had placed a writing on the King's trencher. 
 Linklater denied all knowledge of it ; but Richie Moniplies, 
 stepping boldly forth, pronounced the emphatical confession " I 
 am the man." 
 
 " Follow me, then," said Maxwell, after regarding him with a 
 look of great curiosity. 
 
 They went up a private staircase, — even that private staircase, 
 the privilege of which at Court is accounted a nearer road to 
 power than the grandes entries themselves. Arriving in what 
 Richie described as an " ill redd-up " anteroom, the usher made a 
 sign to him to stop, while he went into the King's closet. Their 
 conference was short, and as Maxwell opened the door to retire, 
 Richie heard the conclusion of it. 
 
 " Ye are sure he is not dangerous ? — I was caught once. — Bide 
 within call, but not nearer the door than within three geometrical 
 cubits. If I speak loud, start to me like a falcon — If I speak loun, 
 keep your lang lugs out of ear-shot — and now let him come in." 
 
 Richie passed forward at Maxwell's mute signal, and in a 
 moment found himself in the presence of the King. Most men 
 of Richie's birth and breeding, and many others, would have been 
 abashed at finding themselves alone with their Sovereign. But 
 Richie Moniplies had an opinion of himself too high to be con- 
 trolled by any such ideas ; and having made his stiff reverence, 
 he arose once more into his perpendicular height, and stood before 
 James as stiff as a hedge-stake. 
 
 " Have ye gotten them, man ? have ye gotten them ? " said the 
 King, in a fluttered state, betwixt hope and eagerness, and some 
 touch of suspicious fear. " Gie me them — gie me them— before ye 
 speak a word, I charge you, on your allegiance." 
 
366 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 Richie took a box from his bosom, and, stooping on one knee, 
 presented it to his Majesty, who hastily opened it, and having 
 ascertained that it contained a certain carcanet of rubies, with 
 which the reader was formerly made acquainted, he could not resist 
 falling into a sort of rapture, Idssing the gems, as if they had been 
 capable of feeling, and repeating again and again with childish 
 delight, " Onyx cum prole, silexque — Onyx cum prole ! Ah, my 
 bright and bonny sparklers, my heart loups light to see you again." 
 He then turned to Richie, upon whose stoical countenance his 
 Majesty's demeanour had excited something like a grim smile, which 
 James interrupted his rejoicing to reprehend, saying, " Take heed, 
 sir, you are not to laugh at us — we are your anointed Sovereign." 
 
 " God forbid that I should laugh ! " said Richie, composing his 
 countenance into its natural rigidity. " I did but smile, to bring 
 my visage into coincidence and conformity with your Majesty's 
 physiognomy." 
 
 " Ye speak as a dutiful subject, and an honest man," said the 
 King ; " but what deil's your name, man ? '' 
 
 " Even Richie Moniplies, the son of auld Mungo Moniplies, at 
 the West Port of Edinburgh, who had the honour to supply 
 your Majesty's mother's royal table, as weel as your Majesty's, with 
 flesh and other vivers, when time was." 
 
 "Aha!" said the King, laughing,— for he possessed, as a useful 
 attribute of his situation, a tenacious memory, which recollected 
 every one with whom he "was brought into casual contact, — " Ye 
 are the self-same traitor who had weelnigh coupit us endlang on the 
 causey of our ain court-yard ? but we stuck by our mare. Equam 
 memento rebus in arduis servare. Weel, be not dismayed, Richie ; 
 for, as many men have turned traitors, it is but fair that a traitor, 
 now and then, suld prove to be, contra expectanda, a true man. How 
 cam ye by our jewels, man .' — cam ye on the part of George 
 Heriot?" 
 
 " In no sort," said Richie. " May it please your Majesty, I come 
 as Harry Wynd fought, utterly for my own hand, and on no man's 
 errand ; as, indeed, I call no one master, save Him that made me, 
 your most gracious Majesty who governs me, and the noble Nigel 
 Olifaunt, Lord of Glenvarloch, who maintained me as lang as he 
 could maintain himself, poor nobleman ! " 
 
 " Glenvarlochides again!" exclaimed the King; "by my 
 honour, he lies in ambush for us at every corner I— Maxwell knocks 
 at the door. It is George Heriot come to tell us he cannot find 
 these jewels.— Get thee behind the arras, Richie- stand close, 
 man — sneeze not — cough not— breathe not !— Jingling Geordie is 
 so damnably ready with his gold-ends of wisdom, and sae accursedly 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 367 
 
 backward with his gold-ends of siller, that, by our royal saul, we 
 are glad to get a hair in his neck." 
 
 Richie got behind the arras, in obedience to the commands of 
 the good-natured King, while the Monarch, who never allowed his 
 dignity to stand in the way of a frolic, having adjusted, with his 
 own hand, the tapestry, so as to complete the ambush, commanded 
 Maxwell to tell him what was the matter without. Maxwell's 
 reply was so low as to be lost by Richie MonipUes, the peculiarity 
 of whose situation by no means abated his curiosity and desire to 
 gratify it to the uttermost. 
 
 " Let Geordie Heriot come in," said the King ; and, as Richie 
 could observe through a slit in the tapestry, the honest citizen, if 
 not actually agitated, was at least discomposed. The King, whose 
 talent for wit, or humour, was precisely of a kind to be gratified by 
 such a scene as ensued, received his homage with coldness, and 
 began to talk to him with an air of serious dignity, very different 
 from the usual indecorous levity of his behaviour. "Master 
 Heriot," he said, " if we aright remember, we opignorated in your 
 hands certain jewels of the Crown, for a certain sum of money — 
 Did we, or did we not .'' " 
 
 " My most gracious Sovereign," said Heriot, " indisputably your 
 Majesty was pleased to do so." 
 
 " The property of which jewels and cimelia remained with us," 
 continued the King, in the same solemn tone, " subject only to 
 your claim of advance thereupon ; which advance being repaid, 
 gives us right to repossession of the thing opignorated, or pledged, 
 or laid in wad. Voetius, Vinnius, Groenwigeneus, Pagenstecherus, 
 — all who have treated de Contractu Opignerationis, — consentiunt 
 in eundem, — gree on the same point. The Roman law, the English 
 common law, and the municipal law of our ain ancient kingdom of 
 Scotland, though they split in mair particulars than I could desire, 
 unite as strictly in this as the three strands of a twisted rope." 
 
 " May it please your Majesty," replied Heriot, " it requires not so 
 many learned authorities to prove to any honest man, that his 
 interest in a pledge is determined when the money lent is re- 
 stored." 
 
 "Weel, sir, I proffer restoration of the sum lent, and I 
 demand to be repossessed of the jewels pledged with you. I gave 
 ye a hint, brief while since, that this would be essential to my 
 service, for, as approaching events are like to call us into public, 
 it would seem strange if we did not appear with those ornaments, 
 which are heirlooms of the Crown, and the absence whereof is like 
 to place us in contempt and suspicion with our liege subjects." 
 
 Master George Heriot seemed much moved by this address of his 
 
368 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 Sovereign, and replied with emotion. " I call Heaven to witness, 
 that I am totally harmless in this matter, and that I would 
 willingly lose the sum advanced, so that I could restore those 
 jewels, the absence of which your Majesty so justly laments. Had 
 the jewels remained with me, the account of them would be easily 
 rendered ; but your Majesty will do me the justice to remember, 
 that, by your express order, I transferred them to another person, 
 who advanced a large sum, just about the time of my departure for 
 Paris. The money was pressingly wanted, and no other means to 
 come by it occurred to me. I told your Majesty, when I brought 
 the needful supply, that the man from whom the monies were 
 obtained, was of no good repute ; and your most princely answer 
 was, smelling to the gold — Non olet, it smells not of the means 
 that have gotten it." 
 
 " Weel, man," said the King, " but what needs a' this din ? If 
 ye gave my jewels in pledge to such a one, suld ye not, as a liege 
 subject, have taken care that the redemption was in our power? 
 And are we to suffer the loss of our cimelia by your neglect, besides 
 being exposed to the scorn and censure of our lieges, and of the 
 foreign ambassadors ? " 
 
 " My Lord and liege King," said Heriot, " God knows, if my 
 bearing blame or shame in this matter would keep it from your 
 Majesty, it were my duty to endure both, as a servant grateful for 
 many benefits ; but when your Majesty considers the violent death 
 of the man himself, the disappearance of his daughter, and of his 
 wealth, I trust you will remember that I warned your Majesty, in 
 humble duty, of the possibility of such casualties, and prayed you 
 not to urge me to deal with him on your behalf." 
 
 "But you brought me nae better means," said the King — 
 " Geordie, ye brought me nae better means. I was like a deserted 
 man ; what could I do but grip to the first siller that offered, as a 
 drowning man grasps to the willow-wand that comes readiest 'i — 
 And now, man, what for have ye not brought back the jewels ? 
 they are surely above ground, if ye wad make strict search." 
 
 "All strict search has been made, may it please your Majesty," 
 replied the citizen ; "hue and cry has been sent out everywhere, 
 and it has been found impossible to recover them." 
 
 " Difficult, ye mean, Geordie, not impossible," replied the King ; 
 " for that whilk is impossible, is either naturally so, exempli gratia, 
 to make two into three ; or morally so, as to make what is truth 
 falsehood ; but what is only difficult may come to pass, with 
 assistance of wisdom and patience; as, for example. Jingling 
 Geordie, look here ! " And he displayed the recovered treasure to 
 the eyes of the astonished jeweller, exclaiming, with great triumph, 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 369 
 
 " What say ye to that, Jingler ? — By my sceptre and crown, the 
 man stares as if he took his native prince for a warlock ! us 
 that are the very malleus maleficarum, the contunding and con- 
 triturating hammer of all witches, sorcerers, magicians, and the 
 like ; he thinks we are taking a touch of the black art oursells ! — 
 But gang thy way, honest Geordie ; thou art a good plain man, 
 but nane of the seven sages of Greece ; gang thy way, and mind 
 the soothfast word which you spoke, small time syne, that there is 
 one in this land that comes near to Solomon, King of Israel, in all 
 his gifts, except in his love to strange women, forby the daughter of 
 Pharaoh." 
 
 If Heriot was surprised at seeing the jewels so unexpectedly pro- 
 duced at the moment the King was upbraiding him for the loss of 
 them, this allusion to the reflection which had escaped him while 
 conversing with Lord Glenvarloch, altogether completed his 
 astonishment ; and the King was so delighted with the superiority 
 which it gave him at the moment, that he rubbed his hands, 
 chuckled, and, finally, his sense of dignity giving way to the full 
 feeling of triumph, he threw himself into his easy-chair, and 
 laughed with unconstrained violence till he lost his breath, and 
 the tears ran plentifully down his cheeks as he strove to recover 
 it. Meanwhile, the royal cachinnation was echoed out by a dis- 
 cordant and portentous laugh from behind the arras, like that of 
 one who, little accustomed to give way to such emotions, feels 
 himself at some particular impulse unable either to control or to 
 modify his obstreperous mirth. Heriot turned his head with new 
 surprise towards the place, from which sounds so unfitting the 
 presence of a monarch seemed to burst with such emphatic 
 clamour.* 
 
 The King, too, somewhat sensible of the indecorum, rose up, 
 wiped his eyes, and calling, — " Todlowrie, come out of your den," 
 he produced from behind the arras the length of Richie Moniplies, 
 still laughing with as unrestrained mirth as ever did gossip at a 
 country christening. " Whisht, man, whisht, man," said the 
 King ; " ye needna nicher that gait, like a cusser at a caup o' corn, 
 e'en though it was a pleasing jest, and our ain framing. And yet 
 to see Jingling Geordie, that bauds himself so much the wiser than 
 other folk — to see him, ha ! ha ! ha ! — in the vein of Euclio apud 
 Plautum, distressing himself to recover what was lying at his 
 elbow — 
 
 ' Peril, interii, occidi — quo curram .'' quo non curram ? — 
 Tene, tene — quem ? quis ? nescio — nihil video.' 
 
 Ah ! Geordie, your een are sharp enough to look after gowd and, 
 
 B B 
 
3^6 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 silver, gems, rubies, and the like of that, and yet ye kenna how to 
 come by them when they are lost. — Ay, ay— look at them, man- 
 look at them— they are a' right and tight, sound and round, not a 
 doublet crept in amongst them." 
 
 George Heriot, when his first surprise was over, was too old a 
 courtier to interrupt the King's imaginary triumph, although he 
 darted a look of some displeasure at honest Richie, who still con- 
 tinued on what is usually termed the broad grin. He quietly 
 examined the stones, and finding them all perfect, he honestly and 
 sincerely congratulated his Majesty on the recovery of a treasure 
 which could not have been lost without some dishonour to the 
 crown ; and asked to whom he himself was to pay the sums for 
 which they had been pledged, observing, that he had the money by 
 him in readiness. 
 
 " Ye are in a deevil of a hurry, when there is paying in the case, 
 Geordie," said the King. — " What's a' the haste, man ? The jewels 
 were restored by an honest, kindly countryman of ours. There he 
 stands, and wha kens if he wants the money on the nail, or if he 
 might not be as weel pleased wi' a bit rescript on our treasury some 
 six months hence ? Ye ken that our Exchequer is even at alow ebb 
 just now, and ye cry pay, pay, pay, as if we had ^11 the mines of 
 Ophir." 
 
 " Please your Majesty," said Heriot, " if this man has the real 
 right to these monies, it is doubtless at his will to grant forbearance, 
 if he will. But when I remember the guise in which I first saw 
 him, with a tattered cloak and a broken head, I can hardly con- 
 ceive it. — Are not you Richie Moniplies, with the King's favour ? " 
 
 " Even sae. Master Heriot — of the ancient and honourable house 
 of Castle Coilop, near to the West Port of Edinburgh," answered 
 Richie. 
 
 "Why, please your Majesty, he is a poor serving-man," said 
 Heriot. " This money can never be honestly at his disposal." 
 
 "What for no?" said the King. "Wad ye have naebody 
 spraickle up the brae but yoursell, Geordie ? Your ain cloak was 
 thin enough when ye cam here, though ye have lined it gay and 
 weel. And for serving-men, there has mony a red-shank come 
 over the Tweed wi' his master's wallet on his shoulders, that now 
 rustles it wi' his six followers behind him. There stands the man 
 himsell ; speer at him, Geordie." 
 
 " His may not be the best authority in the case," answered the 
 cautious citizen. 
 
 " Tut, tut, man," said the King, " ye are over scrupulous. The 
 knave deer-stealers have an apt phrase, Non est inqtiirenxlttm unde 
 venit VENISON. He that brings the gudes hath surely a right to 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 371 
 
 dispose of the gear.— Hark ye, friend, speak the truth and shame 
 the deil. Have ye plenary powers to dispose on the redemption- 
 money as to delay of payments, or the like, ay or no ? " 
 
 "Full power, an it like your gracious Majesty," answered 
 Richie Moniplies ; " and I am maist willing to subscrive to what- 
 soever may in ony wise accommodate your Majesty anent the 
 redemption-money, trusting your Majesty's grace will be kind to 
 me in one sma' favour." 
 
 " Ey, man," said the. King, " come ye to me there ? I thought 
 ye wad e'en be like the rest of them.— One would think our subjects' 
 lives and goods were all our ain, and holden of us at our free will ; 
 but when we stand in need of ony matter of siller from them, 
 which chances more frequently than we would it did, deil a boddle 
 is to be had, save on the auld terms of giff-gaff. It is just niffer for 
 niffer, — Aweel, neighbour, what is it that ye want — some monopoly, 
 I reckon ? Or it may be a grant of kirklands and teinds, or a 
 knighthood, or the like ? Ye maun be reasonable, unless ye pro- 
 pose to advance more money for our present occasions." 
 
 " My liege," answered Richie Moniplies, " the owner of these 
 monies places them, at your Majesty's command, free of all pledge 
 or usage as long as it is your royal pleasure, providing your 
 Majesty will condescend to show some favour to the noble Lord 
 Glenvarloch, presently prisoner in your royal Tower of London." 
 
 " How, man — how, man — how, man ! " exclaimed the King, 
 reddening and stammering, but with emotions more noble than 
 those by which he was sometimes agitated — " What is that you 
 dare to say to us ? — Sell our justice ! — sell our mercy ! — and we a 
 crowned King, sworn to do justice to our subjects in the gate, and 
 responsible for our stewardship to Him that is over all kings ? " — 
 Here he reverently looked up, touched his bonnet, and continued, 
 with some sharpness, — " We dare not traffic in such commodities, 
 sir ; and, but that ye are a poor ignorant creature, that have done 
 us this day some not unpleasant service, we wad have a red iron 
 driven through your tongue, in terrorem, of others. — Awa with him, 
 Geordie, — pay him, plack and bawbee, out of our monios in your 
 hands, and let them care that come ahint." 
 
 Richie, who had counted with the utmost certainty upon the 
 success of this master-stroke of policy, was like an architect whose 
 whole scaffolding at once gives way under him. He caught, how- 
 ever, at what he thought might break his fall. " Not only the sum 
 for which the jewels were pledged," he said, " but the double of it, 
 if required, should be placed at his Majesty's command, and even 
 
 without hope or condition of repayment, if only " 
 
 But the King did not allow him to complete the sentence, crying 
 
 c B 2 
 
372 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 out with greater vehemence than before, as if he dreaded the 
 stability of his own good resolutions,—" Awa wi' him— swith awa wi' 
 him ! 1 1 is time he were gane, if he doubles his bode that gate. And, 
 for your life, letna Steenie, or ony of them, hear a word from his 
 mouth ; for wha kens what trouble that might bring me into ! Ne 
 inducas in tentationem — Vade retro, Sathanas ! — Amen" 
 
 In obedience to the royal mandate, George Heriot hurried the 
 abashed petitioner out of the presence and out of the Palace ; and 
 when they were in the Palace-yard, the citizen, remembering with 
 some resentment the airs of equality which Richie had assumed 
 towards him in the commencement of the scene which had just 
 taken place, could not forbear to retaliate, by congratulating him 
 with an ironical smile on his favour at Court, and his improved 
 grace in presenting a supplication. 
 
 " Never fash your beard about that. Master George Heriot," said 
 Richie, totally undismayed ; " but tell me when and where I am 
 to sifflicate you for eight hundred pounds sterling, for which these 
 jewels stood engaged ? " 
 
 " The instant that you bring with you the real owner of the 
 money," replied Heriot ; " whom it is important that I should see 
 on more accounts than one." 
 
 " Then will I back to his Majesty," said Richie Moniplies, 
 stoutly, " and get either the money or the pledge back again. I 
 am fully commissionate to act in that matter." 
 
 " It may be so, Richie," said the citizen, " and perchance it may 
 not be so neither, for your tales are not all gospel ; and, therefore, 
 be assured I will see that it is so, ere I pay you that large sum of 
 money. I shall give you an acknowledgment for it, and I will keep 
 it prestable at a moment's warning. But, my good Richard 
 Moniplies, of Castle CoUop, near the West Port of Edinburgh, in 
 the meantime I am bound to return to his Majesty on matters of 
 weight." So speaking, and mounting the stair to re-enter the 
 palace, he added, by way of summing up the whole, — " George 
 Heriot is over old a cock to be caught with chaff." 
 
 Richie stood petrified when he beheld him re-enter the Palace, 
 and found himself, as he supposed, left in the lurch. — " Now, 
 plague on ye," he muttered, " for a cunning auld skinflint ! that, 
 because ye are an honest man yoursell, forsooth, must needs deal 
 with all the world as if they were knaves. But deil be in me if ye 
 beat me yet !— Gude guide us ! yonder comes Laurie Linklater 
 next, and he will be on me about; the sifflication. — I winna stand 
 him, by Saint Andrew ! " 
 
 So saying, and changing the haughty stride with which he had 
 that morning entered the precincts of the Palace, into a skulking 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 373 
 
 shamble, he retreated for his wherry, which was in attendance, with 
 speed which, to use the approved phrase on such occasions, greatly- 
 resembled a flight. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXII. 
 
 Benedick. This looks not like a nuptial. 
 
 Much Ado about Nothing. 
 
 Master George Heriot had no sooner returned to the King's 
 apartment, than James enquired of Maxwell if the Earl of Hunt- 
 inglen was in attendance, and, receiving an answer in the affirma- 
 tive, desired that he should be admitted. The old Scottish Lord 
 having made his reverence in the usual manner, the King extended 
 his hand to be kissed, and then began to address him in a tone of 
 great sympathy. 
 
 " We told your lordship in our secret epistle of this morning, 
 written with our ain hand, in testimony we have neither preter- 
 mitted nor forgotten your faithful service, that we had that to 
 communicate to you that would require both patience and fortitude 
 to endure, and therefore exhorted you to peruse some of the most 
 pithy passages of Seneca, and of Boethius de Consolatione, that the 
 back may be, as we say, fitted for the burden — This we commend 
 to you from our ain experience. 
 
 ' Non ignara mali, miseris succurrere disco,' 
 
 sayeth Dido, and I might say in my own person, non ignarus; 
 but to change the gender would affect the prosody, whereof our 
 southern subjects are tenacious. So, my lord of Huntinglen, I 
 trust you have acted by our advice, and studied patience before ye 
 need it — venienti occitrrite morbo — mix the medicament when the 
 disease is coming on." 
 
 ' May it please your Majesty," answered Lord Huntinglen, " I 
 am more of an old soldier than a scholar— and if my own rough 
 nature will not bear me out in any calamity, I hope I shall have 
 grace to try a text of Scripture to boot." 
 
 " Ay, man, are you there with your bears ? " said the King ; " the 
 Bible, man," (touching his cap,) " is indeed principium et fans — 
 but it is pity your lordship cannot peruse it in the original. For 
 although we did ourselves promote that work of translation, — since 
 ye may read, at the beginning of every Bible, that when some 
 
374 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 palpable clouds of darkness were thought like to have over- 
 shadowed the land, after the setting of that bright occidental star, 
 Queen Elizabeth ; yet our appearance, like that of the sun in his 
 strength, 'instantly dispelled these surmised mists,— I say, that 
 although, as therein mentioned, we countenanced the preaching of 
 the gospel, and especially the translation of the Scriptures out of 
 the original sacred tongues ; yet nevertheless, we ourselves confess 
 to have found a comfort in consulting them in the original Hebrew, 
 whilk we do not perceive even in the Latin version of the Septua- 
 gint, much less in the English traduction." 
 
 " Please your Majesty," said Lord Huntinglen, " if your Majesty 
 delays communicating the bad news with which your honoured 
 letter threatens me, until I am capable to read Hebrew like your 
 Majesty, I fear I shall die in ignorance of the misfortune which hath 
 befallen, or is about to befall, my house." 
 
 " You will learn it but too soon, my lord," replied the King. " I 
 grieve to say it, but your son Dalgarno, whom I thought a very 
 saint, as he was so much with Steenie and Baby Charles, hath 
 turned out a very villain." 
 
 " Villain ! " repeated Lord Huntinglen ; and though he instantly 
 checked himself, and added, " but it is your Majesty speaks the 
 word," the effect of his first tone made the King step back as if he 
 had received a blow. He also recovered himself again, and said 
 in the pettish way which usually indicated his displeasure — " Yes, 
 my lord, it was we that said it — non surdo canis — we are not deaf — 
 we pray you not to raise your voice in speech with us — there is the 
 bonny memorial — read, and judge for yourself." 
 
 The King then thrust into the old nobleman's hand a paper, con- 
 taining the story of the Lady Hermione, with the evidence by which 
 it was supported, detailed so briefly and clearly, that the infamy of 
 Lord Dalgarno, the lover by whom she had been so shamefully 
 deceived, seemed undeniable. But a father yields not up so easily 
 the cause of his son. 
 
 " May it please your Majesty," he said, " why was this tale not 
 sooner told ? This woman hath been here for years — wherefore 
 was the claim on my son not made the instant she touched English 
 ground ? " 
 
 "Tell him how that came abou*- Geordie," said the King, ad- 
 dressing Heriot. 
 
 " I grieve to distress my Lord Huntinglen," said Heriot ; " but I 
 must speak the truth. For a long time the Lady Hermione could 
 not brook the idea of making her situation public ; and when her 
 mind became changed in that particular, it was necessary to recover 
 the evidence of the false man iage, and letters and papers connected 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 37S 
 
 with it, which, when she came to Paris, and just before I saw her, 
 she had deposited with a correspondent of her father in that city. 
 He became afterwards bankrupt, and in consequence of that mis- 
 fortune the lady's papers passed into other hands, and it was only 
 a few days since I traced and recovered them. Without these 
 documents of evidence, it would have been imprudent for her to 
 have preferred her complaint, favoured as Lord Dalgarno is by 
 powerful friends." 
 
 " Ye are saucy to say sae," said the King ; " I ken what ye mean 
 weel eneugh — ye think Steenie wad hae putten the weight of his 
 foot into the scales of justice, and garr'd them whomle the bucket 
 —ye forget, Geordie, wha it is whose hand uphaulds them. And 
 ye do poor Steenie the mair wrang, for he confessed it ance before 
 us and our privy council, that Dalgarno would have put the quean 
 aff on him, the puir simple bairn, making him trow that she was a 
 light-o'-love ; in whilk mind he remained assured even when he 
 parted from her, albeit Steenie might hae weel thought ane of thae 
 cattle wadna hae resisted the like of him." 
 
 " The Lady Hermione," said George Heriot, " has always done 
 the utmost justice to the conduct of the Duke, who, although 
 strongly possessed with prejudice against her character, yet scorned 
 to avail himself of her distress, and on the contrary supplied her 
 with the means of extricating hersetf from her difficulties." 
 
