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Title: The Fortunes of Nigel

Author: Sir Walter Scott

Release Date: June, 2004 [EBook #5950]
[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
[This file was first posted on September 24, 2002]

Edition: 10

Language: English

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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL ***




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A TALE WHICH HOLDETH CHILDREN FROM PLAY & OLD MEN FROM THE CHIMNEY
CORNER
            --SIR PHILIP SIDNEY


The FORTUNES OF NIGEL

by Sir WALTER SCOTT Bart




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 followed 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
useful to the community as an institution. To the honour of those who
have the management, (the Magistrates and Clergy of Edinburgh), 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 supposed to
have walked through life with a steady pace, and an observant 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 compositions; 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 similiar reasons, it may
be in like manner said, that the most picturesque 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 religion. The strong contrast produced by the opposition of
ancient manners to those which are gradually subduing them, affords
the lights and shadows necessary to give effect to a fictitious
narrative; and while such a period entitles the author to introduce
incidents of a marvellous and improbable character, as arising out of
the turbulent independence and ferocity, belonging to old habits of
violence, still influencing the manners of a people who had been so
lately in a barbarous state; yet, on the other hand, the characters
and sentiments 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 dictates, 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 Carrousel. 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;[Footnote: See Lord Herbert of Cherbury's Memoirs.]
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 to fact, 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 perpetually
giving rise to acts of blood and violence. The bravo of the Queen's
day, of whom Shakspeare has given us so many varieties, 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 in every 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 themselves 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
desperadoes] 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."[Footnote: history of
the First Fourteen Years of King James's Reign. See Somers's Tracts,
edited by Scott, vol. ii. p.266.]

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 possibility 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 gentlemen, 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 daughters, to the intent to
maintain themselves according to their dignity, prostituting their
bodies in shameful manner. Ale-houses, 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
establishment 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 powerfully 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 disgusting
conduct of Lord Dalgarno will not perhaps appear overstrained; 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 entertainments and
amusements of Elizabeth's time had an air of that decent restraint
which became the court of a maiden sovereign; 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 delicacy and rolled about in
intoxication. After a ludicrous account of a mask, in which the actors
had got drunk, and behaved themselves 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."[Footnote: Harrington's Nugae Antique, 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, Howell's Letters,
and other Memorials of the time; but particularly, consult the Private
Letters and Correspondence of Steenie, _alias_ Buckingham, with his
reverend Dad and Gossip, King James, which abound with the grossest 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]

Such being the state of the court, coarse sensuality brought along
with it its ordinary companion, a brutal degree of undisguised
selfishness, 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 Whitefriars, in his play of the Squire of Alsatia,
which turns upon the plot of the Adelphi of Terence.

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 bullies
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. [Footnote:
"Cheatly, 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 he undoes them. A lewd, impudent, debauched
fellow, very expert in the cant about town.

"Shamwell, cousin to the Belfords, who, being ruined by Cheatly, 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, impudent,
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, repeating, praying, psalm-singing, precise
fellow, pretending to great piety; a godly knave, who joins with
Cheatly, and supplies young heirs with goods, and money."--Dramatis
Personae to the Squire of Alsatia, SHADWELL'S Works, vol. iv.] The
play, as we learn from the dedication to the Earl of Dorset and
Middlesex, was successful above the author's expectations, "no comedy
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."
[Footnote: Dedication to the Squire of Alsatia, Shadwell's Works, vol.
iv.] 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 acknowledgment 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.


ABBOTSFORD.
1st July, 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 quotation, of _"Quam bonum et quam jucundum!"_ 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 pennyworth 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 pocket and
carry it home;" or, "We will make a bookseller of you, sir, and you
shall have it at trade price." Or, perhaps 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
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. 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 bibliopolical 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 himself, 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
thought 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 anticipation 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 Bennaskar, I at
length reached a vaulted room, dedicated to secrecy and silence, and
beheld, seated by a lamp, and employed in reading a. blotted _revise_,
[Footnote: The uninitiated must be informed, that a second proof-sheet
is so called.] 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 expected,
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 Clutterbuck,
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 indicated the proof-sheet with
his finger)--But first, touching The Monastery--How says the world--
you are abroad and can learn?

_Captain Clutterbuck._ 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--feeling--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
wildfire 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 solitary 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; commencing
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, 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 kinds strike sail and yard?

