He had scarcely paced his apartment for ten minutes, endeavouring 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 resemblance, 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 was
consistent with 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 Alsatia 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 standing, 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 of this unexpected
visit?"

"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 you have had
unchristian measure.--In the meanwhile, look at that dog there--look
Belzebub 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 satellites, 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. Glenvarloch 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 _post 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 proposition which Nigel readily received, though he could not
help suspecting 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 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 mine 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 sparrow-hawk,
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 familiarity."

"I crave 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 little 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 most 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 never
cast doublets, or dull a greenhorn again! And so, my 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 accomplished?"

"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, you would 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
shall 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 you
dispose of a ward of so much wealth on a stranger like 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 your folly, and your hand for being
close-fisted."

"But, since your goodness has taken my matters into such serious
consideration," continued Nigel, who conceived 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 recommend to me?"

"Touching that matter, my lord, I have always heard your countrymen
knew as well as other folks, 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 appearance, 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 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," replied 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, doubtless,
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 Hildebrod.

"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 confidential
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 of 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 consideration, 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.




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 conditions 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 Lowestoffe'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 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 protection 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 reasonable 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 leave the 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 of the money
once consigned as room-rent, could be repaid back on 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 the chamber, put him out, but with such 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 flints 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
the door--he called upon the person to enter, having no doubt that it
was Lowestoffe's messenger at length arrived. It was, however, the
ungracious daughter of old Trapbois, who, muttering something 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!"

"I do not deal in cutting throats, mistress," replied Nigel; "but I
carry arms to defend myself, and my country if it needs me."

"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 shall 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 superfluous 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 a
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, oh 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 further ceremony, but telling 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 commenced a maundering sort
of apology, in which all that Nigel distinctly apprehended, was a
frequent repetition of the word _consideration_, 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 cup-bearer, 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 expected, 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 as 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 libraries, and even
spent a long time there without greatly disturbing their learned
contents, he was now in a situation where the possession 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-candles, the perquisites, 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."

Nigfil 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 bottle 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
appliances 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.[Footnote: Only three
copies are known to exist; one in the library at Kennaquhair, and two-
-one foxed and cropped, the other tall and in good condition--both in
the possession of an eminent member of the Roxburghe Club.--_Note by_
CAPTAIN CLUTTERBUCK.] Nigel had soon enough of the doleful tales which
the book contains, and attempted one or two other modes of killing the
evening. He looked out at window, but the night was rainy, with gusts
of wind; he tried to coax the fire, but the fagots were green, and
smoked without burning; and as he was naturally temperate, 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 addressed to the king, in which he set forth his
case and his grievances; but, speedily stung with the idea that his
supplication 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 untimely an hour. Trapbois showed neither fear nor
surprise, and only answered by some imperfect expressions, intimating
he would part with his life rather than with his property; and Lord
Glenvarloch, 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 comparison 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 apartment, 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, reluctantly
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 to
Nigel, speaking in such a tone that her father, deaf, and engrossed 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 intermediate 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 himself upon the scene
of action,--a cocked pistol 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 surprised 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 expected. "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!"




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 answer'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 glance at the open window; which Martha, as acute as
if undisturbed 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 inactive
weight and rigid joints, that life had forsaken her station. Nigel
looked for a wound, but saw none. The daughter of the deceased, with
more presence of mind than a daughter could at the time have been
supposed capable of exerting, discovered the instrument 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
afterwards 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?"

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 I will have justice, and
the base villain who murdered this poor defenceless old man, when he
had not, by the course of nature, a twelvemonth'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--bid 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 meanwhile to remain on
the watch as she recommended.

It was no pleasant situation for one unused to such scenes to 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 spectator'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 these 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 footsteps and the whisper of the returned ruffian
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 cheered 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 inquire
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 brawling voices
sunk into stammering whispers; and, with spirits quelled by what they
saw, while their brains were still stupefied by the liquor which they
had drunk, they seemed like men walking in their sleep.

Old Hildebrod was an exception to the general condition. That seasoned
cask, however full, was at all times capable of motion, when there
occurred a motive sufficiently strong to set him a-rolling. He seemed
much shocked at what he beheld, and his proceedings, 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 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
concerning 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 his 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 every thing 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 circumstances of the sash did not 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 apartment 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.

"Do _you_ 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."

"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 go to my
house, and get something hot--you will be but dreary here by
yourself."

"I will send for the 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? 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 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 communicated 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."