 " It was e'en like himsell — blessings on his bonny face ! " said 
 the King ; " and I believed this lady's tale the mair readily, my 
 Lord Huntinglen, that she spake nae ill of Steenie — and to make a 
 lang tale short, my lord, it is the opinion of our council and ourself, 
 as weel as of Baby Charles and Steenie, that your son maun 
 amend his wrong by wedding this lady, or undergo such disgrace 
 and discountenance as we can bestow. 
 
 The person to whom he spoke was incapable of answering him. 
 He stood before the King motionless, and glaring with eyes of 
 which even the lids seemed immovable, as if suddenly converted 
 into an ancient statue of the times of chivalry, so instantly had his 
 hard features and strong limbs been arrested into rigidity by the 
 blow he had received — And in a second afterwards, like the same 
 statue when the lightning breaks upon it, he sunk at once to the 
 ground with a heavy groan. The King was in the utmost alarm, 
 called upon Heriot and Maxwell for help, and, presence of mind 
 not being his/orte, ran to and fro in his cabinet, exclaiming — " My 
 ancient and beloved servant — who saved our anointed self ! Vae 
 atqtie dolor! My Lord of Huntinglen, look up — look up, man, and 
 your son may marry the Queen of Sheba if he will." 
 
 By this time iVlaxwell and Heriot had raised the old nobleman, 
 and placed him on a chair; while the King, observing that he 
 
376 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 began to recover himself, continued his consolations more me- 
 thodically. 
 
 " Haud up your head— haud up your head, and listen to your 
 ain kind native Prince. If there is shame, man, it comesna empty- 
 handed— there is siller to gild it— a gude tocher, and no that bad a 
 pedigree ; — if she has been a loon, it was your son made her sae, 
 and he can make her an honest woman again." 
 
 These suggestions, however reasonable in the common case, 
 gave no comfort to Lord Huntinglen, if indeed he fully compre- 
 hended them ; but the blubbering of his good-natured old master, 
 which began to accompany and interrupt his royal speech, pro- 
 duced more rapid effect. The large tear gushed reluctantly from 
 his eye, as he kissed the withered hands, which the King, weeping 
 with less dignity and restraint, abandoned to him, first alternately 
 and then both together, until the feelings of the man getting 
 entirely the better of the §overeign's sense of dignity, he grasped 
 and shook Lord Huntinglen's hands with the sympathy of an equal 
 and a familiar friend 
 
 " Compone lachrymas^' said the monarch ; " be patient, man, 
 be patient ; — the council, and Baby Charles, and Steenie, may a' 
 gang to the deevil — he shall not marry her since it moves you so 
 deeply." 
 
 " He SHALL marry her, by God ! " answered the Earl, drawing 
 himself up, dashing the tear from his eyes, and endeavouring to 
 recover his composure. " I pray your Majesty's pardon, but he 
 shall marry her, with her dishonour for her dowery, were she the 
 veriest courtezan in all Spain — If he gave his word, he shall make 
 his word good, were it to the meanest creature that haunts the 
 streets — he shall do it, or my own dagger shall take the life that I 
 gave him. If he could stoop to use so base a fraud, though to 
 deceive infamy, let him wed infamy." 
 
 " No, no ! " the Monarch continued to insinuate, " things are not 
 so bad as that — Steenie himself never thought of her being a street- 
 walker, even when he thought the worst of her." 
 
 " If it can at all console my Lord of Huntinglen,'' said the citizen, 
 " I can assure him of this lady's good birth, and most fair and 
 unspotted fame." 
 
 I am sorry for it," said Lord Huntinglen— then interrupting 
 himself, he said— "Heaven forgive me for being ungrateful for 
 such comfort !— but I am wellnigh sorry she should be as you 
 represent her, so much better than the villain deserves. To be 
 condemned to wed beauty and innocence and honest birth" 
 
 " Ay, and wealth, my lord— wealth," insinuated the King, " is a 
 better sentence than his perfidy has deserved," 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 377 
 
 " It is long," said the embittered father, " since I saw he was 
 selfish and hardhearted ; but to be a perjured liar — I never dreaded 
 that such a blot would have fallen on my race ! I will never look 
 on him again." 
 
 " Hoot ay, my lord, hoot ay," said the King ; " ye maun tak him 
 to task roundly. I grant you should speak more in the vein of 
 Demea than Mitio, vi ncmpe et via ;pervulgata patrtim j but as for 
 not seeing him again, and he your only son, that is altogether out 
 of reason. I tell ye man, (but I would not for a boddle that Baby 
 Charles heard me,) that he might gie the glaiks to half the lasses of 
 Lonnun, ere I could find in my heart to speak such harsh words as 
 you have said of this deil of a Dalgarno of yours." 
 
 " May it please your Majesty to permit me to retire,'' said Lord 
 Huntinglen, " and dispose of the case according to your own royal 
 sense of justice, for I desire no favour for him." 
 
 " Aweel, my lord, so be it ; and if your lordship can think," added 
 the Monarch, "of anything in our power which might comfort 
 you " — 
 
 " Your Majesty's gracious sympathy," said Lord Huntinglen, 
 " has already comforted me as far as earth can ; the rest must be 
 from the King of Kings." 
 
 " To Him I commend you, my auld and faithful servant," said 
 James with emotion, as the Earl withdrew from his presence. The 
 King remained fixed in thought for some time, and then said to 
 Heriot, "Jingling Geordie, ye ken all the privy doings of our 
 Court, and have dune so these thirty years, though, like a wise 
 man, ye hear, and see, and say nothing. Now, there is a thing I 
 fain wad ken, in the way of philosophical enquiry — Did you ever 
 hear of the umquhile Lady Huntinglen, the departed Countess of 
 this noble Earl, ganging a wee bit gleed in her walk through the 
 world ; I mean in the way of slipping a foot, casting a leglin-girth,* 
 or the like, ye understand me ? " 
 
 " On my word as an honest man," said George Heriot, some- 
 what surprised at the question, " I never heard her wronged by the 
 slightest breath of suspicion. She was a worthy lady, very circum- 
 spect in her walk, and lived in great concord with her husband, 
 save that the good Countess was something of a puritan, and 
 kept more company with ministers than was altogether agreeable 
 to Lord Huntinglen, who is, as your Majesty well knows, a man of 
 the old rough world, that will drink and swear." 
 
 " O Geordie ! " exclaimed the King, " these are auld-warld 
 frailties, of whilk we dare not pronounce even ourselves absolutely 
 free. But the warld grows worse from day to day, Geordie. The 
 juveniles of this age may weel say with the poet — 
 
378 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 ' ^tas parentum, pejor avis, tulit 
 Nos nequiores' — 
 
 This Dalgarno does not drink so much, or swear so much, as his 
 father ; but he wenches, Geordie, and he breaks his word and oath 
 baith. As to what you say of the leddy and the ministers, we are 
 a' fallible creatures, Geordie, priests and kings, as weel as others ; 
 and wha kens but what they may account for the difference between 
 this Dalgarno and his father ? The Earl is the vera soul of honour, 
 and cares nae mair for warld's gear than a noble hound for the 
 quest of a foulmart ; but as for his son, he was like to brazen us a' 
 out — ourselves, Steenie, Baby Charles, and our council— till he 
 heard of the tocher, and then, by my kingly crown, he lap like a 
 cock at a grossart ! These are discrepancies betwixt parent and 
 son not to be accounted for naturally, according to Baptista 
 Porta, Michael Scott de secretis, and others. — Ah, Jingling Geordie, 
 if your clouting the caldron, and jingUng on pots, pans, and veshels 
 of all manner of metal, hadna jingled a' your grammar out of your 
 head, I could have touched on that matter to you at mair length." 
 
 Heriot was too plain-spoken to express much concern for the loss 
 of his grammar learning on this occasion ; but after modestly hint- 
 ing that he had seen many men who could not fill their father's 
 bonnet, though no one had been suspected of wearing their father's 
 nightcap, he enquired " whether Lord Dalgarno had consented to 
 do the Lady Hermione justice." 
 
 " Troth, man, I have small doubt that he will," quoth the King ; 
 " I gave him the schedule of her worldly substance, which you 
 delivered to us in the council, and we allowed him half an hour to 
 chew the cud upon that. It is rare reading for bringing him to 
 reason. I left Baby Charles and Steenie laying his duty before 
 him ; and if he can resist doing what they desire him — why, I wish 
 he would teach me the gate of it. O Geordie, Jingling Geordie, it 
 was grand to hear Baby Charles laying down the guilt of dissimula- 
 tion, and Steenie lecturing on the turpitude of incontinence ! " 
 
 " I am afraid," said George Heriot, inore hastily than prudently, 
 " I might have thought of the old proverb of Satan reproving 
 sin." 
 
 " Deil hae our saul, neighbour," said the King, reddening, " but 
 ye are not blate ! I gie ye license to spake freely, and, by our saul, 
 ye do not let the privilege become lost non utendo— it will suffer no 
 negative prescription in your hands. Is it fit, think ye, that Baby 
 Charles should let his thoughts be publicly seen? — No— no- 
 princes' thoughts are arcana imperii— qui nescit dissimulare nescit 
 regnare. Every liege subject is bound to speak the whole truth to 
 the King, but there is nae reciprocity of obligation— and for Steenie 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 379 
 
 having been whiles a dike-Iouper at a time, is it for you, who are 
 his goldsmith, and to whom, 1 doubt, he awes an uncomatable sum, 
 to cast that up to him ? " 
 
 Heriot did not feel himself called on to play the part of Zeno, 
 and sacrifice himself for upholding the cause of moral truth ; he 
 did not desert it, however, by disavowing his words, but simply 
 expressed sorrow, for having offended his Majesty, with which the 
 placable King was sufficiently satisfied. 
 
 " And now, Geordie, man," quoth he, " we will to this culprit, 
 and hear what he has to say for himself, for I will see the job 
 cleared this blessed day. Ye maun come wi' me, for your evidence 
 may be wanted." 
 
 The King led the way, accordingly, into a larger apartment, 
 where the Prince, the Duke of Buckingham, and one or two privy 
 counsellors, were seated at a table, before which stood Lord Dal- 
 garno, in an attitude of as much elegant ease and indifference as 
 could be expressed, considering the stiff dress and manners of the 
 times. 
 
 All rose and bowed reverently, while the King, to use a north 
 country wo: d, expressive of his mode of locomotion, toddled to his 
 chair or throne, making a sign to Heriot to stand behind him. 
 
 " We hope," said his Majesty, " that Lord Dalgarno stands pre- 
 pared to do justice to this unfortunate lady, and to his own character 
 and honour ? " 
 
 " May I humbly enquire the penalty," said Lord Dalgarno, " in 
 case I should unhappily find compliance with your Majesty's 
 demands impossible ? " 
 
 " Banishment frae our Court, my lord," said the King ; " frae our 
 Court and our countenance." 
 
 " Unhappy exile that I may be ! " said Lord Dalgarno, in a tone 
 of subdued irony — " I will at least carry your Majesty's picture with 
 me, for I shall never see such another king." 
 
 " And banishment, my lord," said the Prince, sternly, " from these 
 our dominions." 
 
 " That must be by form of law, please your Royal Highness," 
 said Dalgarno, with an affectation of deep respect ; " and I have 
 not heard that there is a statute, compelling us, under such penalty, 
 to marry every woman we may play the fool with. Perhaps his 
 Grace of Buckingham can tell me ? " 
 
 " You are a villain, Dalgarno," said the haughty and vehement 
 favourite. 
 
 " Fie, my lord, fie ! — to a prisoner, and in presence of your royal 
 and paternal gossip ! " said Lord Dalgarno. " But I will cut this 
 deliberation short. I have looked over this schedule of the goods 
 
38o THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 and effects of Erminia Pauletti, daughter of the late noble— yes, he 
 is called the noble, or I read wrong, Giovanni Pauletti, of the 
 House of Sansovino, in Genoa, and of the no less noble Lady Maud 
 Olifaunt, of the House of Glenvarloch— Well, I declare that I was 
 pre-contracted in Spain to this noble lady, and there has passed 
 betwixt us some certain pralibatio matrimoniij and now, what 
 more does this grave assembly require of me ? " 
 
 " That you should repair the gross and infamous wrong you have 
 done the lady, by marrying her within this hour," said the Prince. 
 
 " O, may it please your Royal Highness," answered Dalgarno, 
 ' I have a trifling relationship with an old Earl, who calls himself 
 my father, who may claim some vote in the matter. Alas ! every 
 son is not blessed with an obedient parent ! " He hazarded a 
 slight glance towards the throne, to give meaning to his last 
 words. 
 
 " We have spoken ourselves with Lord Huntinglen," said the 
 King, " and are authorized to consent in his name." 
 
 " I could never have expected this intervention of a proxaneta, 
 which the vulgar translate blackfoot, of such eminent dignity," said 
 Dalgarno, scarce concealing a sneer. " And my father hath con- 
 sented ? He was wont to say, ere we left Scotland, that the blood 
 of Huntinglen and of Glenvarloch would not mingle, were they 
 poured into the same basin. Perhaps he has a mind to try the 
 experiment ? " 
 
 " My Lord," said James, " we will no longer be trifled with — Will 
 you instantly, and sine mora, take this lady to your wife, in our 
 chapel.?" 
 
 " Statim atque instanter," answered Lord Dalgarno ; " for I 
 perceive by doing so, I shall obtain power to render great services 
 to the commonwealth— I shall have acquired wealth to supply the 
 wants of your Majesty, and a fair wife to be at the command of his 
 Grace of Buckingham." 
 
 The Duke rose, passed to the end of the table where Lord Dal- 
 garno was standing, and whispered in his ear, " You have placed a 
 fair sister at my command ere now." 
 
 This taunt cut deep through Lord Dalgarno's assumed com- 
 posure. He started as if an adder had stung him, but instantly 
 composed himself, and, fixing on the Duke's still smiling counte- 
 nance an eye which spoke unutterable hatred, he pointed the fore- 
 finger of his left hand to the hilt of his sword, but in a manner 
 which could scarce be observed by any one save Buckingham. The 
 Duke gave him another smile of bitter scorn, and returned to his 
 seat, in obedience to the commands of the King, who continued 
 calling out, " sit down, Steenie, sit down, I command ye— we will 
 haq i}4e barns-breaking here," 
 
THE FORTUNES OP NIGEL. 381 
 
 " Your Majesty needs not fear my patience,'' said Lord Dalgarno ; 
 " and that I may keep it the-better, I will not utter another word 
 in this presence, save those enjoined to me in that happy portion of 
 the Prayer-Book, which begins with Dearly Beloved, and ends with 
 amazement!' 
 
 " You are a hardened villain, Dalgarno," said the King ; " and 
 were I the lass, by my father's saul, I would rather brook the stain 
 of having been your concubine, than run the risk of becoming your 
 wife. But she shall be under our special protection. —Come, my 
 lords, we will ourselves see this blithesome bridal." He gave the 
 signal by rising, and moved towards the door, followed by the train. 
 Lord Dalgarno attended, speaking to none, and spoken to by no 
 one, yet seeming as easy and unembarrassed in his gait and manner 
 as if in reality a happy bridegroom. 
 
 rhey reached the Chapel by a private entrance, which com- 
 municated from the royal apartment. The Bishop of Winchester, in 
 his pontifical dress, stood beside the altar ; on the other side, sup- 
 ported by Monna Paula, the colourless, faded, half-Ufeless form of 
 the Lady Hermione, or Erminia Pauletti. Lord Dalgarno bowed 
 profoundly to her, and the Prince, observing the horror with which 
 she regarded him, walked up, and said to her, with much dignity, 
 — " Madam, ere you put yourself under the authority of this man, 
 let me inform yon, he hath in the fullest degree vindicated your 
 honour, so far as concerns your former intercourse. It is for you 
 to consider whether you will put your fortune and happiness into 
 the hands of one, who has shown himself unworthy of all trust." 
 
 The lady, with much difficulty, found words to make reply. " I 
 owe to his Majesty's goodness," she said, " the care of providing 
 me some reservation out of my own fortune, for my decent sus- 
 tenance. The rest cannot be better disposed than in buying back 
 the fair fame of which I am deprived, and the liberty of ending my 
 life in peace and seclusion." 
 
 " The contract bas been drawn up," said the King, " under our 
 own eye, specially discharging the poiesias maritalis, and agreeing 
 they shall live separate. So buckle them, my Lord Bishop, as fast 
 as you can, that they may sunder again the sooner." 
 
 The Bishop accordingly opened his book and commenced the 
 marriage ceremony, under circumstances so novel and so inau- 
 spicious. The responses of the bride were only expressed by in- 
 clinations of the head and body ; while those of the bridegroom 
 were spoken boldly and distinctly, with a tone resembling levity, if 
 not scorn. When it was concluded, Lord Dalgarno advanced as if 
 to salute the bride, but seeing that she drew back in fear and ab- 
 horrence, he contented himself with making her a low bow. He 
 
382 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 then drew up his form to its height, and stretched himself as if ex- 
 amining the power of his limbs, but elegantly, and without any- 
 forcible change of attitude. " I could caper yet," he said, " though 
 I am in fetters— but they are of gold, and lightly won.— Well, I see 
 all eyes took cold on me, and it is time I should withdraw. The sun 
 shines elsewhere than in England ! But first I must ask how this fair 
 Lady Dalgarno is to be bestowed. Methinks it is but decent I 
 , should know. Is she to be sent to the harem of my Lord Duke ? 
 
 Or is this worthy citizen, as before " ^ 
 
 " Hold thy base ribald tongue ! " said his father. Lord Hunting- 
 len, who had kept in the background during the ceremony, and now- 
 stepping suddenly forward, caught the lady by the arm, and con- 
 fronted her unworthy husband.— " The Lady Dalgarno," he 
 continued, " shall remain as a widow in my house. A widow I 
 esteem her, as much as if the grave had closed over her dishonoured 
 husband." 
 
 Lord Dalgarno exhibited momentary symptoms of extreme con- 
 fusion, and said, in a submissive tone, " If you, my lord, can wish 
 me dead, I cannot, though your heir, return the compliment. Few 
 of the first-born of Israel," he added, recovering himself from the 
 single touch of emotion he had displayed, " can say so much with 
 truth. But I will convince you ere I go, that I am a true descen- 
 dant of a house famed for its memory of injuries." 
 
 " I marvel your Majesty will listen to him longer," said Prince 
 Charles. "Methinks we have heard enough of his daring 
 insolence." 
 
 But James, who took the interest of a true gossip in such a scene 
 as was now passing, could not bear to cut the controversy short, 
 but imposed silence on his son, with " Whisht, Baby Charles- 
 there is a good bairn, whislit ! — I want to hear what the frontless 
 loon can say." 
 
 " Only, sir," said Dalgarno, " that but for one single line in this 
 schedule, all else that it contains could not have bribed me to take 
 that woman's hand into mine." 
 " That line maun have been the summa totalis^' said the King. 
 " Not so, sire," repHed Dalgarno. " The sum total might indeed 
 have been an object for consideration even to a Scottish king, at no 
 veiy distant period ; but it would have had little charms for me, 
 save that I see here an entry which gives me the power of ven- 
 geance over the family of Glenvarloch ; and learn- from it that 
 yonder pale bride, when she put the wedding-torch into my hand, 
 gave me the power of burning her mother's house to ashes ! " 
 
 "How it that?" said the King. "What is he speaking about, 
 Jingling Geordie?" 
 
^ tHE FORTUNES OF NlGEL. 383 
 
 " This friendly citizen, my liege," said Lord Dalgarno, " hath ex- 
 pended a sum belonging to my lady, and now, I thank heaven, to 
 me, in acquiring a certain mortgage, or wadset, over the estate of 
 Glenvarloch, which, if it be not redeemed before to-morrow at 
 noon, will put me in possession of the fair demesnes of those who 
 once called themselves our house's rivals." 
 
 " Can this be true ? " said the King. 
 
 " It is even but too true, please your Majesty,'' answered the 
 citizen. " The Lady Hermione having advanced the money for the 
 original creditor, I was obliged, in honour and honesty, to take the 
 rights to her ; and, doubtless, they pass to her husband." 
 
 " But the warrant, man," said the King — " the warrant on our 
 Exchequer — Couldna that supply the lad wi' the means of re- 
 demption ? " 
 
 " Unhappily, my liege, he has lost it, or disposed of it — It is not 
 to be found. He is the most unlucky youth ! " 
 
 " This is a proper spot of work ! " said the King, beginning to 
 amble about and play with the points of his doublet and hose, in 
 expression of dismay. " We cannot aid him without paying our 
 debts twice over, and we have, in the present state of our Exchequer, 
 scarce the means of paying them once." 
 
 " You have told me news," said Lord Dalgarno, " but I will take 
 no advantage." 
 
 " Do not," said his father. " Be a bold villain, since thou must 
 be one, and seek revenge with arms, and not with the usurer's 
 V.eapons." 
 
 " Pardon me, my lord," said Lord Dalgarno. " Pen and ink are 
 now my surest means of vengeance ; and more land is won by the 
 lawyer with the ram-skin, than by the Andrea Ferrara with his 
 sheepshead handle. But, as I said before, I will take no advantages. 
 I will await in town to-morrow, near Covent- Garden ; if any one 
 will pay the redemption-money to my scrivener, with whom the 
 deeds lie, the better for Lord Glenvarloch ; if not, I will go forward 
 on the next day, and travel with all dispatch to the north, to take 
 possession." 
 
 " Take a father's malison with you, unhappy wretch ! " said Lord 
 Huntinglen. 
 
 " And a King's, who \% pater 'patrice" said James. 
 
 " I trust to bear both lightly," said Lord Dalgarno ; and bowing 
 around him, he withdrew ; while all present, oppressed, and, as it 
 were, overawed, by his determined effrontery, found they could 
 draw breath more freely, when he at length relieved them of his 
 society. Lord Huntinglen, applying himself to comfort his new 
 daughter-in-law, withdrew with her also ; and the King, with his 
 
3% THE FORTUNES OF NiGfiL. 
 
 privy-council, whom he had not dismissed, again returned to his 
 council-chamber, though the hour was unusually late. Heriot's 
 attendance was still commanded, but for what reason was not ex- 
 plained to him. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIII. 
 
 — - — I'll play the eavesdropper, 
 
 Richard HI., Act V., Scene 3. 
 
 James had no sooner resumed his seat at the council-board than 
 he began to hitch in his chair, cough, use his handkerchief, and make 
 other intimations that he meditated a long speech. The council 
 composed themselves to the beseeming degree of attention. Charles, 
 as strict in his notions of decorum, as his father was indifferent to 
 it, fixed himself in an attitude of rigid and respectful attention, 
 while the haughty favourite, conscious of his power over both father 
 and son, stretched himself more easily on his seat, and, in assuming 
 an appearance of listening, seemed to pay a debt to ceremonial 
 rather than to duty. 
 
 " I doubt not, my lords," Said the Monarch, "that some of you 
 may be thinking the hour of refection is past, and that it is time to 
 ask with the slave in the z<ym.^Ay—Q,uid de Symbolo .?— Nevertheless, 
 to do justice and exercise judgment is our meat and drink ; and 
 now we are to pray your wisdom to consider the case of this un- 
 happy youth. Lord Glenvarloch, and see, whether, consistently with 
 our honour, anything can be done in his favour." 
 
 " I am surprised at your Majesty's wisdom making the enquiry," 
 said the Duke ; " it is plain this Dalgarno hath proved one of the 
 most insolent villains on earth, and it must therefore be clear, that 
 if Lord Glenvarloch had run him through the body, there would 
 but have been out of the world a knave who had liyed in it too 
 long. I think Lord Glenvarloch hath had much wrong ; and I 
 regret that, by the persuasions of this false fellow, I have myself 
 had some hand in it." 
 
 "Ye speak like a child, Steenie— I mean my Lord of Bucking- 
 ham," answered the King, " and as one that does not understand the 
 logic of the schools ; for an action may be inconsequential or even 
 meritorious, quoad hominem, that is, as touching him upon whom 
 it is acted ; and yet most criminal, quoad locum, or considering the 
 place wherein it is done ; as a man may lawfully dance Chrighty 
 Beardie or any other dance in a tavern, but not inter parietcs 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 385 
 
 ecclesice. So that, though it may have been a good deed to have 
 sticked Lord Dalgarno, being sucla as he has shown himself, any- 
 where else, yet it fell under the plain statute, when violence was 
 offered within the verge of the Court. For, let me tell you, my 
 lords, the statute against striking would be of small use in our 
 Court, if it could be eluded by justifying the person stricken to be a 
 knave. It is much to be lamented that I ken nae Court in Christen- 
 dom where knaves are not to be found ; and if men are to break the 
 peace under pretence of beating them, why, it will rain Jeddart 
 staves * in our very antechamber." 
 
 " What your Majesty says," replied Prince Charles, " is marked 
 with your usual wisdom — the precincts of palaces must be sacred 
 as well as the persons of kings, whfch are respected even in the 
 most barbarous nations, as being one step only beneath their 
 divinities. But your Majesty's will can control the severity of this 
 and every other law, and it is in you power, on consideration of his 
 case, to grant this rash young man a free pardon." - 
 
 '^ Rem acu tetigisti, Carole, mi puertile," answexsA. ths King; 
 " and know, my lords, that we have, by a shrewd device and gift 
 of our own, already sounded the very depth of this Lord Glen- 
 varloch's disposition. I trow there be among you some that 
 remember my handling in the curious case of my Lady Lake, and 
 how I trimmed them about the story of hearkening behind the 
 arras.* Now, this put me to cogitation, and I remembered me 
 of having read that Dionysius, King of Syracuse, whom historians 
 call Tipavvos, which signifieth not in the Greek tongue, as in ours, 
 a truculent usurper, but a royal king who governs, it may be , some- 
 thing more strictly than we and other lawful monarchs, whom the 
 ancients termed Boo-iXeij — Now this Dionysius of Syracuse caused 
 cunning workmen to build for himself a lug-g' — D'ye ken what that 
 is, my Lord Bishop ? " 
 
 " A cathedral, I presume to guess," answered the Bishop. 
 