_Author._ Hey! hey! what the deuce is all this? Why,'tis Ercles' vein,
and it would require some one much more like Hercules 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 themselves 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 travelling, 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 negligences the
excuse of the slave, who, about to be punished for having spread the
false report of a victory, saved 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, however, at which
she always abandoned the cause of her reverend _protege_--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 purpose?

_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
impersonal author is nothing better-can cast no shade.

_Captain._ You are not now, perhaps, so impersonal as here-tofore.
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 importance; and show,
besides, that the preservation of my character of _incongnito_ 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 of such 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 from an absent son, a
remittance 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 disagreeable, 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 is heartily
regretted; while 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 public which can
really exist, is, that the world are disposed to be somewhat indulgent
to the succeeding works of an original favourite, 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; 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
publication, 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 terminate 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 I have attained the point I proposed.

_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 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 write
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 suppose,
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----
Dragoons.

_Captain._ Then you _have_ served, sir?

_Author._ I have--or I have not, which signifies the same thing--
Captain is a good travelling name.--I found 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--

_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 you take me for;"--words which 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 titles 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--it 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 I 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 woman 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 off 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?"

_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 reserve this legend to
form an introduction to "Three Recovered Dramas," or so?

_Author._ You are quite right--habit's a strange thing, my son. I had
forgot whom I was 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 second Laberius,
made a dramatist whether I would or not. I believe my muse would be
_Terry_-fied 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 Cunningham, 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 perhaps only note his defects--or, what is worse, not note
him at all.--But never mind them, honest Allan; you are a credit to
Caledonia for all that.--There are some lyrical effusions of his, too,
which you would 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 Catalan! visited the Abbey. My "Poortith Cauld" has
been received both poorly and coldly, and "the Banks of Bonnie Doon"
have been positively coughed down--_Tempora mutantur._

_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 extensive 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-manufacturer.

_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 productive
labourer, and that his works constitute as effectual a part of the
public wealth, as that which is created by any other manufacture. 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
emolument, it is won by my toil, and I account myself answerable to
Heaven only for the mode in which I expend it. The candid may hope it
is not all dedicated to selfish purposes; and, without 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 will, succeed. So the
lawyer who pleads, the soldier who fights, the physician who
prescribes, the clergyman--if such 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 acknowledged, 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 _cense_ 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 reasonable 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 or the prospect
of reward. Perhaps I have said too much of this. I might, perhaps,
with as much truth as most people, exculpate myself from the charge of
being either of a greedy or mercenary disposition; 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 association of gentlemen
mentioned by Goldsmith, who sold their magazine 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--perhaps 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 inclined 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 survive in all
his works--I may hope to live in some of mine;--_non omnis moriar._ It
is some consolation to reflect, that the best authors in 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 be
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 the proposition
good. The most serious grievance attending such inundations as you
talk of, is, that they make rags dear. The multiplicity of
publications 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 Queen--

     ----"Besrrew'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 alchemy.

_Author._ They will be but few in number; since, as for the 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 Britomart--

    "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 quantum._

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. C. rebuking Mr. F. in 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,






THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL

_Knifegrinder._ Story? Lord bless you! I have none to tell, sir.
                               _Poetry of the Antijacobin._




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!
  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 partiality to those of
his ancient kingdom; while the Scots, with equal injustice, charged
him with having forgotten the land of his nativity, 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 thousand years,
had been so very recently united, broke forth with a 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 opinioned
mechanic, much devoted to abstract studies, David Ramsay by name, who,
whether recommended by his great skill in his profession, as the
courtiers alleged, or, as was murmured among the 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 supposed,
was something very different from those we now see in the same
locality. The goods were exposed to sale in cases, only defended from
the weather by a covering of canvass, and the whole resembled the
stalls and booths now erected for the temporary accommodation of
dealers at a country fair, rather than the established emporium of a
respectable citizen. But most of the shopkeepers 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 improvements 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 commercial
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 recommendations of the articles in
which they dealt.