 " What the deil, man — I crave your lordship's pardon for swear- 
 ing — but it was no cathedral — only a lurking-place called the king's 
 lug^, or ear, where he could sit undescried, and hear the converse of 
 his prisoners. Now, sirs, in imitation of this Dionysius, whom I 
 took for my pattern, the rather that he was a great linguist and 
 grammarian, and taught a school with good applause after his 
 abdication, (either he or his successor of the same name, it matters 
 notwhilk) — I have caused them to make a /a^^ up at the state-prison 
 of the Tower yonder, more like a pulpit than a cathedral, my Lord 
 Bishop — and communicating with the arras behind the Lieutenant's 
 chamber, where we may sit and privily hear the discourse of such 
 prisoners as are pent up there for state-offences, and so creep into 
 the very secrets of our enemies." CC 
 
386 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 The Prince cast a glance towards the Duke, expressive of great 
 vexation and disgust. Buckingham shrugged his shoulders, but 
 the motion was so slight as to be almost imperceptible. 
 
 " Weel, my lords, ye ken the fray at the hunting this morning — 
 I shall not get out of the trembling exies until I have a sound 
 night's sleep— just after that, they bring ye in a pretty page that 
 had been found in the Park. We were warned against examining 
 him ourselves by the anxious care of those around us j neverthe- 
 less, holding our life ever at the service of these kingdoms, we com- 
 manded aU to avoid the room, the rather that we suspected this 
 boy to be a girl. What think ye, my lords ? — few of you would 
 have thought I had a hawk's eye for sic gear ; but we thank God, 
 that though we are old, we know so much of such toys as may 
 beseem a man of decent gravity. Weel, my lords, we questioned 
 this maiden in male attire ourselves, and I profess it was a very 
 pretty interrogatory, and well followed. For, though she at first 
 professed that she assumed this disguise in order to countenance 
 the woman who should present us with the Lady Hermione's peti- 
 tion, for whom she professed entire affection ; yet when we, sus- 
 pecting anguis in herba, did put her to the very question, she was 
 compelled to own a virtuous attachment for Glenvarlochides, in 
 such a pretty passion of shame and fear, that we had much ado to 
 keep our own eyes from keeping company with hers in weeping. 
 Also, she laid before us the false practices of this Dalgarno towards 
 Glenvarlochides, inveigling him into houses of ill-resort, and giving 
 him evil counsel under pretext of sincere friendship, whereby the 
 inexperienced lad was led to do what ,was prejudicial to himself 
 and offensive to us. But, however prettily she told her tale, we de- 
 termined not altogether to trust to her narration, but rather to try 
 the experiment whilk we had devised for such occasions. And 
 having ourselves speedily passed from Greenwich to the Tower, we 
 constituted ourselves eavesdropper, as it is called, to observe what 
 should pass between Glenvarlochides and his page, whom we caused 
 to be admitted to his apartment, well judging that if they were of 
 counsel together to deceive us, it could not be but something of it 
 would spunk out— And what think ye we saw, my lords ?— Naething 
 for you to sniggle and laugh at, Steenie— for I question if you could 
 have played the temperate and Christian-like part of this poor lad 
 Glenvarloch. He might be a Father of the Church in comparison 
 to you, man.— And then, to try his patience yet farther, we loosed 
 on him a courtier and a citizen, that is Sir Mungo Malagrowther 
 and our servant George Heriot here, wha dang the poor lad about, 
 and didna greatly spare our royal selves.— You mind, Geordie, what 
 you said about the wives and concubines ? but I forgie ye, man— 
 nae need of kneeling, I forgie ye— the readier that it regards a 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL, 387 
 
 certain'particular, wliilk, as it added not much to Solomon s credit, 
 the lack of it cannot be said to impinge on ours. Aweel, my lords, 
 for all temptation of sore distress and evil ensample, this poor lad 
 never loosed his tongue on us to say one unbecoming word — 
 which inclines us the rather, acting always by your wise advice, to 
 treat this affair of the Park as a thing done in the heat of blood, 
 and under strong provocation, and therefore to confer our free 
 pardon on Lord Glenvarloch." 
 
 " I am happy your gracious Majesty," said the Duke of Bucking- 
 ham, " has arrived at that conclusion, though I could never have 
 guessed at the road by which you attained it." 
 
 " I trust," said Prince Charles, " that it is not a path which your 
 Majesty will think it consistent with your high dignity to tread 
 frequently." 
 
 " Never while I live again, Baby Charles, that I give you my 
 royal word on. They say that hearkeners hear ill tales of them- 
 selves — ^by my saul, my very ears are tingling wi' that auld sorrow 
 Sir Mungo's sarcasms. He called us close-fisted, Steenie — I am 
 sure you can contradict that. But it is mere envy in the auld 
 mutilated sinner, because he himself has neither a noble to hold in 
 his loof, nor fingers to close on it if he had." Here the King lost 
 recollection of Sir Mungo's irreverence in chuckling over his own 
 wit, and only further alluded to it by saying—" We must give the 
 old maunderer bos in linguam— something to stop his mouth, or he 
 will rail at us from Dan to Beersheba. — And now, my lords, 
 let our warrant of mercy to Lord Glenvarloch be presently ex- 
 pedited, and he put to his freedom ; and as his estate is likely to 
 go so sleaveless a gate, we will consider what means of favour we 
 can show him.— My lords, I wish you an appetite to an early 
 supper — for our labours have approached that term.— Baby Charles 
 and Steenie, you will remain till our couchee.— My Lord Bishop, 
 you will be pleased to stay to bless our meat. — Geordie Heriot, a 
 word with you apart." 
 
 " His Majesty then drew the citizen into a corner, while the 
 counsellors, those excepted who had been commanded to remain, 
 made their obeisance, and withdrew. " Geordie," said the King, 
 "my good and trusty servant " — Here he busied his fingers much 
 with the points and ribbons of his dress,—" Ye see that we have 
 granted, from our own natural sense of right and justice, that which 
 yon long-backed^ fallow, Moniplies I think they ca' him, prof- 
 fered to purchase from us with a migh'ty bribe ; whilk we refused, 
 as being a crowned King, who wad neither sell our justice nor 
 mercy for pecuniar consideration. Now, what think ye should be 
 
 the upshot ofthis?" 
 
 C c 2 
 
3B8 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 "My Lord GlenvarloGh's freedom, and his restoration ifi your 
 Majesty's favour," said Heriot. 
 
 " I ken that," said the King, peevishly. " Ye are very dull to-day. 
 I mean, what do you think this fallow Moniplies should think 
 about the matter ? " 
 
 " Surely that your Majesty is a most good and gracious sovereign," 
 answered Heriot. 
 
 " We had need to be gude and gracious baith," said the King, 
 still more pettishly, " that have idiots about us that cannot under- 
 stand what we mint at, imless we speak it out in braid Lowlands. 
 See this chield Moniplies, sir, and tell him what we have done for 
 Lord Glenvarloch, in whom he takes such part, out of our own 
 gracious motion, though we refused to do it on oriy proffer of private 
 advantage. Now, you may put it till him, as if of your own mind, 
 whether it will be a gracious or a dutiful part in him, to press us for 
 present payment of the two or three hundred miserable pounds for 
 whilk we were obliged to obignorate our jewels ? Indeed, mony 
 men may think ye wad do the part of a good citizen, if you took it 
 on yourself to refuse him payment, seeing he hath had what he 
 professed to esteem full satisfaction, and considering, moreover, 
 that it is evident he hath no pressing need of the money, whereof 
 we have much necessity." 
 
 George Heriot sighed internally. " O, my Master," thought he— 
 " my dear Master, is it then fated you are never to indulge any 
 kingly or noble sentiment, without it's being sullied by some after- 
 thought of interested selfishness ! " 
 
 The King troubled himself not about what he thought, but taking 
 him by the collar, said, — " Ye ken my meaning now, Jingler— awa 
 wi' ye. You are a wise man— manage it your ain gate — but forget 
 not oiir present straits." The citizen made his obeisance, and 
 withdrew. 
 
 " And now, bairns," said the King, " what do you look upon each 
 other for — and what have you got to ask of your dear dad and 
 gossip ? " 
 
 " Only," said the Prince, " that it would please your Majesty to 
 command the lurking-place at the prison to be presently built up — 
 the groans of a captive should not be brought in evidence against 
 him." 
 
 " What ! build up my lugg, Baby Charles ? And yet, better deaf 
 than hear ill tales of oneself. So let them build it up, hard and 
 fast, without delay, the rather that my back is sair with sitting in it 
 for a whole hour. — And now let us see what the cooks have been 
 doii>g for us, bonny bairns." 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 389 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIV. 
 
 To this brave man the knignt repairs 
 For counsel in his law affairs ; 
 And found him mounted in his pew, 
 With books and money placed for show, 
 Like nest-eggs to make clients lay. 
 And for his false opinion pay. 
 
 Hicdibras. 
 
 Our readers may recollect a certain smooth-tongued, lank- 
 haired, buckram-suited, Scottish scrivener, who, in the early portion 
 of this history, appeared in the character of a protegd of George 
 Heriot. It is to his house we are about to remove, but times 
 have changed with him. The petty booth hath become a chamber 
 of importance — ^the buckram suit is changed into black velvet ; and 
 although the wearer retains his puritanical humility and politeness 
 to clients of consequence, he can now look others broad in the face, 
 and treat them with a full allowance of superior opulence, and the 
 insolence arising from it. It was but a short period that had achieved 
 these alterations, nor was the party himself as yet entirely ac- 
 customed to them, but the change was becoming less embarrassing 
 to him with every day's practice. Among other acquisitions of 
 wealth, you may see one of Davy Ramsay's best timepieces on the 
 table, and his eye is frequently observing its revolutions, while a 
 boy, whom he employs as a scribe, is occasionally sent out to com- 
 pare its progress with the clock of Saint Dunstan. 
 
 The scrivener himself seemed considerably agitated. He took 
 from a strong-box a bundle of parchments, and read passages of 
 them with great attention ; then began X.o soliloquize — " There is 
 no outlet which law can suggest — no back-door of evasion — none — 
 if the lands of Glenvarloch are not redeemed before it rings noon, 
 Lord Dalgarno has them a cheap pennyworth. Strange, that he 
 should have been at last able to set his patron at defiance, and 
 achieve for himself the fair estate, with the prospect of which he 
 so long flattered the powerful Buckingham. — Might not Andrew 
 Skurliewhitter nick him as neatly ? He hath been my patron — 
 true — not more than Buckingham was his ; and he can be so no 
 more, for he departs presently for Scotland. I am glad of it — I 
 hate him, and I fear him. He knows too many of my secrets — I 
 know too many of his. But, no — no — no — I need never attempt it, 
 there are no means of over-reaching him. — Well, Willie, what 
 o'clock?" 
 
390 THE FORTUNES Of NlUJiU 
 
 " Ele'en hours just chappit, sir." 
 
 " Go to your desk without, child," said the scrivener. " What to 
 do next— I shall lose the old Earl's fair business, and, what is 
 worse, his son's foul practice. Old Heriot looks too close into busi- 
 ness to permit me more than the paltry and ordinary dues. The 
 Whitefriars business was profitable, but it has become unsafe ever 
 since — pah !— what brought that in my head just now ? I can 
 hardly hold my pen— if men should see me in this way ! — ^Willie," 
 (calling aloud to the boy,) " a cup of distilled waters — Soh ! — now I 
 could face the devil." 
 
 He spoke the last words aloud, and close by the door of the 
 apartment, which was suddenly opened by Richie Moniplies, fol- 
 lowed by two gentlemen, and attended by two porters bearing 
 money-bags. " If ye can face the devil, Maister Skurliewhitter," 
 said Richie, " ye will be the less likely to turn your back on a sack or 
 twa o' siller, which I have ta'en the freedom to bring you. Satha- 
 nas and Mammon are near akin." The porters, at the same time, 
 ranged their load on the floor. 
 
 " I — I," — stammered the surprised scrivener — " I cannot guess 
 what you mean, sir." 
 
 " Only that I have brought you the redemption-money on the 
 part of Lord Glenvarloch, in discharge of a certain mortgage over 
 his family inheritance. And here, in good time, comes Master 
 Reginald Lowestoffe, and another honourable gentleman of the 
 Temple, to be witnesses to the transaction." 
 
 "I — I incline to think," said the scrivener, "that the term is 
 expired." 
 
 " You will pardon us. Master Scrivener," said Lowestoffe. " You 
 will not baffle us — it wants three-quarters of noon by every clock 
 in the city." 
 
 " I must have time, gentlemen," said Andrew, " to examine the 
 gold by tale and weight." 
 
 " Do so at your leisure. Master Scrivener," replied Lowestoffe 
 again. " We have already seen the contents of each sack told and 
 weighed, and we have put our seals on them. There they stand in 
 a row, twenty in number, each containing three hundred yellow- 
 hammers — we are witnesses to the lawful tender." 
 
 " Gentlemen," said the scrivener, " this security now belongs to a 
 mighty lord. I pray you, abate your haste, and let me send for 
 Lord Dalgarno, — or rather I will run for him myself." 
 
 So saying, he took up his hat ; but Lowestoffe called out, — 
 " P'riend Moniplies, keep the door fast, an thou be'st a man ! he 
 seeks but to put off the time.— In plain terms, Andrew, you may send 
 for the devil, if you will, who is the mightiest lord of my acquaint- 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 391 
 
 ance, but from hence you stir not till you have answered our pro- 
 position, by rejecting or accepting the redemption-money fairly 
 tendered — there it lies, — take it, or leave it, as you will. I have 
 skill enough to know that the law is mightier than any lord in 
 Britain — I have learned so much at the Temple, if I have learned 
 nothing else. And see that you trifle not with it, lest it make your 
 long ears an inch shorter, Master Skurliewhitter." 
 
 " Nay, gentlemen, if you threaten me," said the scrivener, " I 
 cannot resist compulsion." 
 
 " No threats — no threats at all, my little Andrew," said Lowes- 
 toffe ; " a little friendly advice only — forget not, honest Andrew, I 
 have seen you in Alsatia." 
 
 Without answering a single word, the scrivener sat down, and 
 drew in proper form a full receipt for the money proffered. 
 
 " I take it on your report, Master Lowestoffe," he said ; " 1 hope 
 you will remember I have insisted neither upon weight nor tale — 
 I have been civil — if there is deficiency I shall come to loss." 
 
 • Fillip his nose with a gold-piece, Richie," quoth the Templar. 
 " Take up the papers, and now wend we merrily to dine thou wot'st 
 where." 
 
 " If I might choose," said Richie, " it should not be at yonder 
 roguish ordinary ; but as it is your pleasure, gentlemen, the treat 
 shall be given wheresoever you will have it." 
 
 " At the ordinary," said the one Templar, 
 
 " At Beaujeu's," said the other ; " it is the only house in London 
 for neat wines, nimble drawers, choice dishes, and " 
 
 " And high charges," quoth Richie Moniplies. " But, as I said 
 before, gentlemen, ye have a right to command me in this thing, 
 having so frankly rendered me your service in this small matter of 
 business, without other stipulation than that of a slight banquet." 
 
 The latter part of this discourse passed in the street, where, im- 
 mediately afterwards, they met Lord Dalgarno. He appeared in 
 haste, touched«his hat slightly to Master Lowestoffe, who returned 
 his reverence with the same negligence, and walked slowly on with 
 his companion, while Lord Dalgarno stopped Richie Moniplies 
 with a commanding sign, which the instinct of education compelled 
 Moniplies, though indignant, to obey. 
 
 " Whom do you now follow, sirrah ? " demanded the noble. 
 
 " Whomsoever goeth before me, my lord," answered Moniplies. 
 
 " No sauciness, you knave — I desire to know if you still serve 
 Nigel Olifaunt ? " said Dalgarno. 
 
 " I am friend to the noble Lord Glenvarloch," answered Moni- 
 plies, with dignity. 
 
 " True," replied Lord Dalgarno, " that noble lord has sunk to seek 
 
392 Thji fUKiuisiia ur imujii^. 
 
 friends among lackeys— Nevertheless,— hark thee hither,— never- 
 theless, if he be of the same mind as when we last met, thou mayst 
 show him, that, on to-morrow, at four afternoon, I shall pass north- 
 ward by Enfield Chase — I will be slenderly attended, as I design 
 to send my train through Barnet. It is my purpose to ride an easy 
 pace through the forest, and to linger a while by Camlet Moat— he 
 knows the place ; and, if he be .aught but an Alsatian bully, will 
 think it fitter for some purposes' than the Park. He is, I under- 
 stand, at liberty, or shortly to be so. .If he fail me at the place 
 nominated, he must seek me in Scotland, where he will find me 
 possessed of his father's estate and lands." 
 
 " Humph ! " muttered Richie ; " there go twa words to that 
 bargain." 
 
 He even meditated a joke on the means which he was conscious 
 he possessed of baffling Lord Dalgarno's expectations ; but there 
 was something of keen and dangerous excitement in the eyes of the 
 young nobleman, which prompted his discretion for once to rule his 
 wit, and he only answered — 
 
 " God grant your lordship may well brook your new conquest — 
 when you get it. I shall do your errand to my lord — whilk is to 
 say," he added internally, " he shall never hear a word of it from 
 Richie. I am not the lad to put him in such hazard." 
 
 Lord Dalgarno looked at him sharply for a moment, as if to 
 penetrate the meaning of the dry ironical tone, which, in spite of 
 Richie's awe, mingled wtth his answer, and then waved his hand, 
 in signal he should pass on. He himself walked slowly till the trio 
 were out of sig'ht, then turned back with hasty steps to the door of 
 the scrivener, which he had passed in his progress, knocked, and 
 was admitted. 
 
 Lord Dalgarno found the man of law with the money-bags still 
 standing before him ; and it escaped not his penetrating glance, 
 that Skurliewhitter was disconcerted and alarmed at his approach. 
 
 " How now, man," he said ; " what ! hast thou not a word of oily 
 compliment to me on my happy marriage ? — not a word of most 
 philosophical consolation on my disgrace at Court ? — Or has my 
 mien, as a wittol and discarded favourite, the properties of the 
 Gorgon's head, the turbatcs Palladis arma, as Majesty might 
 say?" 
 
 " My lord, I am glad— my lord, I am sorry,"— answered the 
 trembUng scrivener, who, aware of the vivacity of Lord Dalgarno's 
 temper, dreaded the consequence of the communication he had to 
 make to him. 
 
 " Glad and sorry ! " answered Lord Dalgarno. " That is blowing 
 hot and cold, with a witness. Hark ye, you picture of petty- 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 393 
 
 larceny personified — if you are sorry I am a cuclcold, remember I 
 am only mine own, you knave— there is too little blood in her 
 cheeks to have sent her astray elsewhere. Well, I will bear mine 
 antler'd honours as I may — gold shall gild them ; and for my dis- 
 grace, revenge shall sweeten it. Ay, revenge — and there strikes 
 the happy hour ! " 
 
 The hour of noon was accordingly heard to peal from Saint 
 Dunstan's. " Well banged, brave hammers I " said Lord Dalgarno, 
 in triumph. — " The estate and lands of Glenvarloch are crushed 
 beneath these clanging blows. If my steel to-morrow prove but as 
 true as your iron maces to-day, the poor landless lord will little 
 miss what your peal hath cut him out from. — The papers — the 
 papers, thou varlet ! I am to-morrow Northward, ho ! At four, 
 afternoon, I am bound to be at Camlet Moat, in the Enfield Chase. 
 To-night most of my retinue set forward. The papers ! — Come, 
 dispatch." 
 
 " My lord, the — the papers of the Glenvarloch mortgage — I — I 
 have them not." 
 
 " Have them not ! " echoed Lord Dalgarno, — " Hast thou sent 
 them to my lodging, thou varlet .'' Did I not say I was coming 
 hither? — What mean you by pointing to that money? What 
 villainy have you done for it ? It is too large to be come honestly by." 
 
 " Your lordship knows best," answered the scrivener, in great 
 perturbation. " The gold is your own. It is — it is "- — 
 
 " Not the redemption-money of the Glenvarloch estate ! " said 
 Dalgarno. " Dare not say it is, or I will, upon the spot, divorce 
 your pettifogging soul from your carrion carcass ! " So saying, he 
 seized the scrivener by the collar, and shook him so vehemently, 
 that he tore it from the cassock. 
 
 " My lord, I must call for help," said the trembling caitiff, who 
 felt at that moment all the bitterness of the niortal agony — " It was 
 the law's act, not mine. What could I do ?" 
 
 " Dost ask ? — why, thou snivelling dribblet of damnation, were 
 all thy oaths, tricks, and lies spent ? or do you hold yourself too 
 good to utter them] in my service ? Thou shouldst have lied, 
 cozened, out-sworn truth itself, rather than stood betwixt me and 
 my revenge ! But mark me," he continued ; " I know more 
 your pranks than would hang thee. A line from me to the Attorney- 
 General, and thou art sped." 
 
 " What would you have me to do, my lord ? " said the scrivener. 
 " All that art and law can accomplish, I will try." 
 
 " Ah, are you converted ? do so, or pity of your life ! " said the 
 lord ; " and remember I never fail my word. — Then keep that ac- 
 cursed gold," he continued. " Or, stay, I will not trust you — send 
 
me this gold home presently to my lodging. I will still forward to 
 Scotland, and it shall go hard but that I hold out Glenvarloch 
 Castle against the owner, by means of the ammunition he has him- 
 self furnished. Thou art ready to serve me ? " The scrivener pro- 
 fessed the most implicit obedience. 
 
 " Then remember, the hour was past ere payment was tendered 
 — and see thou hast witnesses of trusty memory to prove that 
 point." 
 
 " Tush, my lord, I will do more," said Andrew, reviving — " I will 
 prove that Lord Glenvarloch's friends threatened, swaggered, and 
 drew swords on me. — ^Did your lordship think I was ungrateful 
 enough to have sufifered them to prejudice your lordship, save that 
 they had bare swords at my throat ? " 
 
 " Enough said," replied Dalgarno ; " you are perfect — mind that 
 you continue so, as you would avoid my fury. I leave my page 
 below — get porters, and let them follow me instantly with the 
 gold." 
 
 So saying, Lord Dalgarno left the scrivener's habitation. 
 
 Skurliewhitter, having dispatched his boy to get porters of trust 
 for transporting the money, remained alone and in dismay, meditat- 
 ing by what means he could shake himself free of the vindictive 
 and ferocious nobleman, who possessed at once a dangerous 
 knowledge of his character, and the power of exposing him, where 
 exposure would be ruin. He had indeed acquiesced in the plan, 
 rapidly sketched, for obtaining possession of the ransomed estate, 
 but his experience, foresaw that this would be impossible ; while, 
 on the other hand, he could not anticipate the various consequences 
 of Lord Dalgarno's resentment, without fears, from which his sordid 
 soul recoiled. To be in the power, and subject both to the humours 
 and the extortions of a spendthrift young lord, just when his 
 industry had shaped out the means of fortune, — it was the most 
 cruel trick which fate could have played the incipient usurer. 
 
 While the scrivener was in this fit of anxious anticipation, one 
 knocked at the door of the apartment ; and, being desired to enter, 
 appeared in the coarse riding-cloak of uncut Wiltshire cloth, 
 fastened by a broad leather belt and brass buckle, which was then 
 generally worn by graziers and countrymen. Skurliewhitter, 
 believing he saw in his visitor a country client who might prove 
 profitable, had opened his mouth to request him to be seated, when 
 the stranger, throwing back his frieze hood which he had drawn 
 over his face, showed the scrivener features well imprinted in his 
 recollection, but which he never saw without a disposition to swoon. 
 
 " Is it you ? " he said, faintly, as the stranger replaced the hood 
 which concealed his features. 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 39S 
 
 " Who else should it be ? " said his visitor. 
 
 " Thou son of parchment, got betwixt the inkhorn 
 And the stuff'd process-bag — that mayest ca.» 
 The pen thy father, and the ink thy mother, 
 The wax thy brother, and the sand thy sister. 
 And the good pillory thy cousin allied — 
 Rise, and do reverence unto me, thy better ! " 
 
 " Not yet down to the country," said the scrivener, "after every 
 warning ? Do not think your grazier's cloak will bear you out, 
 captain — no, nor your scraps of stage-plays." 
 
 " Why, what would you have me to do ? " said the captain — 
 " Would you have me starve ? If I am to fly, you must eke my 
 wings with a few feathers. You can spare them, I think." 
 
 " You had means already — vou have had ten pieces — What is 
 become of them ? " 
 
 " Gone," answered Captain Colepepper — " Gone, no matter where 
 — I had a mind to bite, and I was bitten, that's all — I think my 
 hand shook at the thought of t'other night's wor'- for I trowled the 
 doctors like a very baby." 
 
 " And you have lost all, then ? — Well, take this and be gone," 
 said the scrivener. 
 
 " What, two poor smelts ! Marry, plague of your bounty !— But 
 remember, you are as deep in as I." 
 
 " Not so, by Heaven ! " answered the scrivener ; " I only thought 
 of easing the old man of some papers and a trifle of his gold, and 
 you took his life." 
 
 " Were he living," answered Colepepper, " he would rather have 
 lost it than his money.— But that is not the question. Master 
 Skurliewhitter— you undid the private bolts of the window when 
 you visited him about some affairs on the day ere he died — so 
 satisfy yourself, that, if I am taken, I will not swing alone. Pity 
 Jack Hempsfield is dead, it spoils the old catch. 
 
 And three merry men, and three merry men. 
 And three merry men are we, 
 As ever did sing three parts in a string, 
 All under the triple tree.' " ■ 
 
 " For God's sake, speak lower," said the scrivener ; " is this a 
 place or time to make your midnight catches heard ?— But how much 
 will serve your turn ? I tell you I am but ill provided." 
 
 " You tell me a lie, then," said the bully — " a most palpable and 
 gross lie. — How much, d'ye say, will serve my turn ? Why, one of 
 these bags will do for the present.' 
 
396 THE fUKluNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 " I swear to you that these bags of money are not at my 
 disposal." 
 
 "Not honestly, perhaps," said the captain, "but that makes 
 little difference betwixt us." 
 
 " I swear to you," continued the scrivener, " they are in no way at 
 my disposal— they have been delivered to me by tale — I am to pay 
 them over to Lord Dalgamo, whose boy waits for them, and I could 
 not skelder one piece out of them, without risk of hue and cry." 
 
 "Can you not put off the delivery?" said the bravo, his huge 
 hand still fumbling with one of the bags, as if his fingers longed to 
 close on it. 
 
 " Impossible," said the scrivener, " he sets forward to Scotland 
 to-morrow." 
 
 " Ay ! " said the bully," after a moment's thought— Travels he the 
 north road with such a charge ? " 
 
 " He is well accompanied," added the scrivener ; " but yet " 
 
 " But yet — ^but what ? " said the bravo. 
 
 " Nay, I meant nothing," said the scrivener. 
 
 " Thou didst — thou hadst the wind of some good thing," replied 
 Colepepper ; " I saw thee pause like a setting dog. Thou wilt say 
 as little, and make as sure a sign, as a well-bred spaniel." 
 
 " All I meant to say, captain, v/as, that his servants go by Barnet, 
 and he himself with his page, pass through Enfield Chase ; and he 
 spoke to me yesterday of riding a soft pace.'' 
 
 " Aha ! — Comest thou to me there, my boy ? " 
 
 " And of resting," — continued the scrivener, — " resting a space at 
 Camlet Moat." 
 
 " Why, this is better than cock-fighting ! " said the captain. 
 
 " I see not how it can advantage you, captain," said the scrivener. 
 " But, however, they cannot ride fast, for his page rides the sumpter- 
 horse, which carries all that weight," pointing to the money on the 
 table. " Lord Dalgarno looks sharp to the world's gear." 
 
 " That horse will be obliged to those who may ease him of his 
 burden," said the bravo ; and, egad, he may be met with. — He hath 
 still that page — that same Lutin — that goblin ? Well, the boy hath 
 set game for me ere now. I will be revenged, too, for I owe him 
 a grudge for an old score at the ordinaiy. Let me see — Black 
 Feltham, and Dick Shakebag — we shall want a fourth — I love to 
 make sure, and the booty will stand parting, besides what I can 
 bucket them out of. Well, scrivener, lend me two pieces. — Bravely 
 done— nobly imparted ; Give ye good-den." And wrapping his 
 disguise closer around him, away he went. 
 
 When he had left the room, the scrivener wrung his hands ana 
 exclaimed, " More blood— more blood ! I thought to have done with 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 397 
 
 it, but this time there was no fault with me— none— and then I shall 
 have all the advantage. If this ruffian falls, there is truce with his 
 tugs at my purse-strings j and if Lord Dalgarno dies — as is most 
 likely, for though as much afraid of cold steel as a debtor of a dun, 
 this fellow is a deadly shot from behind a bush, — then am I in a 
 thousand ways safe— safe— safe." 
 We willingly drop the curtain over him arid his reflections. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXV. 
 
 We are not worst at once — the course of evil 
 Begins so slowly, and from such slight source, 
 An infant's hand might stem its breach with clay ; 
 But let the stream get deeper, and philosophy- 
 Ay, and religion too, — shall strive in vain 
 To turn the headlong torrent. 
 
 Old Play. 
 
 The Templars had been regaled by our friend Richie 
 Moniplies in a private chamber at Beaujeu's, where he might be 
 considered as good company ; for he had exchanged his serving- 
 man's cloak and jerkin for a grave yet handsome- suit of clothes, in 
 the fashion of the times, but such as might have befitted an older 
 man than himself. He had positively declined presenting himself 
 at the ordinary, a point to which his companions were very desirous 
 to have brought him, for it will be easily believed that such wags 
 as Lowestoffe and his companion were not indisposed to a httle 
 merriment at the expense of the raw and pedantic Scotsman ; 
 besides the chance of easing him of a few pieces, of which he ap- 
 peared to have acquired considerable command. But not even a 
 succession of measures of sparkling sack, in which the little brilliant 
 atoms circulated like motes in the sun's rays, had the least effect on 
 Richie's sense of decorum. He retained the gravity of a judge, 
 even while he drank like a fish, partly from his own natural in- 
 clination to good liquor, partly in the way of good fellowship 
 towards his guests. When the wine began to make some innova- 
 tion on their heads. Master Lowestoffe, tired, perhaps, of the 
 humours of Richie, who began to become yet more stoically contra- 
 dictory and dogmatical than even in the earlier part of the enter- 
 tainment, proposed to his friend to break up their debauch and 
 join the gamesters. 
 
395 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 The drawer was called accordingly, and Richie discharged the 
 reckoning of the party, with a generous remuneration to the at- 
 tendants, which was received with cap and knee, and many 
 assurances of—" Kindly welcome, gentlemen." 
 
 " I grieve we should part so soon, gentlemen," said Richie to his 
 companions, — " and I would you had cracked another' quart ere 
 you went, or stayed to take some slight matter of supper, and a 
 glass of Rhenish. I thank you, however, for having graced my 
 poor collation thus far ; and I commend you to fortune, in your 
 own courses, for the ordinary neither was, is, nor shall be, an element 
 of mine." 
 
 " Fare thee well, then," said Lowestoffe, " most sapient and 
 sententious Master Moniphes. .May you soon have another mort- 
 gage to redeem, and may I be there to witness it ; and may you 
 play the good fellow as heartily as you have done this day." 
 
 " Nay, gentlemen, it is merely of your grace to say so — but, if 
 you would but hear me speak a few words of admonition respecting 
 this wicked ordinary " 
 
 " Reserve the lesson, most honourable Richie," said Lowestoffe, 
 " until I have lost all my money," showing, at the same time, a 
 purse indifferently well provided, " and then the lecture is likely to 
 have some weight." 
 
 "And keep my share of it, Richie," said the other Templar, 
 showing an almost empty purse, in his turn, " till this be full again, 
 and then I will promise to hear you with some patience." 
 
 " Ay, ay, gallants," said Richie, " the full and the empty gang 
 a' ae gate, and that is a grey one — but the time will come." 
 
 " Nay, it is come already," said Lowestoffe ; " they have set out 
 the hazard table. Since you will peremptorily not go with us, why, 
 farewell, Richie." 
 
 " And farewell, gentlemen," said Richie, and left the house, into 
 which they had returned. 
 
 Moniplies was not many steps from the door, when a person, 
 whom, lost in his reflections on gaming, ordinaries, and the manners 
 of the age, he had not observed, and who had been as negligent on 
 his part, ran full against him ; and, when Richie desired to know 
 whether he meant " ony incivility," replied by a curse on Scotland, 
 and all that belonged to it. A less round reflection on his country 
 would, at any time, have provoked Richie, but more especially when 
 he had a double quart of canary and better in his pate. He was 
 about to give a very lough answer, and to second his word by 
 action, when a closer view of his antagonist changed his purpose. 
 
 " You are the vera lad in the warld," said Richie, " whom I most 
 wished to meet." 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 399 
 
 " And you," answered the stranger, " or any of your beggarly 
 countrymen, are the last sight I should ever wish to see. You Scots 
 are ever fair and false, and an honest man cannot thrive within 
 eyeshot of you." 
 
 " As to our poverty, friend," replied Richie, " that is as Heaven 
 pleases ; but touching our falset, I'll prove to you that a Scotsman 
 bears as leal and true a heart to his friend as ever beat in English 
 doublet." 
 
 " I care not whether he does or not," said the gallant. " Let me 
 go— why keep you hold of my cloak ? Let me go, or I will thrust 
 you into the kennel." 
 
 " I beheve I could forgie ye, for you did me a good turn once, 
 in plucking me out of it," said the Scot. 
 
 " Beshrew my fingers, then, if they did so," replied the stranger. 
 " I would your whole country lay there, along with you, and 
 Heaven's curse blight the hand that helped to raise them ! — Why 
 do you stop my way ? " he added, fiercely. 
 
 " Because it is a bad one. Master Jenkin," said Richie. " Nay, 
 never start about it, man— you see you are known. Alack-a- day ! 
 that an honest man's son should live to start at hearing himself 
 called by his own name ! " Jenkin struck his brow violently with 
 his clenched fist. 
 
 " Come, come," said Richie, "this passion availeth nothing. Tell 
 me what gate go you ? " 
 
 " To the devil ! " answered Jin Vin. 
 
 " That is a black gate, if you speak according to the letter,'' 
 answered Richie ; " but if metaphorically, there are worse places in 
 this great city than the Devil Tavern ; and I care not if I go 
 thither with you, and bestow a pottle of burnt sack on you — it will 
 correct the crudities of my stomach, and form a gentle preparative 
 for the leg of a cold pullet." • 
 
 " I pray you, in good fashion, to let me go,'' said Jenkin, " You 
 may mean me kindly, and I wish you to have no wrong at my hand ; 
 but I am in the humour to be dangerous to myself, or any one." 
 
 " I will abide the risk," said the Scot, " if you will but come 
 with me ; and here is a place convenient, a howfif nearer than the 
 Devil, whilk is but an ill-omened drowthy name for a tavern. This 
 other of the Saint Andrew is a quiet place, where I have ta'en my 
 whetter now and then, when I lodged in the neighbourhood of the 
 Temple with Lord Glenvarloch. — What the deil's the matter wi' the 
 man, garr'd him gie sic a spang as that, and almaist brought himself 
 and me on the causeway ? " 
 
 " Do not name that false Scot's name to me," said Jin Vin, "if 
 you would not have me go mad ! — I was happy before I saw him — 
 
400 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 he has been the cause of all the ill that has befallen me — he has 
 made a knave and a madman of me ! " 
 
 " If you are a knave," said Richie, " you have met an officer — if 
 you are daft, you have met a keeper ; but a gentle officer and a 
 kind keeper. Look you, my good friend, there has been twenty 
 things said about this same lord, in which there is no more truth 
 than in the leasings of Mahound. The warst they can say of 
 him is, that he is not always so amenable to good advice as I 
 would pray him, you, and every young man to be. Come wi' me — 
 just come ye wi' me ; and, if^a httle spell of siller and a great deal 
 of excellent counsel can relieve your occasions, all I can say is, you 
 have had the luck to meet one capable of giving you both, and 
 maist willing to bestow them." 
 
 The pertinacity of the Scot prevailed over the suUenness of 
 Vincent, who was indeed in a state of agitation and incapacity to 
 think for himself, which led him to yield the more readily to the 
 suggestions of another. He suffered himself to be dragged into the 
 small tavern which Richie recommended, and where they soon 
 found themselves seated in a snug niche, with a reeking pottle of 
 burnt sack, and a paper of sugar betwixt them. Pipes and tobacco 
 were also provided, but were only used by Richie, who had adopted 
 the custom of late, as adding considerably to the gravity and im- 
 portance of his manner, and affording, as it were, a bland and 
 pleasant accompaniment to the words of wisdom which ilowed from 
 his tongue. After they had filled their glasses, and drunk them in 
 silence, Richie repeated the question, whither his guest was going 
 when they met so fortunately. 
 
 " I told you," said Jenkin, " I was going to destruction— I mean 
 to the gaming-house. I am resolved to hazard these two or three 
 pieces, to get as much as will pay for a passage with Captain 
 Sharker, whose ship hes at Gravesend, bound for America — and so 
 Eastward, ho ! — I met one devil in the way already, who would 
 have tempted me from my purpose, but I spurned him from me — 
 you may be another for what I know. — What degree of damnation 
 do you propose for me," he added, wildly, " and what is the price 
 of it?" 
 
 " I would have you to know," answered Richie, " that I deal in 
 no such commodities, whether as buyer or seller. But if you will 
 tell me honestly the cause of your distress, I will do what is in my 
 power to help you out of it, — not being, however, prodigal of 
 promises, until I know the case ; as a learned physician only gives 
 advice when he has observed the diagnostigs." 
 
 " No one has anything to do with my affairs," said the poor lad ; 
 and folding his arms on the table, he laid his head upon them, with 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 401 
 
 the sullen dejection of the overburdened lama, wnen it throws 
 itself down to die in desperation. 
 
 Richie Moniplies, like most folk who have a good opinion of 
 themselves, was fond of the task of consolation, which at once 
 displayed his superiority, (for the consoler is necessarily, for the 
 time at least, superior to the afflicted person,) and indulged his love 
 of talking. He inflicted on the poor penitent a harangue of pitiless 
 length, stuffed full of the usual topics of the mutability of human 
 affairs— the eminent advantages of patience under affliction— the 
 folly of grieving for what hath no remedy — the necessity of taking 
 more care for the future, and some gentle rebukes on account 
 of the past, which acid he threw in to assist in subduing the 
 patient's obstinacy, as Hannibal used vinegar in cutting his way 
 through rocks. It was not in human nature to endure this flood of 
 commonplace eloquence in silence; and Jin Vin, whether desirous 
 of stopping the flow of words crammed thus into his ear, " against 
 the stomach of his sense," or whether confiding in Richie's pro- 
 testations of friendship, which the wretched, says Fielding, are ever 
 so ready to believe, or whether merely to give his sorrows vent in 
 words, raised his head, and turning his red and swollen eyes to 
 Richie — 
 
 " Cocksbones, man, only hold thy tongue, and thou shalt know 
 all about it, — and then all I ask of thee is to shake hands and 
 part. — This Margaret Ramsay, — you have seen her, man ? " 
 
 " Once," said Richie, " once, at Master George Heriot's, in 
 Lombard Street — I was in the room when they dined." 
 
 " Ay, you helped to shift their trenchers, I remember," said Jin 
 Vin. "Well, that same pretty girl — and I will uphold her the 
 prettiest betwixt Paul's and the Bar — she is to be wedded to your 
 Lord Glenvarloch, with a pestilence on him ! " 
 
 " That is impossible," said Richie ; " it is raving nonsense, man 
 — they make April gouks of you cockneys every month in the 
 year — The Lord Glenvarloch marry the daughter of a Lonnon 
 mechanic ! I would as soon believe the great Prester John would 
 marry the daughter of a Jew packman." 
 
 " Hark ye, brother," said Jin Vin, "I will allow no one to speak 
 disregardfuUy of the city, for all I am in trouble." 
 
 " I crave your pardon, man — I meant no offence," said Richie ; 
 " but as to the marriage, it is a thing simply impossible." 
 
 " It is a thing that will take place, though, for the Duke and the 
 Prince, and all of them, have a finger in it ; and especially the old 
 fool of a King, that makes her out to be some great woman In 
 her own country, as all the Scots pretend to be, you know." 
 
 "Master Vincent, but that you are under affliction," said the 
 
 P D 
 
402 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 consoler, offended on his part, "I would hear no national re- 
 flections." 
 
 The afflicted youth apologized in his turn, but asserted, "it was 
 true that the King said Peg-a-Ramsay was some far-off sort of 
 noblewoman ; and that he had taken a great interest in the match, 
 and had run about like an old gander, cackling about Peggie ever 
 since he had seen her in hose and doublet — and no wonder," 
 added poor Vin, with a deep sigh. 
 
 " This may be all true," said Richie, " though it sounds strange 
 in my ears ; but, man, you should not speak evil of dignities — 
 Curse not the King, Jenkins ; not even in thy bedchamber — stone 
 walls have ears — no one has a right to know that better than I." 
 
 " I do not curse the foolish old man," said Jenkin ; " but 1 would 
 have them carry things a peg lower. — If they were to see on a 
 plain field thirty thousand such pikes as I have seen in the 
 artillery gardens, it would not be their long-haired courtiers would 
 help them, I trow." * 
 
 " Hout tout, man," said Richie, " mind where the Stewarts come 
 frae, and never think they would want spears or claymores either ; 
 but leaving sic matters, whilk are perilous to speak on, I say once 
 more, what is your concern in all this matter ? " 
 
 " What is it ? " said Jenkin ; " why, have I not fixed on Peg-a- 
 Ramsay to be my true love, from the day I came to her old father's 
 shop ? and have I not carried her pattens and her chopines for 
 three years, and borne her prayer-book to church, and brushed 
 the cushion for her to kneel down upon, and did she ever say me 
 nay?" 
 
 " I see no cause she had," said Richie, " if the like of such small 
 services were all that ye proffered. Ah, man ! there are few — 
 very few, either of fools or of wise men, ken how to guide a 
 woman." 
 
 " Why, did I not serve her at the risk of my freedom, and very 
 nigh at the risk of my neck .' Did she not — no, it was not her 
 neither, but that accursed beldam whom she caused to work upon 
 me — persuade me like a fool to turn myself into a waterman to 
 help my lord, and a plague to him, down to Scotland ? and instead 
 of going peaceably down to the ship at Gravesend, did not he rant 
 and bully, and show his pistols, and make me land him at Green- 
 wich, where he played some swaggering pranks, that helped both 
 him and me into the Tower ? " 
 
 " Aha ! " said Richie, throwing more than his usual wisdom into 
 his looks ; " so you were the green-jacketed waterman that rowed 
 Lord Glenvarloch down the river ? " 
 " The more fool I, that did not souse him in the Thames," said 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 403 
 
 Jenkin : " and I was the lad that would not confess one word of 
 who or what I was, though they threatened to make me hug the 
 Duke of Exeter's daughter." * 
 
 " Wha is she, man ? " said Richie ; '' she must be an ill-fashioned 
 piece, if you're so much afraid of her, and she come of such high 
 kin." 
 
 " I mean the rack — the rack, man," said Jenkin. " Where were 
 you bred that never heard of the Duke of Exeter's daughter ? 
 But all the dukes and duchesses in England could have got 
 nothing out of me — so the truth came out some other way, and 
 I was set free. — Home I ran, thinking myself one of the cleverest 
 and happiest fellows in the ward. And she — she — she wanted to 
 pay me with mottey for all my true service ! and she spoke so 
 sweetly and so coldly at the same time, I wished myself in the 
 deepest dungeon of the Tower — I wish they had racked me to 
 death before I heard this Scottishman was to chouse me out of 
 my sweetheart ! " 
 
 " But are ye sure ye have lost her ? " said Richie ; " it sounds 
 strange in my ears that my Lord Glenvarloch should marry the 
 daughter of a dealer,— though there are uncouth marriages made 
 in London, I'll allow that." 
 
 "Why, I tell you this lord was no sooner clear of the Tower, 
 than he and Master George Heriot comes to make proposals for 
 her, with the King's assent, and what not ; and fine fair-day 
 prospects of Court favour for this lord, for he hath not an acre of 
 land." 
 
 " Well, and what said the auld watch-maker ? " said Richie ; 
 " was he not, as might weel beseem him, ready to loup out of his 
 skin-case for very joy? " 
 
 " He multiplied six figures progressively, and reported the pro- 
 duct — then gave his consent." 
 
 " And what did you do ? " 
 
 " I rushed into the streets," said the poor lad, " with a burning 
 heart and a blood-shot eye — and where did I first find myself, 
 but with that beldam, Mother Suddlechop — and what did she 
 propose to me, but to take the road ? " 
 
 " Take the road, man ? in what sense ? " said Richie. 
 
 "Even as a clerk to Saint Nicholas— as a highwayman, like 
 Poins and Peto, and the good fellows in the play— and who think 
 you was to be my captain ? — for she had the whole out ere I could 
 speak to her — I fancy she took silence for consent, and thought 
 me damned too unutterably to have one thought left that savoured 
 of redemption — who was to be my captain, but the knave that you 
 saw me cudgel at the ordinary when you waited on Lord Glenvar- 
 
 D D 3 
 
404 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 loch, a cowardly, sharking, thievish bully about town here, whom 
 they call Colepepper." 
 
 " Colepepper— umph— I know somewhat- of that smaik," said 
 Richie ; " ken ye by ony chance where he may be heard of. Master 
 Jenkin? — ye wad do me a sincere service to tell me." 
 
 " Why, he lives something obscurely," answered the apprentice, 
 " on account of suspicion of some villainy — I believe that horrid 
 murder in Whitefriars, or some such matter. But I might have 
 heard all about him from Dame Suddlechop, for she spoke of my 
 meeting him at Enfield Chase, with some other good fellows, to do 
 a robbery on one that goes northward with a store of treasure." 
 
 " And you did not agree to this fine project ? " said Moniplies. 
 
 " I cursed her for a hag, and came away about my business," 
 answered Jenkin. 
 
 " Ay, and what said she to that, man ? That would startle her," 
 said Richie. 
 
 " Not a whit. She laughed, and said she was in jest," answered 
 Jenkin ; "but I know the she-devil's jest from her earnest too well 
 to be taken in that way. But she knows I would never betray 
 her." 
 
 "Betray her! No," replied Richie; "but are ye in any shape 
 bound to this birkie PeppercuU, or Colepepper, or whatever they 
 call him, that she suld let him do a robbery on the honest gentle- 
 man that is travelling to the north, and may be a kindly Scot, for 
 what we know ? " 
 
 " Ay — going home with a load of English money," said Jenkin. 
 " But be he who he will, they may rob the whole world an they list, 
 for I am robbed and ruined." 
 
 Richie filled up his friend's cup to the brim, and insisted that 
 he should drink what he called " clean caup out." " This love," 
 he said, " is but a bairnly matter for a brisk young fellow like your- 
 self, Master Jenkin. And if ye must needs have a whimsy, though 
 I think it would be safer to venture on a staid womanly body, why, 
 here be as bonny lasses in London as this Peg-a-Ramsay. Ye 
 need not sigh sae deeply, for it is very true— there is as good fish 
 in the sea as ever came out of it. Now wherefore should you, who 
 are as brisk and trig a young fellow of your inches as the sun needs 
 to shine on— wherefore need you sit moping this way, and not try 
 some bold way to better your fortune ? " 
 
 " I tell you, Master Moniplies," said Jenkin, " 1 am as poor as 
 any Scot among you— I have broke my indenture, and I think of 
 running my country." 
 
 " A-well-a-day ! " said Richie ; " but that maunna be, man— I 
 ken weel, by sad experience, that poortith takes away pith, and 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. ^05 
 
 the man sits full still that has a rent in his breaks.* But courage, 
 man ; you have served me heretofore, and I ^vill serve you now. 
 If you will but bring me to speech of this same Captain, it shall be 
 the best day's work you ever did." 
 
 " I guess where you are, Master Richard— you would save your 
 countryman's long purse," said Jenkin. " I cannot see how that 
 should advantage me, but I reck not if I should bear a hand. I 
 hate that braggart, that bloody-minded, cowardly bully. If you 
 can get me mounted, I care not if I show you where the dame told 
 me I should meet him— but you must stand to the risk, for though 
 he is a coward hhnself, I know he will have more than one stout 
 fellow with him." 
 
 " We'll have a warrant, man," said Richie, " and the hue and cry, 
 to boot." 
 
 " We will have no such thing," said Jenkin, " if I am to go with 
 you. I am not the lad to betray any one to the harman-beck. You 
 must do it by manhood if I am to go with you. I am sworn to 
 cutter's law, and will sell no man's blood." 
 
 "Aweel," said Richie, "a wilful man must have his way; ye 
 must think that I was born and bred where cracked crowns were 
 plentier than whole ones. Besides, I have two noble friends here. 
 Master Lowestoife of the Temple, and his cousin Master Ringwood, 
 that will blithely be of so gallant a party." 
 
 " Lowestoffe and Ringwood ! " said Jenkin ; " they are both 
 brave gallants — they will be sure company. Know you where they 
 are to be found ? " 
 
 "Ay, marry do I," replied Richie. "They are fast at the cards 
 and dice, till the sma' hours, I warrant them." 
 
 "They are gentleman of trust and honour,'' said Jenkin, "and, 
 if they advise it, I will try the adventure. Go, try if you can bring 
 them hither, since you have so much to say with them. We must 
 not be seen abroad together. — I know not how it is, Master Moni- 
 plies," continued he, as his countenance brightened up, and while, 
 in his turn, he filled the cups, " but I feel my heart something 
 lighter since I have thought of this matter." 
 
 " Thus it is to have counsellors. Master Jenkin," said Richie ; 
 " and truly I hope to hear you say that your heart is as light as a 
 lavrock's, and that before you are many days aulder. Never smile 
 and shake your head, but mind what I tell you — and bide here in 
 the meanwhile, till I go to seek these gallants. I warrant you, 
 cart-ropes would not hold them back from such a ploy as I shall 
 propose to them." 
 
4o6 THE tORTUNliS OF NlUJiL. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVI. 
 
 The thieves have bound the true men— Now, could thou and I 
 rob the thieves, and go merrily to London. 
 
 Henry IV., Part I. 
 