This direct and personal application for custom to those who chanced
to pass by, is now, we believe, limited to Monmouth Street, (if it
still exists even in that repository of ancient garments,) under the
guardianship 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
particular, to the unrivalled excellence of the goods, which they
offered to sale upon such easy terms, that it might fairly appear that
the venders had rather a view to the general service of the public,
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 exhorted 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, confiding 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 song which
Dr. Johnson was used to hum,--

    "Up then rose the 'prentices all,
     Living in London, both proper and 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 apprentices, 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 Londoner,
with all the acuteness, address, and audacity which belong 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 exercises; 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 apology, 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 'prentice'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 in 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 courtiers,
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;
his turned-up nose gave an air of spirit and raillery to 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, watchmaker, 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 exhorted 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
doubled-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 unsuitable to his years, and which almost amounted to
dejection. He lived on the best of terms with his companion, 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 comrade, 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
formerly been accustomed, while the inhabitant of his native mansion,
lost gradually 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
companions, 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
bonnie lads, and the looks that the court ladies threw at them, when
visiting his shop in their caroches, when on a frolic 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 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 jibes and
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 Suddlechop,
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
background. 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
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, since--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 Jenkin, producing 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 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 an 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 penniworths for his coin, I
promise you.--But here comes another-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 thread-bare cloak--
his step like 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 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 Scot has done gazing at St. 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
grimly, 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, snatching up his
weapon, which lay beneath the counter ready at the 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 polishing 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 displeasure
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 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.

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 in firm 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, every thing 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 slow at pleasure;
you, of all the world, have least reason to complain, 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 blithe, 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 timepiece?"

"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 oblige 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
child'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
any thing 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 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 pharmacopeia. However, whatever Dr.
Irving, who, I think, hath had his degrees in Edinburgh, 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 Jenkin
and Francis, to divest the patient of his long grey cloak, were firmly
resisted on his own part.--"My life suner--my life suner," 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, and seemed
so much ashamed of the disclosure, that, muttering between his teeth,
that he would be too late for his 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
garments,"--("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 methinks,
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 somebody."

"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, seeing
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?"

"Not if I could do him honest service for it, sir," said the Scot; "I
am willing 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 interrogator.

"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 architecture 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
contempt--"God bless your honour's judgment, we have at Edinburgh the
Water-of-Leith and the Nor-loch!"

"And the Pow-Burn, and the Quarry-holes, and the Gusedub, ye fause
loon!" answered Master George, speaking Scotch with a strong and
natural emphasis; "it is such land-loupers 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
especially 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
garments--"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 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
deevil 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 deevil coupit 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 livery 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 Master George; and observing
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 present 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?"

"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 a bit 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 into no more
affrays.

"I will take care of that now, sir," said Richie, with a look of
importance, "having a charge about 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.

Richie Moniplies would next have addressed his thanks to the master of
the shop, but seeing him, as he afterwards said, "scribbling on his
bit bookie, as if he were demented," he contented his politeness 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 heedfully," 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 up a little
back-stair to the first storey, 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 Cumberland
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 suppose?"

"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, that 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 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 Wharf, 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 the obscure corners of Constantinople in our own time.
But John 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
Moniplies 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 tight well-laced 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 curtains 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, notwithstanding his efforts to
seem contented and cheerful; and, in short, she took that sort of
interest in him, without being herself aware of the 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
predominant weakness of his country, an overweening sense of the pride
of birth, and a disposition to value the worth and consequence of
others according to the number and the fame of their deceased
ancestors; but this pride of family was well subdued, 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 more of Richie than did his master, who had not
heard of him for twenty-four hours.

Dame Nelly Christie, in the meantime, 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 she 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 intentions, and good
lungs, entertain no fear either of wearying themselves or of fatiguing
their auditors.

"Now, what the good year! are we to send you down to Scotland 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 Sandie Christie, I have
heard he was an atomy when he came up from the North, and I am sure he
died, Saint Barnaby was 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 saying, died as fat as a church-warden. 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 to live when
I go back to my own country--if ever I go back 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 Irishmen; and when folks jeer me about having a Scotsman
for 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 distress;
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."

"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 distilled 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 consolation
than those she had hitherto touched upon; for the youthful 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 consideration 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 consideration.

"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 English folks; and this good
gentleman goes as often down by water to Greenwich, and employs as
many of the barge-men and water-men 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 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 chamber, put the
matter beyond question. Dame Nelly, after congratulating 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 Olifaunt.--
"Where have you been, or what have you been about? You look as pale as
death. There is blood on your 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
whirligigs and mony-go-rounds that measure out time as a man wad
measure a tartan web; and then they bled me, wold I nold I, and were
reasonably civil, especially an auld country-man of ours, of whom more
hereafter."

"And at what o'clock might this be?" said Nigel.

"The twa iron carles yonder, at the kirk beside the Port, were just
banging out 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, 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 Nigel," 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-bed, 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 something 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 bulkhead, 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 cam daikering here, but sad wark I had to find the way,
for I 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 description with
the thumb and the two forefingers of his right hand, 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 gracious 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 presence. You were
very mysterious on the subject, when you undertook, 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."

"Weel, 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 Linklater, one of the yeomen of
the kitchen, that was my father's apprentice lang syne."

"A yeoman in 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 weel 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 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 back stairs 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 himself 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 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.
[Footnote: I am certain this prudential 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 compliments 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 recommends, as a sure mode to the king's favour,
to praise the paces of the royal palfrey.]

'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 sifflicating here 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 put him on another pin."

So thinking, he asked the young lord what was in the Proclamation
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 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 publish 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 disgrace 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 impisonment."'

"I marle 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 suppose, according to the degree
of their poverty, for I see no other demerit specified."

"This will scarcely," said Richie, "square with our old proverb--

     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, 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 ushering Master George
into Lord Nigel's apartment, which she performed with much courtesy.




CHAPTER IV


  Ay, sir, the clouted shoe hath oft times 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 displeased nor
disconcerted. He assumed the chair, which, in deference 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 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 Heriot, 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 embarrassed
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 years ere the Court
and a suitor shake hands and part."

"My business," said Lord Nigel, with a brevity which was intended to
stop further 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 requesting his
absence.

"Your lordship has not yet had time," said the citizen, still
attempting to sustain the conversation, "to visit the places of
amusement,--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, [Footnote: Meaning, probably, playbills.] which they hand about
of late--May I ask what play?"

"Oh! a well-known piece," said Lord Nigel, impatiently throwing 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 acquaintance, Philip
Massinger;" but, having opened the paper and seen the purport, he
looked at Lord Nigel with surprise, saying, "I trust your lordship
does not think this prohibition can extend either to _your_ person or
your claims?" "I should scarce have thought so myself," said the young
nobleman; "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 impossible!--
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 opinion," 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 else--"

"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 my own, drawn, I
hope, with due deference and modesty."

Master Heriot hastly 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 Glenvarloch, "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?" 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 secretaries; this fellow
pretended he had a friend in the household 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 blushed a little, and looked at his dress, which was
very plain; and, though in perfect good order, had the appearance of
having seen service.

"I know not why I should be ashamed of speaking the truth," he said,
after a momentary 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 begging 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 therefore----"
He stamped on the floor, and in a few seconds afterwards 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 questions?" "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, "and 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," replied 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 understand 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 contempt?"
said the citizen. "Take heed, for I have means of knowing 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 interrogator.

"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
sifflications 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 convenience 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, and said,
muttering betwixt his teeth--"'Humbly showeth--um--um--his Majesty's
maist gracious mother--um--um--justly addebted and owing the sum of
fifteen merks--the compt whereof followeth--Twelve nowte's feet for
jellies--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 besides 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 insolence, in
blending your base concerns with mine?"

"Nay, nay, nay, my lord," said the good-humoured citizen, interposing,
"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 me 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 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 complaints, 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
counter-scarp, 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 Supplication, for he has not
seen it--you ask but justice, and that his place obliges him to give
to his subjects--ay, my lord, 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 Olifaunt,--
"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 employment 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 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 intelligence, 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 information 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, bound to have
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 mortgage 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 be 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 true, of noble blood," said the citizen; "but once
more I bid you look on my grey hairs, and think what can be 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 Chancellor'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 informer; and though
I would venture half my shop to do your lordship 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 nobleman, who
replied hastily--"Damage, sir?--so far am I from wishing 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 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 like 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 acknowledgment 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 intimating that this was
an unnecessary ceremonial, and that he would 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 acknowledgment,
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 shild who ives--Ah! woe is me! and well-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 downstairs, he passed the shop where Dame Christie stood
becking, he made civil inquiries 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 of 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 supplied; 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 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 Scotland,
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 hear _you_ say so, dame," replied the citizen.

"Who, I, sir?" 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 any thing, 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 ungracious enough to
mutter, in contempt of his council, "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 honest 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 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 then 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 endeavoured, 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 countrymen, 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 you 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 started at once from his reverie,
and answered in a pettish tone, "Wow, George, man, what needs aw this
din about sax score o' pounds? 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, David, 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 will 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 like, or hear opinions
to which they must not enter a dissent.