 The sun was high upon the glades of Enfield Chase, and the 
 deer, with which it then abounded, were seen sporting in picturesque 
 groups among the ancient oaks of the forest, when a cavalier and a 
 lady, on foot, although in riding apparel, sauntered slowly up one of 
 the long alleys which were cut through the park for the convenience 
 of the hunters. Their only attendant was a page, who, riding a 
 Spanish jennet, which seemed to bear a heavy cloak-bag, followed 
 them at a respectful distance. The female, attired in all the fan- 
 tastic finery of the period, with more than the usual quantity of 
 bugles, flounces, and trimmings, and holding her fan of ostrich 
 feathers in one hand, and her riding-mask of black velvet in the 
 other, seemed anxious, by all the little coquetry practised on such 
 occasions, to secure the notice of her companion, who sometimes 
 heard her prattle without seeming to attend to it, and at other times 
 interrupted his train of graver reflections, to reply to her. 
 
 " Nay, but my lord — my lord, you walk so fast, you will leave me 
 behind you. — Nay, I will have hold of your arm, but how to manage 
 with my mask and my fan ? Why would you not let me bring my 
 waiting-gentlewoman to follow us, and hold my things ? But see, 
 I will put my fan in my girdle, soli ! — and now that I have a hand 
 to hold you with, you shall not run away from me." 
 
 " Come on, then," answered the gallant, " and let us walk apace 
 since you would not be persuaded to stay with your gentlewoman, 
 as you call her, and with the rest of the baggage. — You may 
 perhaps see that, though, you will not like to see." 
 
 She took hold of his arm accordingly ; but as he continued to 
 walk at the same pace, she" shortly let go her hold, exclaiming that 
 he had hurt her hand. The cavalier stopped, and looked at the 
 pretty hand and arm which she showed him, with exclamations 
 against his cruelty. " I dare say," she said, baring her wrist and a 
 part of her arm, " it is all black and blue to the very elbow." 
 
 " I dare say you are a silly little fool," said the cavalier, care- 
 lessly kissing the aggrieved arm ; " it is only a pretty incarnate 
 which sets off the blue veins." 
 
 "Nay, my lord, now it is you are silly," answered the dame; 
 " but I am glad I can make you speak and laugh on any terms 
 this morning. I am sure, if I did insist on following you into the 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 40^ 
 
 forest, it was all for the sake of diverting you. I am better com- 
 pany than your page, I trow, — And now, tell me, these pretty 
 things with horns, be they not deer?" 
 
 " Even such they be, Nelly," answered her neglectful attendant. 
 
 "And what can the great folk do with so many of them, for- 
 sooth?" 
 
 " They send them to the city, Nell, where wise men make 
 venison pasties of their flesh, and wear their horns for trophies," 
 answered Lord Dalgarno, whom our reader has already recog- 
 nised. 
 
 " Nay, now you laugh at me, my lord," answered his com- 
 panion ; " but I know all about venison, whatever you may 
 think. I always tasted it once-a-year when we dined with Mr. 
 Deputy," she continued, sadly, as a sense of her degradation 
 stole across a mind bewildered with vanity and folly, " though 
 he would not speak to me now, if we met together in the nar- 
 rowest lane in the Ward !" 
 
 " I warrant he would not," said Lord Dalgarno, "because thou, 
 Nell, wouldst dash him with a single look ; for I trust thou hast 
 more spirit than to throw away words on such a fellow as he ? " 
 
 " Who, I ! " said Dame Nelly. " Nay, I scorn the proud princox 
 too much for that. Do you know, he made all the folk in the 
 Ward stand cap in hand to him, my poor old John Christie and 
 all ?" Here her recollection began to overflow at her eyes. 
 
 "A plague on your whimpering," said Dalgarno, somewhat 
 harshly. — " Nay, never look pale for the matter, Nell. I am not 
 angry with you, you simple fooL But what would you have me 
 think, when you are eternally looking back upon your dungeon 
 yonder by the river, which smelt of pitch and old cheese worse 
 than a Welshman does of onions, and all this when I am taking 
 you down to a castle as fine as is in Fairy Land !" 
 
 "Shall we be there to-night, my lord?" said Nelly, drying her 
 tears. 
 
 " To-night, Nelly? — no, nor this night fortnight." 
 
 " Now, the Lord be with us, and keep us ! — But shall we not go 
 by sea, my lord ?— I thought everybody came from Scotland by 
 sea, I am sure Lord Glenvarloch and Richie Moniphes came up 
 by sea." 
 
 " There is a wide difference between coming up and going down, 
 Nelly," answered Lord Dalgarno. 
 
 " And so there is, for certain," said his simple companion. " But 
 yet I think I heard people speaking of going down to Scotland by 
 sea, as well as coming up. Are you well avised of the way? — Do 
 you think it possible we can go by land, my sweet lord?" 
 
4o8 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 " It is but trying, my sweet lady," said Lord Dalgarno. " Men 
 say England and Scotland are in the same island, so one would 
 hope there may be some road betwixt them by land." 
 
 " I shall never be able to ride so far," said the lady. 
 
 " We will have your saddle stuffed softer," said the lord. " I tell 
 you that you shall mew your city slough, and change from the 
 caterpillar of a paltry lane into the butterfly of a prince's garden. 
 You shall have as many tires as there are hours in the day — as 
 many handmaidens as there are days in the week — as many 
 menials as there are weeks in the year — and you shall ride a 
 hunting and hawking with a lord, instead of waiting upon an old 
 ship-chandler, who could do nothing but hawk and spit." 
 
 "Ay, but will you make me your lady?" said Dame Nelly. 
 
 " Ay, surely — what else ? " replied the lord — " My lady-love." 
 
 " Ay, but I mean your lady-wife," said Nelly. 
 
 " Truly, Nell, in that I cannot promise to oblige you. A lady- 
 wife," continued Dalgarno, " is a very different thing from a lady- 
 love." 
 
 " I heard from Mrs. Suddlechop, whom you lodged me with since 
 I left poor old John Christie, that Lord Glenvarloch is to marry 
 David Ramsay the clockmaker's daughter?" 
 
 " There is much betwixt the cup and the lip, Nelly. I wear 
 something about me may break the bans of that hopeful alliance, 
 before the day is much older," answered Lord Dalgarno. 
 
 " Well, but my father was as good a man as old Davy Ramsay, 
 and as well to pass in the world, my lord ; and, therefore, why 
 should you not marry me ? You have done me harm enough, I 
 trow — wherefore should you not do me this justice ? " 
 
 " For two good reasons, Nelly. Fate put a husband on you, and 
 the King passed a wife upon me," answered Lord Dalgarno. 
 
 " Ay, my lord," said Nelly, "but they remain in England, and 
 we go to Scotland." 
 
 " Thy argument is better than thou art aware of," said Lord 
 Dalgarno. " I have heard Scottish lawyers say the matrimonial 
 tie may be unclasped in our happy country by the gentle hand of 
 the ordinary course of law, whereas in England it can only be 
 burst by an act of Parliament. Well, Nelly, we will look into that 
 matter ? and whether we get married again or no, we will at least 
 do our best to get unmarried." 
 
 " Shall we indeed, my honey-sweet lord ? and then I will think 
 less about John Christie, for he will marry again, I warrant you, for 
 he is well to pass ; and I would be glad to think he had somebody 
 to take care of him, as I used to do, poor loving old man ! He 
 was a kind man, though he was a score of years older than I ; and 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 409 
 
 I hope and pray he will never let a young lord cross his honest 
 threshold again." 
 
 Here the dame was once more much inclined to give way to a 
 passion of tears ; but Lord Dalgarno conjured down the emotion, 
 by saying, with some asperity — " I am weary of these April 
 passions, my pretty mistress, and I think you will do well to pre- 
 serve your tears for some more pressing occasion. Who knows 
 what turn of fortune may in a few minutes call for more of them 
 than you can render ? " 
 
 " Goodness, my lord ! what mean you by such expressions ? 
 John Christie (the kind heart !) used to keep no secrets from me, 
 and I hope your lordship will not hide your counsel from me?" 
 
 " Sit down beside me on this bank," said the nobleman ; " I am 
 bound to remain here for a short space, and if you can be but 
 silent, I should like to spend a part of it in considering how far I 
 can, on the present occasion, follow the respectable example which 
 you recommend to me." 
 
 The place at which he stopped was at that time little more than 
 a mound, partly surrounded by a ditch, from which it derived the 
 name' of Camlet Moat. A few hewn stones there were, which had 
 escaped the fate of many others that had been used in building 
 different lodges in the forest for the royal keepers. These vestiges, 
 just sufficient to show that " here in former times the hand of man 
 had been," marked the ruins of the abode of a once illustrious but 
 long-forgotten family, the Mandevilles, Earls of Essex, to whom 
 Enfield Chase and the extensive domains adjacent had belonged 
 in elder days, A wild woodland prospect led the eye at various 
 points through broad and seemingly interminable alleys, which, 
 meeting at this point as at a common centre, diverged from each 
 other as they receded, and had, therefore, been selected by Lord 
 Dalgarno as the rendezvous for the combat, which, through the 
 medium of Richie Moniplies, he had offered to his injured friend. 
 Lord Glenyarloch. 
 
 " He will surely come?" he said to himself; " cowardice was not 
 wont to be his fault — at least he was bold enough in the Park. — 
 Perhaps yonder churl may not have carried my message? But no 
 — he is a sturdy knave — one of those would prize their master's 
 honour above their life. — Look to the palfrey, Lutin, and see thou 
 let him not loose, and cast thy falcon glance down every avenue to 
 mark if any one comes. — Buckingham has undergone my challenge, 
 but the proud minion pleads .the King's paltry commands for 
 refusing to answer me. If I can baffle this Glenvarloch, or slay 
 him — If I can spoil him of his honour or his life, I shall go down 
 to Scotland with credit sufficient to gild over past mischances. 1 
 
410 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 know my dear countrymen — they never quarrel with any one who 
 brings them home either gold or martial glory, much more if he 
 has both gold and laurels." 
 
 As he thus reflected, and called to mind the disgrace which he 
 had suffered, as well as the causes he imagined for hating Lord 
 Glenvarloch, his countenance altered under the influence of his 
 contending emotions, to the terror of Nelly, who, sitting unnoticed 
 at his feet, and looking anxiously in his face, beheld the cheek 
 kindle, the mouth become compressed, the eye dilated, and the 
 whole countenance express the desperate and deadly resolution of 
 one who awaits an instant and decisive encounter with a mortal 
 enemy. The loneliness of the place, the scenery so different from 
 that to which alone she had been accustomed, the dark and sombre 
 air which crept so suddenly over the countenance of her seducer, 
 his command imposing silence upon her, and the apparent strange- 
 ness of his conduct in idling away so much time without any 
 obvious cause, when a journey of such length lay before them, 
 brought strange thoughts into her weak brain. She had read of 
 women, seduced from their matrimonial duties by sorcerers allied 
 to the hellish powers, nay, by the Father of Evil himself, who, 
 after conveying his victim into some desert remote from human 
 kind, exchanged the pleasing shape in which he gained her affec- 
 tions, ior all his natural horrors. She chased this wild idea away 
 as it crowded itself upon her weak and bewildered imagination ; 
 yet she might have lived to see it realized allegorically, if not 
 literally, but for the accident which presently followed. 
 
 The page, whose eyes were remarkably acute, at length called 
 out to his master, pointing with his finger at the same time down 
 one of the alleys, that horsemen were advancing in that direction. 
 Lord Dalgarno started up, and shading his eyes with his hand, 
 gazed eagerly down the alley ; when, at the same instant, he received 
 a shot, which, gzazing his hand, passed right through his brain, and 
 laid him a lifeless corpse at the feet, or rather across the lap, of the 
 unfortunate victim of his profligacy. The countenance, whose 
 varied expression she had been watching for the last five minutes, 
 was convulsed for an instant, and then stiffened into rigidity for 
 ever; Three ruffians rushed from the brake from which the shot 
 had been fired, ere the smoke was dispersed. One, with many im- 
 precations seized on the page ; another on the female, upon whose 
 cries he strove by the most violent threats to impose silence ; whilst 
 the third began to undo the burden from the page's horse. But an 
 instant rescue prevented their availing themselves of the advantage 
 they had obtained. 
 ) It may easily be supposed that Richie Moniplies, having se- 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 411 
 
 cured the assistance of the two Templars, ready enough to join 
 in anything which promised a fray, with Jin Vin to act as their 
 guide, had set off, gallantly mounted and well armed, under the 
 belief that they would reach Camlet Moat before the robbers, and 
 apprehend them in the fact. They had not calculated that, accord- 
 ing to the custom of robbers in other countries, but contrary to that 
 of the English highwaymen of those days, they meant to ensure 
 robbery by previous murder. An accident also happened to delay 
 them a little while on the road. In riding through one of the 
 glades of the forest, they found a man dismounted and sitting under 
 a tree, groaning with such bitterness of spirit, that Lowestoffe 
 could not forbear asking if he was hurt. In answer, he said he 
 was an unhappy man in pursuit of his wife, who had been carried 
 off by a villain ; and as he raised his countenance, the eyes of 
 Richie, to his great astonishment, encountered the visage of John 
 Christie. 
 
 " For the Almighty's sake, help me. Master Moniplies I" he said; 
 " I have learned my wife is but a short mile before, with that black 
 villain Lord Dalgamo." 
 
 " Have him forward by all means," said Lowestoffe ; " a second 
 Orpheus seeking his Eurydice ! — Have him forward — we will save 
 Lord Dalgarno's purse, and ease him of his mistress — Have him 
 with us, were it but for the variety of the adventure. I owe his 
 lordship a grudge for rooking me. We have ten minutes good." 
 
 But it is dangerous to calculate closely in matters of life and 
 death. In all probability the minute or two which was lost in 
 mounting John Christie behind one of their party, might have 
 saved Lord Dalgamo from his fate. Thus his criminal amour 
 became the indirect cause of his losing his life ; and thus " our 
 pleasant vices are made the whips to scourge us." 
 
 The riders arrived on the field at full gallop the moment after the 
 shot was fired ; and Richie, who had his own reasons for attaching 
 himself to Colepepper, who was bustling to untie the portmanteau 
 from the page's saddle, pushed against him with such violence as 
 to overthrow him, his own horse at the same time stumbling and 
 dismounting his rider, who was none of the first equestrians. The 
 undaunted Richie immediately arose, however, and grappled with 
 the ruffian with such good- will, that, though a strong fellow, and 
 though a coward now rendered desperate, Moniplies got him under, 
 wrenched a long knife from his hand, dealt him a desperate stab 
 with his own weapon, and leaped on his feet ; and, as the wounded 
 man struggled to follow his example, he struck him upon the head 
 with the butt-end of a musketoon, which last blow proved fatal. 
 
 " Bravo, Richie ! " cried Lowestoffe, who had himself engaged at 
 
412 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 sword-point with one of the ruffiaps, and soon put him to flight,— 
 " Bravo ! why, man, there hes Sin, struck down like an ox, and 
 Iniquity's throat cut like a calf." 
 
 " I know not why you should upbraid me with my up-bringing, 
 Master Lowestoffe," answered Richie, with great composure ; "but 
 I can tell you, the shambles is not a bad place for training one to 
 this work." 
 
 The other Templar now shouted loudly to them,—" If ye be men, 
 come hither— here lies Lord Dalgarno, murdered ! " 
 
 Lowestoffe and Richie ran to the spot, and the page took the 
 opportunity, finding himself now neglected on all hands, to ride off 
 in a different direction ; and neither he, nor the considerable sum 
 with which his horse was burdened, were ever heard of from that 
 moment. 
 
 The third ruffian had not waited the attack of the Templar and 
 Jin Vin, the latter of whom had put down old Christie from behind 
 him that he might ride the lighter ; and the whole five now stood 
 gazing with horror on the bloody corpse of the young nobleman, 
 and the wild sorrow of the female, who tore her hair and shrieked 
 in the most disconsolate manner, until her agony was at once 
 checked, or rather received a new direction, by the sudden and un- 
 expected appearance of her husband, who, fixing on her a cold and 
 severe look, said, in a tone suited to his manner — " Ay, woman ! 
 thou takest on sadly for the loss of thy paramour." — Then, looking 
 on the bloody corpse of him from whom he had received so deep an 
 injury, he repeated the solemn words of Scripture, — " ' Vengeance 
 is mine, saith the Lord, and I will repay it.' — I, whom thou hast 
 injured, will be first to render thee the decent offices due to the 
 dead." 
 
 So saying, he covered the dead body with his cloak, and then 
 looking on it for a moment, seemed to reflect on what he had next 
 to perform. As the eye of the injured man slowly passed from the 
 body of the seducer to the partner and victim of his crime, who had 
 sunk down to his feet, which she clasped without venturing to look 
 up, his features, naturally coarse and saturnine, assumed a dignity 
 of expression which overawed the young Templars, and repulsed 
 the officious forwardness of Richie Moniplies, who was at first eager 
 to have thrust in his advice and opinion. " Kneel not to me, 
 woman," he said, " but kneel to the God thou hast offended, more 
 than thou couldst offend such another worm as thyself. How often 
 have I told thee, when thou wert at the gayest and the lightest, 
 that pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a 
 fall ? Vanity brought folly, and folly brought sin, and sin hath 
 brought death, his original companion. Thou must needs leave 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. ^13 
 
 duty, and decency, and domestic love, to revel it gaily with the wild 
 and with the wicked ; and there thou liest, like a crushed worm, 
 writhing beside the lifeless body of thy paratnour. Thou hast done 
 ine much wrong — dishonoured me among friends — driven credit 
 from my house, and peace from my fireside — But thou wert my 
 first and only love, and I will not see thee an utter cast-away, if it 
 lies with me to prevent it. — Gentlemen, I render ye such thanks as 
 a broken-hearted man can give. — Richard, commend me to your 
 honourable master. I added gall to the bitterness of his affliction, 
 but I was deluded. — Rise up, woman, and follow me." 
 
 He raised her up by the arm, while, with streaming eyes, and 
 bitter sobs, she endeavoured to express her penitence. She kept 
 her hands spread over her face, yet suffered him to lead her away ; 
 and it was only as they turned around a brake which concealed the 
 scene they had left, that she turned back, and casting one wild and 
 hurried glance towards the corpse of Dalgarno, uttered a shriek, 
 and clinging to her husband's arm, exclaimed wildly, — " Save me 
 — save me ! They have murdered him ! " 
 
 Lowestoffe was much moved by what he had witnessed ; but he 
 was ashamed, as a town-gallant, of his own unfashionable emotion, 
 and did a force to his feelings when he exclaimed, — " Ay, let them go 
 — the kind-hearted, believing, forgiving husband;— the liberal, ac- 
 commodating spouse. O what a generous creature is your true 
 London husband ! — Horns hath he, but, tame as a fatted ox, he 
 goreth not. I should like to see her when she hath exchanged her 
 mask and riding-beaver for her peaked hat and muffler. We will 
 visit them at Paul's Wharf, coz — it will be a convenient ac- 
 quaintance." 
 
 " You had better think of catching the gipsy thief, Lutin," said 
 Richie Moniplies ; " for, by my faith, he is off with his master's 
 baggage and the siller." 
 
 A keeper, with his assistants, and several other persons, had now 
 come to the spot, and made hue and cry after Lutin, but in vain. 
 To their custody the Templars surrendered the dead bodies, and 
 after going through some formal investigation, they returned, with 
 Richard and Vincent, to London, where they received great ap- 
 plause for their gallantry. — Vincent's errors were easily expiated, in 
 consideration of his having been the means of breaking up this 
 band Of villains ; and there is some reason to think, that what 
 would have diminished the credit of the action in other instances, 
 rather added to it in the actual circumstances, namely that they 
 came too late to save Lord Dalgarno. 
 
 George Heriot, who suspected how matters stood with Vincent, 
 requested and obtained permission from his master to send the 
 
414 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 poor young fellow on an important piece of business to Paris. We 
 are unable to trace his fate farther, but believe it was prosperous, 
 and that he entered into an advantageous partnership with his 
 fellow-apprentice, upon old Davy Ramsay retiring from business, 
 in consequence of his daughter's marriage. That eminent anti- 
 quary, Dr. Dryasdust, is possessed of an antique watch, with a 
 silver dial-plate, the mainspring being a piece of catgut instead of a 
 chain, which bears the names of Vincent and Tunstall, Memory- 
 Monitors. 
 
 Master Lowestoffe failed not to vindicate his character as a man 
 of gaiety, by enquiring after John Christie and Dame Nelly ; but 
 greatly to his surprise, (indeed to his loss, for he had wagered ten 
 pieces that he would domesticate himself in the family,) he found 
 the good-will, as it was called, of the shop, was sold, the stock 
 auctioned, and the late proprietor and his wife gone, no one knew 
 whither. The prevailing belief was, that they had emigrated to 
 one of the new settlements in America. 
 
 Lady Dalgarno received the news of her unworthy husband's 
 death with a variety of emotions, among which, horror that he 
 should have been cut off in the middle career of his profligacy, was 
 the most prominent. The incident greatly deepened her melan- 
 choly, and injured her health, already shaken by previous circum- 
 stances. Repossessed of her own fortune by her husband's death, 
 she was anxious to do justice to Lord Glenvarloch, by treating for 
 the recovery of the mortgage. But the scrivener, having taken 
 fright at the late events, had left the city and absconded, so that 
 it was impossible to discover into whose hands the papers had now 
 passed. Richard Moniplies was silent, for his own reasons ; 
 the Templars, who had witnessed the transaction, kept the 
 secret at his request, and it was universally believed that the 
 scrivener had carried off the writings along with him. We may 
 here observe, that fears, similar to those of Skurliewhitter freed 
 London for ever from the presence of Dame Suddlechop, who 
 ended her career in the Rasp-haus, (viz. Bridewell,) of Amsterdam. 
 
 The stout old Lord Huntinglen, with a haughty carriage and un- 
 moistened eye, accompanied the funeral procession of his only son 
 to its last abode ; and perhaps the single tear which fell at length 
 upon the coffin, was given less to the fate of the individual, than to 
 the extinction of the last male of his ancient race. 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 413 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVII. 
 
 Jacques. There is, sure, another flood toward, and these couples 
 are coming to the ark ! — Here comes a pair of very strange beasts. 
 
 As You Like It. 
 
 The fashion of such narratives as the present, changes like other 
 earthly things. Time was that the tale-teller was obliged to wind 
 up his story by a circumstantial description of the wedding, bed- 
 ding, and throwing the stocking, as the grand catastrophe to 
 which, through so many circumstances of doubt and difficulty, he 
 had at length happily conducted his hero and heroine. Not a 
 circumstance was then omitted, from the manly ardour of the bride- 
 groom, and the modest blushes of the bride, to the parson's new 
 surplice, and the silk tabinet mantua of the bridesmaid. But such 
 descriptions are now discarded, for the same reason, I suppose, 
 that public marriages are no longer fashionable, and that, instead 
 of calling together their friends to a feast and a dance, the happy 
 couple elope in a solitary post-chaise, as secretly as if they meant to 
 go to Gretna-Green, or to do worse. I am not ungrateful for a 
 change which saves an author the trouble of attempting in vain to 
 give a new colour to the commonplace description of such matters ; 
 but, notwithstanding, I find myself forced upon it in the present 
 instance, as circumstances sometimes compel a stranger to make 
 use of an old road which has been for some time shut up. The ex- 
 perienced reader may have already remarked, that the last chapter 
 was employed in sweeping out of the way all the unnecessary and 
 less interesting characters, that I might clear the floor for a blithe 
 bridal. 
 
 In truth, it would be unpardonable to pass over slightly what so 
 deeply interested our principal personage, King James. That 
 learned and good-humoured monarch made no great figure in the 
 politics of Europe ; but then, to make amends, he was prodigiously 
 busy, when he could find a fair opportunity of intermeddling with 
 the private affairs of his loving subjects, and the approaching mar- 
 riage of Lord Glenvarloch was matter of great interest to him. He 
 had been much struck (that is, for him, who was not very accessible 
 to such emotions) with the beauty and embarrassment of the pretty 
 Peg-a-Ramsay, as he called her, when he first saw her, and he 
 glorified himself greatly on the acuteness which he had displayed 
 in detecting her disguise, and in carrying through the whole enquiry 
 which took place in consequence of it. 
 
4i3 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 He laboured for several weeks, while the courtship was in pro- 
 gress, with his own royal eyes, so as wellnigh to wear out, he 
 declared, a pair of her father's best barnacles, in searching through 
 old books and documents, for the purpose of estabhshing the bride's- 
 pretensions to a noble, though remote descent, and thereby remove 
 the only objection which envy might conceive against the match. In 
 his own opinion, at least, he was eminently successful ; for, when Sir 
 Mungo Malagrowther one day, in the presence-chamber, took upon 
 him to grieve bitterly for the bride's lack of pedigree, the monarch 
 cut him short with, " Ye may save your grief for your ain next 
 occasions. Sir Mungo ; for, by our royal saul, we will uphauld her 
 father, Davy Ramsay, to be a gentleman of nine descents, whase 
 great gudesire came of the auld martial stock of the House of Dal- 
 wolsey, than whom better men never did, and better never will, 
 draw sword for King and country. Heard ye never of Sir WiUiam 
 Ramsay of Dalwolsey, man, of whom John Fordoun saith, — ' He 
 yidA belUcosissimus, nobilissimus ? ' — His castle stands to witness 
 for itsell, not three miles from Dalkeith, man, and within a mile of 
 Bannockrig. Davy Ramsay came of that auld and honourable 
 stock, and I trust he hath not derogated from his ancestors by his 
 present craft. They all wrought wi' steel, man ; only the auld 
 knights drilled holes wi' their swords in their enemies', corslets, and 
 he saws nicks in his brass wheels. And I hope it is as honourable 
 to give eyes to the blind as to slash them out of the head of those 
 that see, and to show us how to value our time as it passes, as to 
 fling it away in drinking, brawling, spear-splintering, and such-like 
 unchristian doings. And you maun understand, that Davy Ramsay 
 is no mechanic, but follows a liberal art, which approacheth almost 
 to the act of creating a living being, seeing it may be said of a 
 watch, as Claudius saith of the sphere of Archimedes, the Syra- 
 cusan — 
 
 ' Inclusus variis famulatur spiritus astris, 
 Et vivum certis motibus urget opus." 
 