"Umph!" repeated Master George--who, as we have already 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 god-
father, 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 of 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 quill up too high, 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." [Footnote: A biblical commentary by
Gill, which (if the author'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 mentioned in the text, has
this quatrain at the end of the volume--
    "With one good pen I wrote this book,
       Made of a grey goose quill;
     A pen it was when it I took,
       And a pen I leave it still."]

"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 satisfaction.
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
travelled, 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
population." The buildings were rapidly increasing, yet certainly gave
not 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 tesselated 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 carelessly 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?"

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 manner, covered with dust, and
lost half their value, or at least their effect, from the manner in
which they were presented to the eye. The table was loaded with huge
folios, 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, communicated to his
figure an air of distortion. Over his green doublet he wore a sad-
coloured nightgown, 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 remembrance 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, rendering 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
asserter of his rights in words, yet one who tamely saw them trampled
on in deeds; a lover of negotiations, in which he was 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 conversation 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 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 comprehensive 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 apiece as his
character, he, certainly the least able of the Stewarts, succeeded
peaceably to that kingdom, against the power of which his predecessors
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 nicknames to all
those with whom he was on terms of familiarity,) inquired 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 goldsmith, "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 to his order;
and James, with whom economy was only a transient and momentary twinge
of conscience, became immediately afterwards 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 papistrie?" said the king, looking
graver than his wont.

"Surely not, please your Majesty," said Heriot; "I were not wise to
bring any thing 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
groundsill 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 Cellini
mad, had he never done ony thing else out of the gate. Francis!--why,
he was a fighting fule, man,--a mere fighting 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."

"I trust that such will be his good fortune," said Heriot.

"It is a curious and very artificial sculpture," said the king, in
continuation; "but yet, methinks, the carnifex, or executioner there,
is brandishing his gully 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 assuring 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 lawful 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 property,
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 his
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 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 naturally
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 proclamations that the
heralds roar themselves hoarse with. Yesterday, 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 other, 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 patriae_ 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."

"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 Vice-gerent 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.--Very weel enacted--whilk we, as being willing to be debonair
and pleasing towards our lieges, prevent thus,--and motion to you to
rise;--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 insanivimus omnes_--thou art my old and faithful servant,
that is the truth; and, were't any thing for thy own behoof, 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 mea
renidet in domo lacunar_--for, 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 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?"

"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 weel
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
hollow to a hound till all the woods rang again. But he came to an
Annandale end at the last, for Lord Torthorwald run his lance out
through him.--Cocksnails, man, when I think of those wild passages, in
my conscience, I am not sure but we lived merrier in auld Holyrood in
those shifting days, than now when we are dwelling 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 full 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 in 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 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 fugae,_ 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, impatiently; "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; 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."

"Well--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 verbo regis_ he
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_--It's ill taking the breeks 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 verbo 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.--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
angusta domi_--puir 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 ye 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 conveniently 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 fedem,_ O Geordie. Clap your mule
between your boughs, and god-den with you."

Thus ended the conference betwixt the gentle King Jamie and his
benevolent jeweller and goldsmith.




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, nevertheless, more suitable to his age and
quality than he 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 sideways on his head--he had a sound and tough
coat of English 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
appendage 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 condemned 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 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 little 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 opportunity 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 little 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 preceptor,
George Buchanan. The office 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 travelling through his grammar and prosody.
Under the stern rule, indeed, of George Buchanan, who did not approve
of the vicarious mode of punishment, James bore the penance of his own
faults, and Mungo Malagrowther 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
bestowed 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
situation. 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 inflictions,
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 possibly 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 maintained. But, when
he grew too big to be whipped, he had no other 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 rencontres 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 Rullion Rattray, of
Ranagullion, 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 throw 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 formerly 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 seldom as
his duty permitted; and spent his time in indulging his 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 be 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 freedom, by such a person as Sir
Mungo, to whom he was, nevertheless, 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, somewhat severe-
looking female, in a coif, who, by the name of Aunt Judith, did the
honours of his house and table, with little 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 conversation of the latter, to observe he
had heard in Paul's, that the bankrupt concern 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
has 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 of the beast, as clear as a tout on a
bawbee whistle."