 " Your Majesty had best give auld Davy a coat-of-arms, aswell 
 as a pedigree," said Sir Mungo. 
 
 " It's done, or ye bade, Sir Mungo," said the King ; "and I trust 
 we, who are the fountain of all earthly honour, are free to spirt a 
 few drops of it on one so near our person, without offence to the 
 Knight of Castle Girnigo. We have already spoken with the learned 
 men of the Herald's College, and we propose to grant him an aug- 
 mented coat-of-arms, being his paternal coat, charged with the 
 crown-wheel of a watch in chief, for a difference ; and we purpose 
 to add Time and Eternity, for supporters, as soon as the Garter 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. , 4'7 
 
 King-at-Arms shall be able to devise how Eternity is to be re- 
 presented/' 
 
 " I would make him twice as muckle as Time," * said Archie 
 Armstrong, the Court fool, who chanced to be present when the 
 King stated this dilemma. 
 
 " Peace, man — ye shall be whippet," said the King, in return for 
 this hint ; " and you, my liege subjects of England, may weel take 
 a hint from what we have said, and not be in such a hurry to laugh 
 at our Scottish pedigrees, though they be somewhat long derived, 
 and difficult to be deduced. Ye see that a man of right gentle 
 blood may, for a season, lay by his gentry, and yet ken whare to 
 find it, when he has occasion for it. It would be as unseemly for a 
 packman, or pedlar, as ye call a travelling-merchant, whilk is a 
 trade to which our native subjects of Scotland are specially ad- 
 dicted, to be blazing his genealogy in the faces of those to whom he 
 sells a bawbee's worth of ribbon, as it would be to him to have a 
 beaver on his head, and a rapier by his side, when the pack was on 
 his shoulders. Na, na — he hings his sword on the cleek, lays his 
 beaver on the shelf, puts his pedigree into his pocket, and gangs 
 as doucely and cannily about his pedling craft as if his blood was 
 nae better than ditch-water ; but let our pedlar be transformed, as 
 I have kend it happen mair than ance, into a bein thriving merchant, 
 then ye shall have a transformation, my lords, 
 
 ' In nova fert animus mutatas dicere formas ' — 
 
 Out he pulls his pedigree, on he buckles his sword, gives his beaver 
 a brush, and cocks it in the face of all creation. We mention these 
 things at the mair length, because we would have you all to know, 
 that it is not without due consideration of the circumstances of all 
 parties, that we design, in a small and private way, to honour with 
 our own royal presence the marriage of Lord Glenvarloch with 
 Margaret Ramsay, daughter and heiress of David Ramsay, our 
 horologer, and a cadet only thrice removed from the ancient 
 house of Dalwolsey. We are grieved we cannot have the presence 
 of the noble Chief of that House at the ceremony ; but where there 
 is honour to be won abroad, the Lord Dalwolsey is seldom to be 
 found at home. Sic fitit, est, €t erit. — Jingling Geordie, as ye stand 
 to the cost of the marriage-feast, we look for good cheer. 
 
 Heriot bowed, as in duty bound. In fact, the King, who was a 
 great politician about trifles, had manoeuvred greatly on this oc- 
 casion, and had contrived to get the Prince and Buckingham dis- 
 patched on an expedition to Newmarket, in order that he'might 
 find an opportunity in their absence of indulging himself in his own 
 
 E E 
 
4i8 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 gossiping, coshering habits, which were distasteful to Charles, whose 
 temper inclined to formality, and with which even the favourite, of 
 late, had not thought it worth while to seem to sympathize. When 
 the levee was dismissed, Sir Mungo Malagrowther seized upon the 
 worthy citizen in the court-yard of the Palace, and detained him, in 
 spite of all his efforts, for the purpose of subjectmg him to the 
 following scrutiny : — 
 
 " This is a sair job on you, Master George — the King must have 
 had little consideration — this will cost you a bonny penny, this 
 wedding-dinner ? " 
 
 " It will not break me. Sir Mungo," answered Heriot ; " the King 
 hath a right to see the table which his bounty hath supplied for 
 years, well covered for a single day." 
 
 " Vera true, vera true — we'll have a' to pay, I doubt, less or mair 
 — a sort of penny-wedding it will prove, where all men contribute 
 to the young folk's maintenance, that they may not have just four 
 bare legs in a bed thegether. What do you purpose to give, Master 
 George ? — we begin with the city when money is in question." * 
 
 " Only a trifle, Sir Mungo — I give my god-daughter the marriage- 
 ring ; it is a curious jewel — I bought it in Italy ; it belonged to Cosmo 
 de Medici. The bride will not need my help — she has an estate 
 which belonged to her maternal grandfather." 
 
 " The auld soap-boiler," said Sir Mungo ; " it will need some of 
 his suds to scour the blot out of the Glenvarloch shield — I have 
 heard that estate was no great things.'' 
 
 " It is as good as some posts at Court, Sir Mungo, which are 
 coveted by persons of high quality," replied George Heriot. 
 
 " Court favour, said ye ? Court favour. Master Heriot ? '' repUed 
 Sir Mungo, choosing then to use his malady of misapprehension ; 
 " Moonshine in water, poor thing, if that is all she is to be tochered 
 with — I am truly solicitous about them." 
 
 " I will let you into a secret," said the citizen, " which will relieve 
 your tender anxiety. The dowager Lady Dalgarno gives a com- 
 petent fortune to the bride, and settles the rest of her estate upon 
 her nephew the bridegroom." 
 
 " Ay, say ye sae V said Sir Mungo, "just to show her regard to 
 her husband that is in the tomb— lucky that her nephew did not 
 send him there ; it was a strange story that death of poor Lord 
 Dalgarno— some folk think the poor gentleman had much wrong. 
 Little good comes of marrying the daughter of the house you are at 
 feua with ; indeed, it was less poor Dalgarno's fault, than theirs 
 that forced the match on him ; but I am glad the young folk are to 
 have something to live on, come how it like, whether by charity or 
 inheritance. But if the Lady Dalgarno were to sell all she has. 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 419 
 
 even to her \'ery wylie-coat, she canna gie them back the fair 
 Castle of Glenvarloch — that is lost and gane — lost and gane." 
 
 " It is but too true," said George Heriot ; "we cannot discover 
 ■what has become of the villain Andrew Slcurliewhitter, or what 
 Lord Dalgarno has done with the mortgage." 
 
 "Assigned it away to some one, that his wife might not get it 
 after he was gane ; it would have disturbed him in his grave, to 
 think Glenvarloch should get that land back again," said Sir 
 Mungo ; " depend on it, he will have ta'en sure measures to keep, 
 that noble lordship out of her grips or her nevoy's either." 
 
 " Indeed it is but too probable. Sir Mungo," said Master Heriot ; 
 "but as I am obliged to go and look after many things in con- 
 sequence of this ceremony, I must leave you to comfort yourself 
 with the reflection." 
 
 " The bride-day, you say, is to be on the thirtieth of the instant 
 month ? " said Sir Mungo, holloing after the citizen ; " I will be 
 with you in the hour of cause." 
 
 " The King invites the guests," said George Heriot, without 
 turning back. 
 
 " The base-born, ill-bred mechanic ! " sollioquized Sir Mungo, 
 " if it were not the odd score of pounds he lent me last week, I would 
 teach him how to bear himself to a man of quality ! But I will be 
 at the bridal banquet in spite of him." 
 
 Sir Mungo contrived to get invited, or commanded, to attend on 
 the bridal accordingly, at which there were but few persons present ; 
 for James, on such occasions, preferred a snug privacy, which gave 
 him liberty to lay aside the encumbrance, as he felt it to be, of his 
 regal dignity. The company was very small, and indeed there 
 were at least two persons absent whose presence might have been 
 expected. The first of these was the Lady Dalgarno, the state 
 of whose health, as well as the recent death of her husband, 
 precluded her attendance on the ceremony. The other absentee 
 was Richie Moniplies, whose conduct for some time past had been 
 extremely mysterious. Regulating his attendance on Lord Glen- 
 varloch entirely according to his own will and pleasure, he had, ever 
 since the rencounter in Enfield Chase, appeared regularly at his 
 bedside in the morning, to assist him to dress, and at his wardrobe in 
 the evening. The rest of the day he disposed of at his own pleasure, 
 without control from his lord, who had now a complete establish- 
 ment of attendants. Yet he was somewhat curious to know how 
 the fellow disposed of so much of his time ; but on this subject 
 Richie showed no desire to be communicative. 
 
 On the morning of the bridal-day, Richie was particularly at- 
 tentive in doing all a valet-de-chambre could, so as to set off to 
 
 E E 2 
 
420 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 advantage the very handsotne figure of his master ; and when he 
 had arranged his dress with the utmost exactness, and put to his 
 long curled loclis what he called " the finishing touch of the redding- 
 kaim," he gravely kneeled down, kissed his hand, and bade him 
 farewell, saying that he humbly craved leave to discharge himself 
 of his lordship's service. 
 
 " Why, what humour is this ? " said Lord Glenvarloch ; " if you 
 mean to discharge yourself of my service, Richie, I suppose you 
 intend to enter my wife's ? " 
 
 " I wish her good ladyship that shall soon be, and your good 
 lordship, the blessings of as good a servant as myself, in heaven's 
 good time," said Richie ; " but fate hath so ordained it, that I can 
 henceforth only be your servant in the way of friendly courtesy." 
 
 " Well, Richie," said the young lord, " if you are tired of service, 
 we will seek some better provision for you ; but you will wait on 
 me to the church, and partake of the bridal dinner ? " 
 
 " Under favour, my lord," answered Richie, " I must remind you 
 of our covenant, having presently some pressing business of mine 
 own, whilk will detain me during the ceremony ; but I will not 
 fail to prie Master George's good cheer, in respect he has made 
 very costly fare, whilk it would be unthankful not to partake of." 
 
 " Do as you list," answered Lord Glenvarloch ; and having 
 bestowed a passing thought on the whimsical and pragmatical 
 disposition of his follower, he dismissed the subject for others better 
 suited to the day. 
 
 The reader must fancy the scattered flowers which strewed the 
 path of the happy couple to church — the loud music which a®- 
 companied the procession — the marriage service performed by a 
 Bishop — the King, who met them at Saint Paul's, giving away the 
 bride, — to the great relief of her father, who had thus time, during 
 the ceremony, to calculate the just quotient to be laid on the pinion 
 of report in a timepiece which he was then putting together. 
 
 When the ceremony was finished, the company were transported 
 in the royal carriages to George Heriot's, where a splendid collation 
 was provided for the marriage-guests in the Foljambe apartments. 
 The King no sooner found himself in this snug retreat, than, casting 
 from him his sword and belt with such haste as if they burnt his 
 fingers, and flinging his plumed hat on the table, as who should 
 say. Lie there, authority ! he swallowed a hearty cup of wine to the 
 happiness of the married couple, and began to amble about the 
 room, mumping, laughing, and cracking jests, neither the wittiest 
 nor the most delicate, but accompanied and applauded by shouts 
 of his own niirth, in order to encourage that of the company. 
 Whilst his Majesty was in the midst of this gay humour, and a call 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 421 
 
 to the banquet was anxiously expected, a servant whispered Master 
 Heriot forth of the apartment. When he re-entered, he walked up 
 to the King, and, in his turn, whispered something, at which James 
 started. 
 
 "He is not wanting his siller?" said the King, shortly and 
 sharply. 
 
 " By no means, my liege," answered Heriot. " It is a subject he 
 states himself as quite indifferent about, so long as it can pleasure 
 your Majesty.'' 
 
 " Body of us, man ! " said the King, " it is the speech of a true 
 man and a loving subject, and we will grace him accordingly — 
 what though he be but a carle — a twopenny cat may look at a king. 
 Swith, man ! have \i\va.—paiidite fores. — Moniplies ? — They should 
 have called the chield Monypennies, though I sail warrant you 
 English think we have not such a name in Scotland." 
 
 " It is an ancient and honourable stock, the Monypennies," said 
 Sir Mungo Malagrowther ; " the only loss is, there are sae few of 
 tlie name." 
 
 " The family seems to increase among your countrymen. Sir 
 Mungo," said Master Lowestoiife, whom Lord Glenvarloch had 
 invited to be present, " since his Majesty's happy accession brought 
 so many of you here." 
 
 " Right, sir — right," said Sir Mungo, nodding and looking at 
 George Heriot ; " there have some of ourselves been the better of 
 that great blessing to the Enghsh nation." 
 
 As he spoke, the door flew open, and in entered, to the astonish- 
 ment of Lord Glenvarloch, his late serving-man Richie Moniplies, 
 now sumptuously, nay, gorgeously, attired in a superb brocaded 
 suit, and leading in his hand the tall, thin, withered, somewhat 
 distorted form of Martha Trapbois, arrayed in a complete dress of 
 black velvet, which suited so strangely with the pallid and severe 
 melancholy of her countenance, that the King himself exclaimed, 
 in some perturbation, " What the deil has the fallow brought us 
 here 'i Body of our regal selves ! it is a corpse that has run off 
 with the mort-cloth ! " 
 
 " May I sifflicate your Majesty to be gracious unto her ? " said 
 Richie ; " being that she is, in respect of this morning's wark, my 
 ain wedded wife, Mrs. Martha Moniplies by name." 
 
 " Saul of our body, man ! but she looks wondrous grim," answered 
 King James. " Art thou sure she has not been in her time maid of 
 honour to Queen Mary, our kinswoman, of redhot memory ?" 
 
 " I am sure, an it like your Majesty, that she has brought me 
 fifty thousand pounds of good siller,, and better ; and that fias 
 enabled me to pleasure your Majesty, and other folk." 
 
422 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 " Ye need have said naething about that, man," said the King ; 
 "we ken our obligations in that sma' matter, and we'are glad this 
 rudas spouse of thine hath bestowed her treasure on ane wha kens 
 to put it to the profit of his King and country.— But how the deil 
 did ye come by her, man ? " 
 
 "In the auld Scottish fashion, my liege. She is the captive of 
 my bow and my spear," answered Moniplies. " There was a con- 
 vention that she should wed me when I avenged her father's death 
 — so I slew, and took possession." 
 
 " It is the daughter of old Trapbois, who has been missed so 
 long," said Lowestofife. — " Where the devil could you mew her up 
 so closely, friend Richie ? " 
 
 "Master Richard, if it be your will," answered Richie; ''or 
 Master Richard Moniplies, if you like it better. For mewing of her 
 up, I found her a shelter, in all honour and safety, under the roof 
 of an honest countryman of my own — and for secrecy, it was a 
 point of prudence, when wantons like you were abroad, Master 
 Lowestoffe." 
 
 There was a laugh at Richie's magnanimous reply, on the part of 
 every one but his bride, who made to him a signal of impatience, 
 and said, with her usual brevity and sternness, — " Peace, peace. I 
 pray you, peace. Let us do that which we came for." So saying, 
 she took out a bundle of parchments, and delivering them to Lord 
 Glenvarloch, she said aloud, — " I take this royal presence, and all 
 here, to witness, that I restore the ransomed lordship of Glen- 
 varloch to the right owner, as free as ever it was held by any of his 
 ancestors." 
 
 " I witnessed the redemption of the mortgage," said Lowestoffe ; 
 "but I little dreamt by whom it had been redeemed." 
 
 "No need ye should," said Richie; "there would have been 
 small wisdom in crying roast-meat." 
 
 " Peace," said his bride, " once more.— This paper," she con- 
 tinued, delivering another to Lord Glenvarloch, "is also your 
 property— take it, but spare me the question how it came into my 
 custody." 
 
 The King had bustled forward beside Lord Glenvarloch, and 
 fixing an eager eye on the writing, exclaimed,—" Body of ourselves, 
 it is our royal sign-manual for the money which was so long out of 
 sight !— How came you by it, Mistress Bride ? " 
 
 " It is a secret," said Martha, dryly. 
 
 "A secret which my tongue shall never utter," said Richie, re- 
 solutely,— unless the King commands me on my allegiance." 
 
 " I do— I do command you," said James, trembling and stammer- 
 ing with the impatient curiosity of a gossip ; while Sir Mungo, with 
 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 423 
 
 more malicious anxiety to get at the bottom of the mystery, stooped 
 his long thin form forward like a bent fishing-rod, raised his thin 
 grey locks from his ear, and curved his hand behind it to collect 
 every vibration of the expected intelligence. Martha in the mean- 
 time frowned most ominously on Richie, who went on undauntedly 
 to inform the King, " that his deceased father-in-law, a good careful 
 man in the main, had a touch of worldly wisdom about him, that at 
 times marred the uprightness of his walk ; he liked to dabble among 
 his neighbour's gear, and some of it would at times stick to his 
 fingers in the handling." 
 
 " For shame, man, for shame 1 " said Martha ; " since the infamy 
 of the deed must be told, be it at least briefly. — Yes, my lord," she 
 added, addressing Glenvarloch, " the piece of gold was not the sole 
 bait which brought the miserable old man to your chamber that 
 dreadful night — his object, and he accomplished it, was to purloin 
 this paper. The wretched scrivener was with him that morning, 
 and, I doubt not, urged the doting old man to this villainy, to offer 
 another bar to the ransom of your estate. If there was a yet more 
 powerful agent at the bottom of the conspiracy, God forgive it 
 to him at this moment, for he is now where the crime must be 
 answered ! " 
 
 "Amen!" said Lord Glenvarloch, and it was echoed by all 
 present. 
 
 " For my father," continued she, with her stern features twitched 
 by an involuntary and convulsive movement, " his guilt and folly 
 cost him his life ; and my belief is constant, that the wretch, who 
 counselled him that morning to purloin the paper, left open the 
 the window for the entrance of the murderers." 
 
 Everybody was silent for an instant ; the King was first to speak, 
 commanding search instantly to be made for the guilty scrivener. 
 " /, licior" he concluded, " colliga manus — caput obmtbito — infelici 
 SHSpendite arbori." 
 
 Lowestoffe answered with due respect, that the scrivener had 
 absconded at the time of Lord Dalgarno's murder, and had not been 
 heard of since. 
 
 " Let him be sought for," said the King. " And now let us change 
 the discourse — these stories make one's very blood grew,* and are 
 altogether unfit for bridal festivity. Hymen, O Hymenee ! "added 
 he, snapping his fingers, " Lord Glenvarloch, what say you to 
 Mistress Moniplies, this bonny bride, that has brought you back 
 your father's estate on your bridal day ? " 
 
 " Let him say nothing, my liege," said Martha ; " that will best 
 suit his feelings and mine." 
 
 "There is redempticn-msney, at the least, to be repaid," said 
 Lord Glenvarloch ; " in that I cannot remain debtor.'' 
 
424 THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 " We will speak of it hereafter," said Martha ; " my AeoKor you 
 cannot be." And she shut her mouth as if determined to say 
 nothing more on the subject. 
 
 Sir Mungo, however, resolved not to part with the topic, and 
 availing himself of the freedom of the moment, said to Richie—" A 
 queer story that of your father-in-law, honest man ; methinks your 
 bride thanked you little for ripping it up." 
 
 " I make it a rule, Sir Mungo," repUed Richie, " always to speak 
 any evil I know about my family myself, having observed, that if 
 I do not, it is sure to be told by ither folks." 
 
 " But Richie," said Sir Mungo, " it seems to me that this bride 
 of yours is like to be master and mair in the conjugal state." 
 
 " If she abides by words. Sir Mungo," answered Richie, " I 
 thank Heaven I can be as deaf as any one ; and if she comes to 
 dunts, I have twa hands to paik her with." 
 
 " Weel said, Richie, again," said the King ; " you have gotten it 
 on baith haffits. Sir Mungo. — Troth, Mistress Bride, for a fule, your 
 gudeman has a pretty turn of wit." 
 
 " There are fools, sire," replied she, " who have wit, and fools 
 who have courage — aye, and fools who have learning, and are great 
 fools notwithstanding — I chose this man because he was my pro- 
 tector when I was desolate, and neither for his wit nor his wisdom. 
 He is truly honest, and has a heart and hand that make amends 
 for some folly. Since I was condemned to seek a protector through 
 the world, which is to me a wilderness, I may thank God that I 
 have come by no worse." 
 
 " And that is sae sensibly said," replied the King, " that, by my 
 saul, I'll try whether I canna make him better. Kneel down, Richie 
 — somebody lend me a rapier — yours, Mr. LangstafF; (that's a brave 
 name for a lawyer,)— ye need not flash it out that gate, Templar 
 fashion, as if ye were about to pink a bailiff ! " 
 
 He took the drawn sword, and with averted eyes, for it was a 
 sight he loved not to look on, endeavoured to lay it on Richie's 
 shoulder, but nearly stuck it into his eye. Richie, starting back, 
 attempted to rise, but was held down by Lowestofife, while Sir 
 Mungo, guiding the royal weapon, the honour-bestowing blow was 
 given and received: "Surge, carnifex — Rise up. Sir Richard 
 Moniphes, of Castle-CoUop ! — And, my lords and lieges, let us all to 
 our dinner, for the cock-a-leekie is cooling." 
 
NOTES TO THE FORTUNES OF 
 NIGEL. 
 
 * p. 7.— See Lord Herbert of Cher- 
 bury's Memoirs. 
 
 * P. 8.— History of the First Four- 
 teen Years of King James's Reign. 
 See Somers's Tracts, edited by Scott, 
 vol. ii. p. 266 
 
 * P. 9. — Harrington's Nugse An- 
 tiquEe, vol. ii., p. 352. For the gross 
 debauchery of the period, too much 
 encouraged by the example of the 
 monarch, who was, in other respects, 
 neither without talent nor a good- 
 natured disposition, see Winwood's 
 Memorials, Howel's Letters, and 
 other Memorials of the time ; but 
 particularly, consult the Private Let- 
 ters and Correspondence of Steenie, 
 alias Buckingham, with his reverend 
 Dad and Gossip, King James, which 
 abound with the grosasst as well as 
 the most childish language. The 
 learned Mr. D'Israeli, in an attempt 
 to vindicate the character of James, 
 has only succeeded in obtaining for 
 himself the character of a skilful and 
 ingenious advocate, without much 
 advantage to his royal client. 
 
 * P. 10. — " Cheat ly, a rascal, who by 
 reason of debts dares not stir out of 
 Whitefriars, but there inveigles young 
 heirs of entail, and helps them to goods 
 and money upon great disadvantages, 
 is bound for them, and shares with 
 them till Tie undoes them. A lewd, 
 impudent, debauched fellow, very ex- 
 pert in the cant about town. 
 
 " Shamwell, cousin to the Belfords, 
 who, being ruined byCheatly, is made 
 a decoy-duck for others, not daring to 
 stir out of Alsatia, where he lives. Is 
 bound with Cheatly for heirs, and lives 
 upon them a dissolute debauched life. 
 
 ' ' Captain, Hackum, a blockheaded 
 bully of Alsatia, a cowardly, impu- 
 pudent, blustering fellow, formerly a 
 sergeant in Flanders, who has run 
 from his colours, and retreated into 
 Whitefriars for a very small debt. 
 
 where by the Alsatians he is dubb'd a 
 captain, marries one that lets lodgings, 
 sells cherry-brandy, and is a bawd. 
 
 " Scrapeall, a hypocritical, repeat- 
 ing, praying, psalm-singing, precise 
 feUow, pretending to great piety ; a 
 godly knave, who joins with Cheatly, 
 and supplies young heirs with goods 
 and money." — Dramatis Personm to 
 the Squire of Alsatia, Shadweli.'s 
 Works, vol. iv. 
 
 * P. 10. — Dedication to the Squire of 
 Alsatia, Shadwell's Works, vol. iv. 
 
 * P. 13. — The uninitiated must be in- 
 formed, that a second proof-sheet is 
 so called. 
 
 * P. 37. — David Ramsay. — David 
 Ramsay, watch maker and horo- 
 loger to James L, was a real person, 
 though the author has taken the 
 liberty of pressing him into the 
 service of fiction. Although his 
 profession led him to cultivate the 
 exact sciences, Uke many at this 
 period he mingled them with pursuits 
 which were mystical and fantastic. 
 The truth was, that the boundaries 
 between truth and falsehood in mathe- . 
 matics, astronomy, and similar pur- 
 suits, were not exactly known, and 
 there existed a sort of terra incognita 
 between them, in which the wisest men 
 bewildered themselves. David Ram- 
 say risked his money on the success 
 of the vaticinations which his re- 
 searches led him to form, since he 
 sold clocks and watches under con- 
 dition, that their value should not 
 become payable till King James was 
 crowned in the Pope's chair at Rome. 
 Such wagers were common in that day, 
 as may be seen by looking at John- 
 son's Every Man out of his Humour. 
 
 David Ramsay was also an actor in 
 another singular scene, in which the 
 notorious astrologer Lilly was a per- 
 former, and had no small expectation 
 on the occasion, since he brouglit with 
 
426 
 
 NOTES TO THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 him a half-quartern sack to put the 
 treasure in. 
 