"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 time-piece!"
exclaimed Sir Mungo, while, betwixt jest and earnest, he laid on his
hilt his hand, or rather his claw, (for Sir Rullion's broadsword has
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 Margaret, 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, looked 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 distraught!--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 continued, 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--"

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 Olifaunt, 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 ordinary description, and accordingly, 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 castle--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 of
that 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 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 furnished 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 understanding, more
inclined towards the Puritans than was her brother 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 complaisant 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; 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 himself,
"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 impudence."

"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 his cash-keeper coming 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 Whitehall, 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 instant
entered the room with a calm and steady countenance; "your
calculations are true and 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 concurrence
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 contending 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 took brief leave, as if under consciousness that something
was wrong. Mistress Margaret, 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 accompanied 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 upstairs, 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 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 bookkeeper,
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 unconsider'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 permitted
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, 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 desiring
to know his pleasure. He nodded his head gravely, and looked to 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 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
envied, so large and lustrous were the brilliants of which it was
composed; and around 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 expression of melancholy by
which he felt strangely affected. Even when she was seated on the
vacant stool, which was placed there probably 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.

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 performance 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, oreven
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 melancholy
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, and fruit, 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 the 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 little 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 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 to take
opportunity to step beyond it, and associate with my superiors in
rank, and therefore do not fear to mortify my presumption, 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 returning
to it that night. He therefore exchanged thanks and greetings 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 Hamilton, 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 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 gutterblood, I should have 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 acknowledgment
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 pardon--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 so."

"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 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 carle this Maister Heriot is. He hath
supplied your lordship with wealth of gold, as I can understand; 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 none
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,
my lord, unless Maister George Heriot has something mair to allege as
a motive for his liberality, vera different from the possession 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 Moniplies, 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 not--I would have
cut the impudent knave's hams with my broadsword, 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 spirit?"

"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 Moniplies, 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 swell within hue
and cry of Lombard Street--that lady, or quean, or whatever 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 she chooses such a time to visit her friends?"

"For that I kenna, my lord," answered the superstitious follower; "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 Rollock, 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 fraw the heart, may be powerful to drive them away,
even as the Evil Spirit was driven by he 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 to your prying folly, and your idiotical
superstitions, for ever. For whom do you, or your absurd authors or
informers, take this lady?"

"I can sae 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, ante-room,
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--"

"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 the romantic; "does she
not eat with the family?"

"Who!--she!"--exclaimed Moniplies, as if surprised at the question;
"they would need a lang spoon 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 the 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.




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
convenient 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 consequences 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 unlicensed love as the heir of some family whose
love was lawful, but where an heir had 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 consequence, 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 considered as indispensable in the families of all
citizens of ordinary rank, at such joyous periods. So much also was
she supposed to know of life and its labyrinths, that she was the
willing confidant of half the loving couples in the vicinity, most of
whom used to communicate 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 maintained 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 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 conversation.

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 long 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 which
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 sweetbread 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 a 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 Suddlechop. I shall be very
happy to hear what she has to say;" then added in a lower 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, and 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
well-nigh 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
advice and kind tendance, you need not go to Mother Redcap, Janet. She
may do very well for skippers' wives, chandlers' 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 I 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 fashious about washing her laces; but I 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 bequeathed 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?"

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 MacGivan'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 Suddlechop; "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 determined to sacrifice inclination to duty,
she hid the stewpan 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 stockfish and parsnips, in the
shop below.

"If I were to tell you, Gaffer," said the dame, with most contemptuous
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 inquiry farther; nor did
the dame tarry for farther question, but marched out at the door,
telling the eldest of the boys "to sit up till her return, and look to
the house the whilst."

The night was dark and rainy, and although the distance betwixt the
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 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 comfortable--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 apartment of the fanciful though ingenious
mechanist was continually lumbered.

At length they attained, by a very narrow staircase, pretty Mistress
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 Scotswoman, 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 fireside, 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 inquire
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 inquirer.

"Nothing, lady-bird!" answered Dame Suddlechop; "and do you use to
send for your friends out of bed at this hour for nothing?"

"It was not I who sent for you, dame," replied 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 yourself, 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 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 preparations 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 caroch, 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 flat cap in
this pretty palm, yet there is a sparking black eye under it, hath not
its match in the Ward of Farringdon-Without."