 "David Ramsay, his Majesty's 
 clockmaljer, had been informed that 
 there was a great quantity of treasure 
 buried in the cloister of Westminster 
 Abbey. He acquaints Dean With- 
 nam therewith, who was also then 
 Bishop of Lincoln. The Dean gave 
 him liberty to search after it, with this 
 proviso, that if any was discovered, 
 his church should have a share of it. 
 Davy Ramsay finds out one John 
 Scott, who pretended the use of the 
 Mosaical rods to assist him herein.* 
 I ^yas desired to join with him, unto 
 which I consented. One winters 
 night, Davy Ramsay, with several 
 gentlemen, myself, and Scott, entered 
 the cloisters. We played the hazel 
 rods round about the cloisters. Upon 
 the west end of the cloisters the rods 
 turned one over another, an argu- 
 ment that the treasure was there. The 
 labourers digged at least six feet deep, 
 and then we met with a coffin ; but 
 which, in regard it was not heavy, we 
 did not open, which we afterwards 
 much repented. 
 
 " From the cloisters we went into the 
 abbey church, where, upon a sudden 
 (there being no wind when we began), 
 so fierce and so high, so blustering and 
 loud a wind did rise, that we verily 
 believed the west end of the church 
 would have fallen upon us. Our rods 
 would not move at all ; the candles 
 and torches, also, but one were ex- 
 tinguished, or burned very dimly. 
 John Scott, my partner, was amazed, 
 looked pale, knew not what to think 
 or do, until I gave directions and com- 
 mand to dismiss the demons ; which, 
 when done, all was quiet again, and 
 each man returned unto his lodging 
 late, about twelve o'clock at night. I 
 could never since be induced to join 
 with any such like actions. 
 
 "The true miscarriage of the busi- 
 ness was by reason of so many people 
 being present at the operation ; for 
 there was about thirty, some laugh- 
 ing, others deriding us ; so that, if we 
 had not dismissed the demons, I 
 
 * The same now called, I believe, 
 the Divining Rod, and applied to 
 the discovery of water not obvious to 
 the eye. 
 
 believe most part of the abbey church 
 would have been blown down. Secrecy 
 and intelligent operators, with a strong 
 confidence and knowledge of what 
 they are doing, are best for the work." 
 — Lilly's Life and Times, p. 46. 
 
 David Ramsay had a son called 
 WilUam Ramsay, who appears to have 
 possessed all his father s credulity. 
 He became an astrologer, and in 
 1651-2 published " Vox Stellarum, an 
 Introduction to the Judgment of 
 Eclipses and the Annual Revolutions 
 of the World." The edition of 1652 
 is inscribed to his father. It would 
 appear, as indeed it might be argued 
 from his mode of disposing of his 
 goods, that the old horologer had 
 omitted to make hay while the sun 
 shone ; for his son, in his dedication, 
 has this exception to the paternal 
 virtues, "It's true your carelessness 
 in laying up while the sun shone for 
 the tempest of a stormy day, hath 
 given occasion to some inferior spirited 
 people not to value you according to 
 what you are by nature and in your- 
 self, for such look not to a man longer 
 than he is in prosperity, esteeming 
 none but for their wealth, not wisdom, 
 power, nor virtue." From these ex- 
 pressions, it is to be apprehended that 
 while old David Ramsay, a follower of 
 the Stewarts, sunk under the Parlia- 
 ment government, his son, WiUiam, 
 had advanced from- being a dupe to 
 astrology to the diginity of being him- 
 self a cheat. 
 
 * P. 48. —George Heriot. — This 
 excellent person was but little known 
 by his actions when alive, but we may 
 well use, in this particular, the striking 
 phrase of Scripture, "that being 
 dead he yet speaketh." We have 
 already mentioned, in the Intro- 
 duction, the splendid charity of which 
 he was the founder ; the few notices 
 of his personal history are slight and 
 meagre. 
 
 George Heriot was bom at Tra- 
 broun, in the parish of Gladsmuir ; he 
 was the eldest son of a goldsmith in 
 Edinburgh, descended from a family 
 of some consequence in East Lothian. 
 His father enjoyed the confidence of 
 his fellow citizens, and was their re- 
 presentative in Parliament. He was, 
 besides, one of the deputies sent by 
 the inhabitants of the city to propitiate 
 the King, when he had left Edinburgh 
 
NOTES TO THE FORTUJMES OF NIGEL. 
 
 427 
 
 abruptly, after the riot of 17th Decem- 
 ber, 1596. 
 
 George Heriot, the son, pursued 
 his father's occupation of a goldsmith, 
 then peculiarly lucrative, and much 
 connected with that of a money-broker. 
 He enjoyed the favour and protection 
 of James, and of his consort, Anne of 
 Denmark. He married, for his first 
 wife, a maiden of his own rank, named 
 Christian Marjoribanks, daughter of 
 a respectable burgess. This was in 
 1386. He was afterwards named 
 jeweller to the Queen, whose account 
 to him for a space of ten years 
 amounted to nearly ;^4o, 000. George 
 Heriot, having lost his wife, connected 
 himself with the distinguished house of 
 Rosebery, by marrying a daughter of 
 James Primrose, Clerk to the Privy 
 Council. Of this lady he was deprived 
 by her dying in child-birth in 1612, 
 before attaining her twenty-first year. 
 After a life spent in honourable and 
 successful industry, George Heriot 
 died in London, to which city he had 
 followed his royal master, on the 
 I2th February, 1624, at the age of 
 sixty-one years. His picture (copied 
 by Scougal from a lost original), in 
 which he is represented in the prime 
 of life, is thus described : " His fair 
 hair, which overshades the thoughtful 
 brow and calm calculating eye, with 
 the cast of humour on the lower part 
 of the countenance, are all indicative 
 of the genuine Scottish character, and 
 weU distinguished a person fitted to 
 move steadily and wisely through the 
 world, with a strength of resolution to 
 ensure success, and a disposition to 
 enjoy it." — Historical and Descriptive 
 Account of Heriot' s Hospital, wit/i a 
 Memoir of tke Founder, by Messrs. 
 James and John Johnstone. Edin- 
 burgh, 1827. 
 
 I may add, as every thing concern- 
 ing George Heriot is interesting, that 
 his second wife, Alison Primrose, was 
 interred in Saint Gregory's church, 
 from the register of which parish the 
 Rev. Mr. Barham, Rector, has, in the 
 kindest manner, sent me the following 
 extract: — "Mrs. Alison, the wife of 
 Mr. George Heriot, gentleman, 20th 
 April, 1612." Saint Gregory's, before 
 the Great Fire of London which con- 
 sumed the cathedral, formed one of 
 the towers of old Saint Paul's, and 
 occupied the space of ground now 
 
 filled by Queen Anne's statue. In the 
 south aisle of the choir Mrs. Heriot 
 reposed under a handsome monument, 
 bearing the following inscription ; — 
 
 " Sanctissimce et charissivus COU' 
 jugi Alisonal Heriot, Jacobi 
 Primrosii, Regies Majestatis in 
 Sanctiori Concilio Regni Scotice 
 Amanuensis, filice, femin<s omnibus 
 turn animi turn corporis dotibus, ac 
 pio cultu instructtssimcB, mcestissimus 
 ipsius maritus Georgius Heriot. 
 ARMIGER, Regis, Regince, Principum 
 Henrici et Caroli Gemmarius, bene 
 merenti, non sine lackryinis, hoc 
 Monumentum fie posuit. 
 
 " Obiit Mensis Aprilis die 16, an7to 
 
 salutis 1612, mtatis 20, in. ipsoflore 
 
 juventcR, et mihi, parentibus, et amicis 
 
 tristissimum sui desiderium rellquit. 
 
 Hie Alicia Primrosa 
 
 Jacet crudo abrutafato, 
 
 Intempestivas 
 
 Ut rosapressa manus. 
 
 Nondum bisdenos 
 
 Annorum impleverai orbes, 
 
 Pulchra, pudica, 
 
 Patii-s delicium atque viri : 
 
 Quum gravida, heu ! nunquam 
 
 Mater, decessit, et inde 
 
 Cura dolorq : Patri 
 
 Cura dolorq: viro. 
 
 Non sublata tamcn 
 
 Tantum translata recessit ; 
 
 Nunc Rosa prima Poli ' 
 
 Qucdfuit antea soli." 
 
 The loss of a young, beautiful, and 
 amiable partner, ataperiod so interest- 
 ing, was the probable reason of her 
 husband devoting his fortune to a 
 charitable institution. The epitaph 
 occurs in Strype's edition of Stowe's 
 Survey of London, Book iii. p. 228. 
 ' P. 57. — I am certain this pruden- 
 tial advice is not original on Mr. 
 Linklater's part, but I am not at 
 present able to produce my authority. 
 I think it amounted to this, that James 
 flung down a petition presented by 
 some supplicant who paid no com- 
 pliments to his horse, and expressed 
 no admiration at the splendour of his 
 furniture, saying, "Shall a king 
 cumber himself about the petition of 
 a beggar, while the beggar disregards 
 the King's splendour?" It is, I 
 think. Sir John Harrington who re- 
 commends, as a sure mode to the King's 
 
42U 
 
 NOTES TO THE EOfeTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 favour, to praise the paces of the royal 
 palfrey. 
 
 * P. -57. — A/d^zOT— Puppet-show. 
 
 * P. 59. — Pkoclamation against 
 THE Scots coming to England. — 
 The Enghsh agreed in nothing more 
 unanimously than in censuring James 
 on account of the beggarly rabble 
 which not only attended the King at 
 his coming first out of Scotland, 
 "but," says Osborne, "which, 
 through his whole reign, like a fluent 
 spring, were found still crossing the 
 Tweed." Yet it is certain, from the 
 number of proclamations published 
 by the Privy Council in Scotland, and 
 bearing marks of the King's own 
 diction, that he was sensible of the 
 whole inconveniences and unpopti- 
 larity attending the importunate crowd 
 of disrespectable suitors, and as 
 desirous to get rid of them as his 
 Southern subjects could be. But it 
 was in vain that his Majesty argued 
 with his Scottish subjects on the dis- 
 respect they were bringing on their 
 native country and sovereign, by 
 ca.using the English to suppose there 
 were no well-nurtured or independent 
 gentry in Scotland, they who pre- 
 sented themselves being, in the opinion 
 and conceit of all beholders, "but 
 idle rascals, and poor miserable 
 bodies." It was even in vain that the 
 vessels which brought up this un- 
 welcome cargo of petitioners were 
 threatened with fine and confiscation ; 
 the undaunted suitors continued to 
 press forward, and, as one of the pro- 
 clamations says, many of them under 
 pretence of requiring payment of 
 "auld debts due to them by the 
 King," which, it is observed with 
 great ndiveti, "is, of all kinds of im- 
 portunity, most unpleasing to his 
 Majesty." The expressions in the 
 text are selected from these curious 
 proclamations. 
 
 * P. 60. — Meaning, probably, play- 
 bills. 
 
 * P. 69. — Curtsying. 
 
 * P. 74. — A biblical commentary by 
 Gill, which, if the writer's memory 
 serves him, occupies between five and 
 six hundred printed quarto pages, and 
 must therefore have filled more pages 
 of manuscript than the number men- 
 tioned in the text, has this quatrain 
 at the end of the volume — 
 
 "With one good pen I wrote this 
 book, 
 
 Made of a grey gcose quill ; 
 A pen it was when it I took. 
 
 And a pen I leave it still." 
 
 * P. 77.— King James.— The dress 
 of this monarch, together with his 
 personal appearance, is thus described 
 by a contemporary : — 
 
 " He was of a middle stature, more 
 corpulent through \i. e. by means of] 
 his clothes than in his body, yet fat 
 enough. His legs were very weak, 
 having had, as was thought, some foul 
 play in his youth, or rather before he 
 was born, that he was not able to 
 stand at seven years of age. That 
 weakness made him ever leaning on 
 other men's shoulders. His walk was 
 even circular ; his hands are in that 
 
 walk ever fiddUng about [a part 
 
 of dress now laid aside.] He would 
 make a great deal too bold with God 
 in his passion, both with cursing and 
 swearing, and a strain higher verging 
 on blasphemy ; but would, in his 
 better temper, say, he hoped God 
 would not impute them as sins, and 
 lay them to his charge, seeing they 
 proceeded from passion. He had need 
 of great assistance, rather than hope, 
 that would daily make thus bold with 
 God." — Dalzell's Sketches of Scot- 
 tish History, p. 86. 
 
 * P. 95. — Sir Mungo Malagrow- 
 Ti-IER. — It vrill perhaps be recognised 
 by some of my countrymen, that the 
 caustic Scottish knight, as described 
 in the preceding chapter, borrowed 
 some of his attributes from a most 
 worthy and respectable baronet, who 
 was to be met with in Edinburgh 
 society about twenty-five or thirty 
 years ago. It is not by any means to 
 be inferred, that the living person 
 resembled the imaginary one in the 
 course of life ascribed to him, or 
 in his personal attributes. But his 
 fortune was little adequate to his rank 
 and the antiquity of his family ; and, 
 to avenge himself of this disparity, 
 the worthy Baronet lost no oppor- 
 tunity of making the more avowed 
 sons of fortune feel the edge of his 
 satire. This he had the art of dis- 
 guising under the personal infirmity of 
 deafness, and usually introduced his 
 most severe things by an affected 
 mistake of what was said around him. 
 
NOTES TO THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 429 
 
 For example, at a public meeting of a 
 certain county, this worthy gentle- 
 man had chosen to display a laced 
 coat, of such a pattern as had not been 
 seen in society for the better part of a 
 century. The young men who were pre- 
 sent amused themselves with rallying 
 him on his taste, when he suddenly 
 singled out one of the party : — " Auld 
 d'ye ye think mycoat— auld-fashioned? 
 — indeed it canna be sew : but it was 
 the wark of abraw tailor, and that was 
 your grandfather, who was at the head 
 of the trade in Edinburgh about the 
 beginning of last century." Upon 
 another occasion, when this type of 
 Sir Miuigo Malagrowther happened to 
 hear a nobleman, the high chief of 
 one of those Border clans who were 
 accused of paying very little atten- 
 tion in ancient times to the distinctions 
 of Meuin and Tnum, addressing a 
 gentleman of the same name, as if 
 conjecturing there should be some 
 relationship between them, he volun- 
 teered to ascertain the nature of the 
 connexion by saying, that the " chiefs 
 ancestors had stolen the cows, and 
 the other gentleman's ancestors had 
 killed them," — fame ascribing the 
 origin of the latter family to a butcher. 
 It maybe well imagined, that, among a 
 people that have been always puncti- 
 lious about genealogy, such a person, 
 who had a general acquaintance with 
 all the flaws and specks in the shields 
 of the proud, the pretending, and the 
 nouveaux riches, must have had the 
 same scopeforamusementas a monkey 
 in a china shop. 
 
 * P. 112. — ^The head of the ancient 
 and distinguished house of Ramsay, 
 and to whom, as their chief, the in- 
 dividuals of that name look as their 
 origin and source of gentry. Allan 
 Ramsay, the pastoral poet, in the 
 same manner, makes 
 
 " Dalhousie of an auld descent, 
 My chief, my stoup, my ornament." 
 
 * P. 113. — Mrs. Anne Turner, — 
 "Mrs. Anne Turner was a dame some- 
 what of the occupation of Mrs. Suddle- 
 chop in the text ; that is, half milliner 
 half procuress, and secret agent in all 
 manner of proceedings. She was a 
 trafficker in the poisoning of Sir 
 Thomas Overbury, for which so many 
 subordinate agents lost their lives, 
 While, to the great scandal of justice. 
 
 the Earl of Somerset and his Countess 
 were suffered to escape, upon a threat 
 of Somerset to malce public some se- 
 cret which nearly affected his master, 
 King Tames. Mrs. Turner introduced 
 into England a French custom of 
 using yellow starch in getting up bands 
 and cuffs, and, by Lord Coke's orders, 
 she appeared' in that fashion at 
 the place of execution. She was the 
 widow of a physician, and had been 
 eminently beautiful, as appears from 
 the description of her in the poem 
 called Overbury 's vision. There was 
 produced in court a parcel of dolls or 
 puppets belonging to this lady, some 
 naked, some dressed, and which she 
 used for exhibiting fashions upon. 
 But, greatly to the horror of the spec- 
 tators, who accounted these figures to 
 be magical devices, there was, on 
 their being shown, "heard a crack 
 from the scaffold, which caused great 
 fear, tumult, and confusion, among the 
 spectators and throughout the hall, 
 every one fearing hurt, as if the devil 
 had been present, and grown angry to 
 have his workmanship showed to 
 such as were not his own scholars." 
 Compare this curious passage in the 
 History of King James for the First 
 Fourteen Years, 1651, with the Aulicus 
 Coquinarius of Dr. Heylin. Both 
 works are published in the secret 
 History of King James. 
 
 * P. 119. See note on Sir Mungo 
 Malagrowther, p. 95. 
 
 * P. 122. — Lest any lady or gentleman 
 should suspect there is aught of 
 mystery concealed under the sentences 
 printed in Italics, they will be pleased 
 to understand that they contain only 
 a few commonplace Latin phrases, 
 relating to the state of letters in 
 Holland, which neither deserve, nor 
 would endure, a literal translation. 
 
 * P. 124.— Lord HuNTiNGLEN. — ^The 
 credit of having rescued James I. from 
 the dagger of Alexander Ruthven, is 
 here fictitiously ascribed to an ima- 
 ginary Lord Huntinglen. In reality, 
 as may be read in every history, his 
 preserver was John Ramsay, after- 
 wards created Earl of Holderness, 
 who stabbed the younger Ruthven 
 with his dagger while he was struggling 
 with the King. Sir Anthony Weldon 
 informs us, that, upon the annual re- 
 turn of the day, the King's deliverance 
 was commemorated by an anniversary 
 
43° 
 
 NOTES TO THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 feast. The time was the fifth of 
 August, "upon which, " proceeds the 
 satirical historian, "Sirjolin Ramsay, 
 for his good service in that preserva- 
 tion, was the principal guest, and so 
 did the King grant him any boon he 
 would ask that day. But he had such 
 limitation made to his asking, as made 
 his suit as unprofitable, as the action 
 for which he asked it for was unservice- 
 able to the King." 
 
 * P. 129. — Buckingham. — Bucking- 
 ham, who had a frankness in his high 
 and irascible ambition, was always 
 ready to bid defiance to those by whom 
 he was thwarted or opposed. He 
 aspired to be created Prince of Tip- 
 perary in Ireland, and Lord High 
 Constable of England. Coventry, then 
 Lord Keeper, 6pposed what seemed 
 such an unreasonable extent of power 
 as was annexed to the office of Con- 
 stable. On this opposition, accord- 
 ing to Sir Anthony Weldon, ' ' the 
 Duke peremptorily accosted Coventry, 
 ' Who made you Lord Keeper, 
 Coventry ? ' He replied, ' The King, ' 
 Buckingham replied, ' It's false ; 'twas 
 I did make you, and you shall know 
 that I, who made you, can, and will, un- 
 make you." Coventry thus answered 
 him, ' Did I conceive that I held my 
 pb.ce by your favour, I would pre- 
 sently unmake myself, by rendering up 
 the seals lo his Majesty.' Then Buck- 
 ingham, in a scorn and fury, flung from 
 him, saying, ' You shall not keep it 
 long ; ' and surely, had not Felton 
 prevented him, he had made good his 
 word."— Weldon's Cotirt of King 
 James and Charles. 
 
 * P. 139. — The cruel civil wars waged by 
 the Scottish barons during the minority 
 of James VI., had this name from the 
 figure made in them by the celebrated 
 J ames Douglas Earl of Morton. Both 
 sides executed their prisoners without 
 mercy or favour. 
 
 * P. 141. — As each covenant in those 
 days of accuracy had a special place 
 nominated for execution, the tomb of 
 the Regent Earl of Murray in Saint 
 Giles's Church was frequently assigned 
 for the purpose. 
 
 * P. 146. — Pages in the Seven- 
 teenth Century. — About this time 
 the ancient customs arising from the 
 long prevalence of chivalry, began to 
 be grossly varied from tlie original 
 purposes of the institution. None was 
 
 more remarkable than the change 
 which took place in the breeding and 
 occupation of pages. This peculiar 
 species of menial originally consisted of 
 youths of noble birth, who, that they 
 might be trained to the exercise of 
 arms, were early removed from their 
 paternal homes, where too much in- 
 dulgence might have been expected, to 
 be placed in the family of some prince 
 or man of rank and military renown, 
 where they served, as it were, an ap- 
 prenticeship to the duties of chivalry 
 and courtesy. Their education was 
 severely moral, and pursued with great 
 strictness in respect to useful exercises, 
 and what were deemed elegant ac- 
 complishments. From being pages, 
 they were advanced to the next grada- 
 tion of squires ; from squires, these 
 candidates for the honours of knight- 
 hood were frequently made knights. 
 
 But in the sixteenth century the page 
 had become, in many instances, a mere 
 domestic, who sometimes, by the splen- 
 dour of his address and appearance, 
 was expected to make up in show for 
 the absence of a whole band of re- 
 tainers with swords and bucklers. We 
 have Sir John's authority when he 
 cashiers part of his train. 
 
 ' ' Falstaff will learn the humour of the 
 
 age, 
 French thrift, you rogues, myself and 
 skirted page. " 
 
 Jonson, in a high tone of moral in- 
 dignation, thus reprobated the change. 
 The Host of the New Inn replies to 
 Lord Lovel, who asks to have his son 
 for a page, that he would, with his 
 own hands, hang him,, sooner 
 
 "Than damn him to this desperate 
 
 course of life. 
 Lovel. Call you that desperate, 
 
 which, by a line 
 Of institution, from our ancestors 
 Hath been derived down to us, and 
 
 received 
 In a succession for the noblest way 
 Of brushing up our youth, in letters, 
 
 arms, 
 Fair mien, discourses civil, exercise. 
 And all the blazon of a gentleman ? 
 Where can he learn to vault, to ride, 
 
 to fence. 
 To move his body gracefully, to 
 
 speak 
 The language pure, or to turn his mind 
 
NOTES TO THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 431 
 
 Or manners more to the harmony of 
 
 nature, 
 Than in these nurseries of nobility? 
 Host. Ay-, that was when the nur- 
 sery's self was noble, 
 And only virtue made it, not the 
 
 market. 
 That titles were not vended at the 
 
 drum 
 And common outcry ; goodness gave 
 
 the greatness. 
 And greatness worship ; every house 
 
 became 
 An academy, and those parts 
 We see departed in the practice now 
 Quite from the institution. 
 
 Level. Why do you say so, 
 Or think so enviously? do they not 
 
 still 
 Learn thus the Centaur's skill, the art 
 
 of Thrace, 
 To ride ? or Pollux' mystery, to fence ? 
 The Pyrrhick gestures, both to stand 
 
 and spring 
 In armour ; to be active for the wars ; 
 To study figures, numbers, and pro- 
 portions, 
 May yield them great in counsels and 
 
 the arts ; 
 To make their English sweet upon 
 
 their tongue ? 
 As reverend Chaucer says. 
 
 Host. Sir, you mistake ; 
 To play Sir Pandarus, my copy hath 
 
 it. 
 And carry messages to Madam 
 
 Cressid ; 
 Instead of backing the brave steed o' 
 
 mornings. 
 To kiss the chambermaid, and for a 
 
 leap 
 O' the vaulting horse, to play the 
 
 vaulting house ; 
 For exercise of arms a bale of dice, 
 And two or three packs of cards to 
 
 show the cheat 
 And nimbleness of hand ; mis-take a 
 
 cloak 
 From my lord's back, and pawn it 
 
 ease his pockets 
 Of a superfluous watch, or geld a 
 
 jewel 
 Of an odd stone or so; twinge three or 
 
 four buttons 
 From off my lady's gown : These are 
 
 the arts. 
 Of seven liberal deadly sciences, 
 ' Of pagery, or rather paganism. 
 As the tides run ; to which, if he apply 
 
 him. 
 
 He may, perhaps, take a degree at 
 
 Tyburn, 
 A year the earher come to read a 
 
 lecture 
 Upon Aquinas, at Saint Thomas a- 
 
 Watering's, 
 And so go forth a laureate in hemp 
 
 circle." 
 
 The Nao Inn, Act I. 
 
 * P. 147.— Lord Henry Howard. — 
 Lord Henry Howard was the second 
 son of the poetical Earl of Surrey, and 
 possessed considerable parts and 
 learning. He wrote, in tlie year 1583, 
 a book called, " A Defensative against 
 the Poison of supposed Prophecies." 
 He gained the favour of Queen Eliza- 
 beth, by having, he says, directed his 
 battery against a sect of prophets and 
 pretended soothsayers, whom he ac- 
 counted infesti regibus, as he ex- 
 presses it. In the last years of the 
 Queen, he became James'smost ardent 
 partizan, and conducted with great 
 pedantry, but much intrigue, the 
 correspondence betwixt the Scottish 
 King and the younger Cecil. Upon 
 James's accession, he was created Earl 
 of Northampton, and Lord Privy Seal. 
 According to De Beaumont the French 
 Ambassador, Lord Henry Howard 
 was one of the greatest flatterers and 
 calumniators that ever lived. 
 
 * P. 149. — Skirmishes in the Public 
 Streets. — Edinburgh appears to 
 have been one of the most disorderly 
 towns in Europe, during the sbcteenth 
 and beginning of the seventeenth cen- 
 tury. The Diary of the honest citizen 
 Birrel, repeatedly records such in- 
 cidents as the following: "The 24 
 of November [1567], at two afternoon, 
 the Laird of Airth and the Laird of 
 Weems met on the High Gate of Edin- 
 burgh, and they and their followers 
 fought a very bloody skirmish, where 
 there were many hurt on both sides 
 with shot of pistol." These skirmishes 
 also took place in London itself. In 
 Shadwell's play of the Scowrers, an 
 old rake thus boasts of his early ex- 
 ploits : — "I knew the Hectors, and 
 before ^thera, the Muns, and the 
 Tityretu's ; they were brave fellows 
 indeed ! In these days, a man conld 
 not go from the Rose Garden to the 
 Piazza once, but he must venture his 
 life twice, my dear Sir Willie." But 
 it appears that the affrays, which, in 
 
433 
 
 NOTES TO THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 the Scottish capital, arose out of here- 
 ditary quarrels and ancient feuds, 
 were in London the growth of the 
 licentiousness and arrogance of young 
 debauchees. 
 
 • P. 156. -French Cookery. — The 
 exertion of French ingenuity men- 
 tioned in the text is noticed by some 
 authorities of the period ; the siege of 
 Leith was also distinguished by the 
 protracted obstinacy of the besieged, 
 in which was displayed all that the 
 age possessed of defensive war, so that 
 Brantome records that those who wit- 
 nessed this siege, had, from that very 
 circumstance, a degree of consequence 
 yielded to their persons and opinions. 
 He tells a story of Strozzi himself, 
 from which it appears that his jests lay 
 a good deal in the line of the cuisine. 
 He caused a mule to De stolen from 
 one Brusquet, on whom he wished to 
 play a trick, and served up the flesh of 
 that unclean animal so well disguised, 
 that it passed with Brusquet for 
 venison. 
 
 * P. 157. — Cuckoo's Nest. — The 
 quarrel in this chapter between the 
 /pretended captain and the citizen of 
 t.ondon, is taken from aburlesque poem 
 called The Counter Scuffle, that is, the 
 Scuffle in the Prison at Wood-street, 
 so-called. It is a piece of low humour, 
 which had at the time very considerable 
 vogue. The prisoners, it seems, had 
 fallen into a dispute amongst them- 
 themselves "which calling was of 
 most repute, " and a lawyer put in his 
 claim to be most highly considered. 
 The man of war repelled his pretence 
 with much arrogance. 
 
 " 'Wer'tnot for us, thouswad,' quoth 
 
 he, 
 ' Where wouldst thou fay to get a fee ? 
 But to defend such things as thee 
 'Tis pity ; 
 
 For such as you esteem us least. 
 Who ever have been ready prest 
 To guard you and your cuckoo's nest 
 The City.'" 
 
 The offence is no sooner given than 
 it is caught up by a gallant citizeii, a 
 goldsmith, named Ellis. 
 
 " ' Of London city I am free, 
 And there I first my wife did see. 
 And for that very abuse,' said he, 
 'I love it. 
 
 And he that calls it cuckoo's nest, 
 Except he say he speaks in jest, 
 He is a villain and a beast, — 
 
 I'll prove it ! 
 
 For though I am a man of trade. 
 And free of London city made. 
 Yet can I use gun, bill, and blade, , 
 In battle. 
 
 And citizens, if need require. 
 Themselves can force the foe retire, 
 Whatever this low country squire 
 
 May prattle.' " 
 
 The dispute terminates in the 
 scuffle, which is the subject of the 
 poem. The whole may be found in 
 the second edition of Dryden's Mis- 
 cellany, izmo, vol. iii. 1716. 
 
 * P. 162. — BURBAGE. — Burbage, 
 whom Camden terms another Roscius, 
 was probably the original representa- 
 tive of Richard III., and seems to have 
 
 . been early almost identified with his 
 prototype. Bishop Corbet, in his Iter 
 Boreale, tells us that mine host of 
 Market Bosworth was full of ale and 
 history. 
 
 " Hear him. See you yon wood? there 
 
 Richard lay 
 With his whole army ; look the other 
 
 way, 
 And lo, where Richmond, in a field of 
 
 gorse. 
 Encamp' d himself in might and all his 
 
 force. 
 Upon this hill they met. Why, he 
 
 could tell 
 The inch where Richmond stood, 
 
 where Richard fell, 
 Besides, what of his knowledge he 
 
 could say. 
 He had authentic notice from the 
 
 "play, 
 Which 1 might guess by's mustering 
 
 up the ghosts 
 And pohcies not incident to hosts, 
 But chiefly by that one perspicuous 
 
 thing, 
 Where he mistook a player for a king. 
 For when he would have said, that 
 
 Richard died, 
 And call'd, a horse ! a horse ! he Bur- 
 
 bage cried." 
 Richard Corbet's Poems, Edition 
 181S, p. 193. 
 
 ■' P. 163.— The condition of men of wit 
 
NOTES TO THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 433 
 
 and talents was never more melancholy 
 than about this period. Their lives were 
 so irregular, and theirmeans of livingso 
 precarious, that they were alternately 
 rioting in debauchery, or encountering 
 and struggling with the meanest ne- 
 cessities. Two or three lost their lives 
 by a surfeit brought on by that fatal 
 banquet of Rhenish wine and pickled 
 herrings, which is familiar to those 
 who study the lighter Uterature of that 
 age. The whole history is a most 
 melancholy picture of genius, degraded 
 at once by its own debaucheries, and 
 the patronage of heartless rakes and 
 profligates. 
 
 * P. 205. — Look sharp. See how the 
 girl is coquetting with the strange 
 gallants ! 
 
 t P. 205. — Slash him over the eyes with 
 your dagger. 
 
 * P. 208. — This curious register is still 
 in existence, being in possession of that 
 eminent antiquary Dr. Dryasdust, who 
 liberally offered the author permission 
 to have the autograph of Duke Hilde- 
 brod engraved as an illustration of this 
 passage. Unhappily, being rigorous 
 as Ritson himself in adhering to the 
 very letter of his copy, the worthy 
 Doctor clogged his munificence with 
 the condition that we should adopt the 
 Duke's orthography, and entitle the 
 work " The Fortunes of Niggle," with 
 which stipulation we did not think it 
 necessary to comply. 
 
 * P. 211. — ^Of the cant words used in 
 this inauguratory oration, some are 
 obvious in their meaning, others, as 
 Harman beck (constable), and the like, 
 derive their source from that ancient 
 piece of lexicography, the Slang 
 Dictionary. 
 
 * P. 246. — A species of triumphal pro- 
 cession in honour of female supremacy, 
 when it rose to such a height as to 
 attract the attention of the neighbour- 
 hood. It is described at full length in 
 Hudibras, (Pari 11. Canto TI.) As 
 the procession passed on, those who 
 attended it in an official capacity were 
 wont to sweep the threshold of the 
 houses in which Fame affirmed the 
 mistresses to exercise paramount 
 authority, which was given and re- 
 ceived as a hint that their inmates 
 might, in theirturn, be made thesubject 
 of a similar ovation. The Skimming- 
 ton, which in some degree resembled 
 the proceedings of Mumbo Tumbo in an 
 
 African village, has been long dis- 
 continued in England, apparently be- 
 cause female rule has become either 
 milder or less frequent than among 
 our ancestors. 
 
 ' P. 282. — Only three copies are known 
 to exist ; one in the library at Kenna- 
 quhair, and two — one foxed and 
 cropped, the other tall and in good 
 condition — both in the possession 
 of an eminent member of the Rox- 
 burghe Club. — Note ly Captain 
 Clutteebuck. 
 
 * P. 311.— The Scots, till within the 
 last generation, disliked swine's flesh 
 as an article of food as much as the 
 Highlanders do at present. It was 
 remarked as extraordinary rapacity, 
 when the Border depredators con- 
 descended to make prey of the ac- 
 cursed race, whom the fiend made his 
 habitation. Ben Jonson, in drawing 
 James's character, says, he loved ' ' no 
 part of a swine." 
 
 * P. 321 . — Mhic-Allastae-Moee. — 
 This is the Highland patronymic of 
 the late gallant Chief of Glengarry. 
 The allusion in the text is to an un- 
 necessary alarm taken by some lady, 
 at the ceremonial of the coronation of 
 George IV., at the sight of the pistols 
 which the Chief wore as a part of his 
 Highland dress. The circumstance 
 produced some confusion, which was 
 talked of at the time. All who knew 
 Glengarry {and the author knew him 
 well) were aware that his principles 
 were of devoted loyalty to the person 
 of his sovereign. 
 
 * P. 321.— King James's Hunting 
 Bottle. — Roger Coke, in his de- 
 tection of the Court and State of 
 England, London, 1697, p. 70, ob- 
 
 -serves of James I., '"The king was 
 excessively addicted to hunting, and 
 drinking, not ordinary French and 
 Spanish wines, but strong Greek wines, 
 and thought he would compound his 
 hunting vjith these vrines ; and to that 
 purpose, he was attended by a special 
 officer, who was, as much as he could 
 be, always at hand to fill the King's 
 cup in hunting when he called for it. 
 I have heard my father say, that, hunt- 
 ing with the King, after the King had 
 drunk of the wine, he also drank of it ; 
 and though he was young, and of a 
 healthful disposition, it so deranged 
 his head that it spoiled his pleasure 
 and disordered him for three days 
 F F 
 
434 
 
 NOTES TO THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 alter. Whether it was from drinking 
 these wines, or from some other cause, 
 the King became so lazy and so un- 
 wieldy, that he was trussed on horse- 
 back, and as he was set, so would he 
 ride, without stirring himself in the 
 saddle ; nay, when his hat was set upon 
 his head he would not talce the trouble 
 to alter it, but it sate as it was put 
 on." 
 
 The trussing, for which the demi- 
 pique saddle of the day afforded 
 particular facility, is alluded to in the 
 text ; and the author, among other 
 nicknacks of antiquity, possesses a 
 leathern flask, like those carried 
 by sportsmen, which is labelled, 
 "King James's Hunting Bottle, " with 
 what authenticity is uncertain. Coke 
 seems to have exaggerated the King's 
 taste for the bottle. Welldon says 
 James was not intemperate in his 
 drinking; "However, in his old age, 
 Buckingham's jovial suppers, when he 
 had any turn to do with him, made 
 him sometimes overtaken, which he 
 would the next day remember, and 
 repent with tears. It is true he drank 
 
 very often, which was rather out of a 
 custom than any delight ; and his 
 drinks were of that kind for strength, 
 as Frontiniack, Canary, high country 
 wine, tent wine, and Scottish ale, that 
 had he not had a very strong brain, 
 he might have been daily overtaken, 
 though he seldom drank at any one 
 time above four spoonfuls, many 
 times not above one or two." — Secret 
 History of King James, vol. ii., p. 3. 
 Edin. 1811. 
 
 * P. 323. — Scene in Greenwich 
 Park. — I cannot here omit mention- 
 ing, that a painting of the old school 
 is in existence, having a remarkable 
 resemblance to the scene described in 
 the foregoing chapter, although it be 
 nevertheless true that the similarity is in 
 all respects casual, and that the author 
 knew not of the existence of the paint- 
 ing till it was sold, amongst others, 
 with the following description at- 
 tached to it in a well-drawn-up 
 catalogue. 
 
 "Frederigo Zucchero. 
 
 ^^ Scene as represented in the Fortunes 
 of Nigel, by Frederigo Zucchero, 
 tjic King s painter. 
 
 " This extraordinary picture, which, 
 
 independent of its pictorial merit, has 
 been esteemed a great literary curiosity, 
 represents most faithfully the meeting, 
 in Greenwich Park, between King 
 James and Nigel Ohphaunt, as de- 
 scribed in the Fortunes of Nigel, show- 
 ing that the author must have taken 
 the anecdote from authenticated facts. 
 In the centre of the picture sits King 
 James on horseback, very erect and 
 stiffly. Between the King and Prince 
 Charles, who is on the left of the 
 picture, the Duke of Buckingham is 
 represented riding a black horse, and 
 pointing eagerly towards . the culprit, 
 Nigel OUfaunt, who is standing on the 
 right side of the picture. He grasps 
 with his right hand a gun, or cross- 
 bow, and looks angrily towards the 
 King, who seems somewhat confused 
 and alarmed. Behind Nigel, his ser- 
 vant is restraining two dogs which are 
 barking fiercely. Nigel and his servant 
 are both clothed in red, the livery of 
 the Oliphaunt family in which, to this 
 day, the town officers of Perth are 
 clothed, there being an old charter, 
 granting to the Oliphaunt family, the 
 privilege of dressing the pubhc officers 
 of Perth in their livery. The Duke 
 of Buckingham is in all respects equal 
 in magnificence of dress to the King 
 or the Prince. The only difference 
 that is marked between him and 
 royalty is, that his head is uncovered. 
 The King and the Prince wear their 
 hats. In Letitia Aikin's Memoirs of 
 the Reign of King James, will be found 
 a letter from Sir Thomas Howard 
 to Lord L. Plarrington, in which 
 he recommends the latter to come to 
 court, mentioning that his Majesty has 
 spoken favourably of him. He then 
 proceeds to give him some advice, 
 by which he is likely to find favour in 
 the King's eyes. He tells him to wear 
 a bushy ruff, well starched ; and after 
 various other directions as to his dress, 
 he concludes, 'but above all things 
 fail not to praise the roan jennet 
 whereon the King doth daily ride.' 
 In this picture King James is repre- 
 sented on the identical roan jennet. 
 In the background of the picture are 
 seen two or three suspicious-looking 
 figures, as if watching the success of 
 some plot. These may have been put 
 in by the painter, to flatter the King, 
 by making it be supposed that he had 
 actually escaped, or successfully com- 
 
Notes to the fortunes op NiGiiL. 
 
 435 
 
 bated, some serious plot. The King 
 is attended by a numerous band of 
 courtiers and attendants, all of whom 
 seem moving forward to arrest the 
 defaulter. The painting of this picture 
 is extremely good, but the drawing is 
 very Gothic, and there is no attempt 
 at the keeping of perspective. The 
 picture is very dark and obscure, v?hich 
 considerably adds to the interest of 
 
 tllS SC6I16 
 
 * p. 323.— King James's Timidity.— 
 The fears of James for his personal 
 safety were often excited without 
 serious grounds. On one occasion, 
 having been induced to visit a coal-pit 
 on the coast of Fife, he was conducted 
 a little way under the sea, and brought 
 to daylight again on a small island, or 
 what was such at full tide, down which 
 a shaft had been sunk. James, who 
 conceived his Ufe or liberty aimed at, 
 when he found himself on an islet sur- 
 rounded by the sea, instead of ad- 
 miring, as his cicerone hoped, the 
 unexpected change of scene, cried 
 Treason with all his might, and could 
 not be pacified till he was rowed 
 ashore. At Lochmaben he took an 
 equally causeless alarm from a still 
 slighter circumstance. Some vendisses, 
 a fish peculiar to the Loch, were pre- 
 sented to the royal table as a delicacy ; 
 but the King, who was not familiar 
 with their appearance, concluded they 
 were poisoned, and broke up the 
 banquet "witli most admired dis- 
 order." 
 
 * P. 325. — Traitor's Gate.— 
 iraitor's Gate, which opens from the 
 Tower of London to the Thames, 
 was, as its name implies, that by 
 \\ hich persons accused of state offences 
 were conveyed to their prison. When 
 the tide is making, and the ancient 
 gate is beheld from within the build- 
 ings, it used to be a most striking 
 part of the old fortress ; but it is now 
 much injured in appearance, being 
 halt built up with masonry to support a 
 steam-engine, or something of that 
 sort. 
 
 * P. 327. — These memorials of illus- 
 trious criminals, or of innocent persons 
 wlio had the fate of such, are still 
 preserved, though at one time, in 
 the course of repairing the rooms, 
 they were in some danger of being 
 ■white-washed. They are preserved at 
 
 present with becoming respect, and 
 have most of them been engraved. — 
 See Bayley's History and Anti- 
 quities of the' Tower of Lojidon, 
 
 * P. 352. — The celebrated Court 
 Jester. 
 
 * P. 354. — Wilson informs us that 
 when Colonel Grey, a Scotsman who 
 affected the buff dress even in the 
 time of peace, appeared in that 
 military garb at Court, the King, see- 
 ing him with a case of pistols at his 
 girdle, which he never greatly liked, 
 told him, merrily, "he was now so 
 fortified, that, if he were but well 
 victualled, he would be impregnable." 
 — ^Wilson's Life and Reign of 
 James VI., apud Kennet's History 
 of England, vol. ii. p. 389. In 1612, 
 the tenth year of James's reign, there 
 was a rumour abroad that a shipload 
 of pocket-pistols had been exported 
 from Spain, with a view to a general 
 massacre of the Protestants. Pro- 
 clamations were of consequence sent 
 forth, prohibiting all persons from 
 carrying pistols under a foot long in 
 the barrel. Ibid. p. 690. 
 
 * P. 356. — Punishment of Stubbs 
 BY Mutilation. — This execution, 
 which so captivated the imagination 
 of Sir Mungo Malagrowther, was 
 really a striking one. The criminal, 
 a furious and bigoted Puritan, had 
 published a book in very violent terms 
 against the match of Elizabeth with 
 the Duke of Alencon, which he termed 
 an union of a daughter of God with 
 a son of antichrist. Queen Eliza- 
 beth was greatly incensed at the free- 
 dom assumed in this work, and caused 
 the author Stubbs, with Page the 
 publisher, and one Singleton the 
 printer, to be tried on an act passed 
 by Philip and Mary against the writers 
 and dispersers of seditious publica- 
 tions. They were convicted, and 
 although there was an opinion strongly 
 entertained by lawyers, that the act 
 was only temporary, and expired with 
 Queen Mary, Stubbs and Page re- 
 ceived sentence to have their right 
 hands struck off. They accordingly 
 suffered the punishment, the wrist 
 being divided by a, cleaver driven 
 through the joint by force of a mallet. 
 The printer was pardoned. " I re- 
 member," says the historian Camden, 
 "being then present, that Stubbs, 
 
43* 
 
 NOTES TO THE FORTUNES OF NIGEt. 
 
 when his right hand was cut off, 
 plucked off his hat with the left, and 
 said, with a loud voice, ' God save the 
 Queen ! ' The multitude standing 
 about was deeply silent, either out of 
 horror of this new and unwonted kind 
 of punishment, or out of commiseration 
 towards the man, as being of an 
 honest and unblamable repute, or else 
 out of hatred to the marriage, which 
 most men presaged would be the over- 
 throw of religion." — Camden's 
 Annah for the Year 1581. 
 * P. 369. — Richie MoNiPLiES BEHIND 
 THE Akeas. — The practical jest of 
 Richie Moniplies going behind the 
 arras to get an opportunity of teasing 
 Heriot, was a pleasantry such as 
 James might be supposed to approve 
 of. It was customary for those who 
 knew his humour to contrive jests of 
 this kind for his amusement. The 
 celebrated Archie Armstrong, and 
 another jester called Drummond, 
 mounted on other people's backs, used 
 to charge each other like knights in 
 the tilt-yard, to the monarch's great 
 amusement. The following is an in- 
 stance of the same kind, taken from 
 Webster upon Witchcraft. The 
 author is speaking of the faculty called 
 ventriloquism. 
 
 " But to make this more plain and 
 certain, we shall add a story of a 
 notable impostor, or ventriloquist, 
 from the testimony of Mr. Ady, which 
 we have had confirmed from the mouth 
 of some courtiers, that both saw and 
 knew him, and is this : — It hath been 
 (saith he) credibly reported, that there 
 was a man in the court in King James 
 his days, that could act this imposture 
 so lively, that he could call the King 
 by name, and cause the King to look 
 round about him, wondering who it 
 was that called him, whereas he that 
 called him stood before hiln in his 
 presence, with his face towards him. 
 But after this imposture was known, 
 the King, in his merriment, would 
 sometimes take occasionally this im- 
 postor to make sport upon some of 
 his courtiers, as, for instance : — 
 
 " There was a knight belonging to 
 the court, whom the King caused to 
 come before him in his private room, 
 (where no man was but the King, and 
 this knight and the impostor,) and 
 feigned some occasion of serious dis- 
 course "'■th the knight ; but when the 
 
 King began to speak, and the knight 
 bending his attention to the King, 
 suddenly there came a voice as out of 
 another room, calling the knight by 
 name, ' Sirjohn, Sir John ; come away, 
 Sir John ; ' at which the knight began 
 to frown that any man should be so 
 unmannerly as to molest the King 
 and him ; andstillhsteningtotheKing's 
 discourse, the voice came again, ' Sir 
 John, Sir John ; come away and drink 
 off your sack.' At that Sir John 
 began to swell with anger, and looked 
 into the next rooms to see who it was 
 that dared to call him so importu- 
 nately, and could not find out who it 
 was, and having chid with whomso- 
 ever he found, he returned again to 
 the King. The King had no sooner 
 begun to speak as formerly, but the 
 voice came again, 'Sir John, come 
 away, your sack stayeth for you.' At 
 that Sir John began to stamp with 
 madness, and looked out and returned 
 several times to the King, but could 
 not be quiet in his discourse with the 
 King, because 'of the voice that so 
 often troubled him, till the King had 
 sported enough." — Webster on 
 Witchcraft, p. 124. 
 
 * P- 377-~A. leglin-girth is the lowest 
 hoop upon a leglin, or milk-pail. 
 Allan Ramsay applies the phrase in 
 the same metaphorical sense. 
 
 " Or bairns can read, they first maun 
 spell, 
 I learn'd this frae my mammy, 
 And cast a leglin girth raysell, 
 Lang ere I married Tammy." 
 Christ's Kirk on the Green. 
 
 * P. 385. — The old-fashioned weapon 
 called the Jeddart staff was a species 
 of battle-axe. Of a very great tempest, 
 it is said, in the south of Scotland, that 
 it rains Jeddart staffs, as in England 
 the common people talk of its raining 
 cats and dogs. 
 
 * P. 383.— Lady Lake, —Whether 
 out of a meddling propensity common 
 to all who have a gossiping disposition, 
 or from the love of justice, which 
 ought to make part of a prince's 
 character, James was very fond of 
 enquiring personally into the causes 
 cilebres which occurred during his 
 reign, In the imposture of the Boy 
 of Bilson, who pretended to be 
 possessed, and of one Richard Hay- 
 dock, a poor scholar, who pretended 
 
NOTES TO THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 
 
 437 
 
 to preach during his sleep, the King, 
 to use the historian Wilson's ex- 
 pression, took delight in sounding 
 with the Une of his understanding, 
 the depth of these brutish impositions, 
 and in doing so, showed the acuteness 
 with which he was endowed by 
 Nature. Lady Lake's story consisted 
 in a clamorous complaint against the 
 Countess of Exeter, whom she ac- 
 cused of a purpose to put to death 
 Lady Lake herself, and her daughter, 
 Lady Ross, the wife of the Countess's 
 own son-in-law. Lord Ross; and a 
 forged letter was produced, in which 
 Lady Exeter was made to acknow- 
 ledge such a purpose. The account 
 given of the occasion of obtaining this 
 letter, was, that it had been written 
 by the Countess at Wimbledon, in 
 presence of Lady Lake and her 
 daughter. Lady Ross, being designed 
 to procure their forgiveness for her 
 mischievous intention. The King 
 remained still unsatisfied, the writing, 
 in his opinion, bearing strong marks 
 of forgery. Lady Lake and her 
 daughter then alleged, that, besides 
 their own attestation, and that of a 
 confidential domestic, named Diego, 
 in whose presence Lady Exeter had 
 written the confession, their story 
 might also be supported by the oath 
 of their waiting-maid, who had been 
 placed behind the hangings at the 
 time the letter was written, and heard 
 the Countess of Exeter read over the 
 confession after she had signed it, 
 Determined to be at the bottom of 
 this accusation, James, while hunting 
 one day near Wimbledon, the scene of 
 the alleged confession, suddenly left 
 his sport, and, galloping hastily to 
 Wimbledon, in order to examine per- 
 sonally the room, discovered, from the 
 size of the apartment, that the alleged 
 conversation could not have taken 
 place in the manner sworn to ; and 
 that the tapestry of the chamber, 
 which had remained in the same state 
 
 for thirty years, was too short by two 
 feet, and, therefore, could not have 
 concealed any one behind it. This 
 matter was accounted an exclusive 
 discovery of the King by his own 
 spirit of shrewd investigation. The 
 parties were punished in the Star 
 Chamber by fine and imprisonment. 
 
 * P. 402. — Clarendon remarks, that 
 the importance of the military exercise 
 of the citizens was severely felt by the 
 cavaUers during the civil war, not- 
 withstanding the ridicule that had been 
 showered upon it by the dramatic 
 poets of the day. Nothing less than 
 habitual practice could, at the battle 
 of Newbery and elsewhere, have 
 enabled the Londoners to keep their 
 ranks as pikemen, in spite of the re- 
 peated charge of the fiery Prince 
 Rupert and his gallant cavahers. 
 
 * P. 403. — A particular species of 
 rack, used at the Tower of London, 
 was so called . 
 
 * P. 405. — This elegant speech was 
 made by the Earl of Douglas, called 
 Tineman, after being wounded and 
 made prisoner at the battle of Shrews- 
 bury, where 
 
 " His well labouring sword 
 Had three times slain the semblance 
 of the King." 
 
 * P. 417. — Chaucer says, there is 
 nothing new but what it has been old. 
 The reader has here the original of an 
 anecdote which has since been fathered 
 on a Scottish Chief of our own time. 
 
 * P. 41S. — ^The penny-wedding of the 
 Scots, now disused even among the 
 lowest ranks, was a peouUar species of 
 merry-making, at which, if the wedded 
 pair were popular, the guests who con- 
 vened, contributed considerable sums 
 under pretence of paying for the bridal 
 festivity, but in reality to set the 
 married folk afloat in the world. 
 
 * P. 423. — Thrill, or curdle. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 DKADllURY, AGNEVV, & CO., PRINTERS, WHITEFRI.IRS.