"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 Cockney!" exclaimed 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 blind 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 Margaret, "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, as 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 must speak, then.--There dined with 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 matter complete, who are
all as proud as Lucifer, and as poor as Job?--A Scots nobleman,
quotha? I had 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." [Footnote: The
head of the ancient and distinguished house of Ramsay, and to whom, as
their chief, the individuals 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."]

"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 Olifaunt," 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 Glenvarloch."

"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 mid-day 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 conscience, 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 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 too 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--I 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
loath 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 Margaret.

"What you have been angry with me for asking before," answered Dame
Ursula. "I want to have some light about the story of your godfather's
ghost, that is only seen at prayers."

"Not for the world," said Mistress Margaret, "will I be a spy on my
kind godfather'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
management--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 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 countrymen 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 and 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 warrant 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 withal.




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 Hubbard'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 suitably.

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
Goldsmiths' Incorporation, he felt a little surprised, if not abashed,
at his own situation; and Richie Moniplies, 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 Kraemes;--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
anticipations, 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-toiling 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 philosophy, 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 apartments 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 commonplace 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 ante-rooms, 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 Lord Glenvarloch and his city friend
advanced into a large and splendid withdrawing-room, communicating
with the presence-chamber, into which ante-room were admitted those
only who, from birth, their posts in the state or household, or by the
particular grant of the kings, 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 those 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 off 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 himself exclusively
to the young lord, although he suspected he might be occasionally in
the predicament of needing one as much as himself. And even the notice
of this original, singular and unamiable as he was, was not entirely
indifferent to Lord Glenvarloch, since the absolute and somewhat
constrained silence of his good friend Heriot, which left him at
liberty to retire painfully to his 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 discontented 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 Mungo, 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 ante-room, 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 scandalised, 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 themselves."

"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 intruders."

"Were you lauding the taste of my embroidery, Maister Maxwell?"
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 repute, in
Merlin's Wynd, whom I made a point to employ, as I am now happy to
remember, seeing your father thought fit to intermarry 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 permits 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 accordingly, and,
as is usual on such occasions, the courtiers began to advance towards
it, and to enter in a slow, but continuous and uninterrupted 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 embarrassment
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 imperfection." 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 more forward, saying,--"What!--the son of my
gallant old opponent, Ochtred Olifaunt--I will introduce him to the
presence 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 embarrassment--"My lord, this
gentleman is not known, and I have orders to be scrupulous."

"Tutti--taiti, man," said the old lord, "I will be answerable he is
his father's son, from the cut of his eyebrow--and thou, Maxwell,
knewest his father well enough to have spared thy scruples. Let us
pass, man." So saying, he put aside the deputy-chamberlain'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-harided broad-swords, and plate-coats, and the
crests on our burgonets."

"Too loud, my Lord of Huntinglen," whispered 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-door, 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 presented the monarch to
our readers; but there was a natural awkwardness 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.

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 will 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, ay--BEATI PACIFICI. 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 MAN to our sovereign, though he were but a Scotsman."

"And now, my young springald," said the king to Lord Glenvarloch,
"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 conformably."

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 inquiries as
follows:--

"Hem! hem! _salve bis, quaterque salve, glenvarlochides noster!
Nuperumne ab lugduno batavorum britanniam rediisti?_"

The young nobleman replied, bowing low--

"_Imo, rex augustissime--biennium fere apud lugdunenses Moratus sum._"

James proceeded--

"_Biennium dicis? Bene, bene, optume factum est--non uno Die, quod
dicunt,--intelligisti, domine glenvarlochiensis?_ Aha!"

Nigel replied by a reverent bow, and the king, turning to those behind
him, said--

"_Adolescens quidem ingenui vultus ingenuique pudoris._" Then resumed
his learned queries. "_et quid hodie lugdunenses loquuntur--vossius
vester nihilne novi scripsit?--nihil certe, quod doleo, typis recenter
editit_."

"_Valet quidem vossius, rex benevole._" replied Nigel, "_ast senex
veneratissimus annum agit, ni fallor, septuagesimum._"

"_Virum, mehercle, vix tam grandaevum crediderim_," replied the
monarch. "_et vorstius iste?--arminii improbi successor aeque ac
sectator--herosne adhuc, ut cum homero loquar_, <ZOOS ESTI KAI EPI
THONI DERKOV>?" text in Greek

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 James, 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, hominem videbam--vigere autem quis dicat
qui sub fulminibus eloquentiae tuae, rex magne, jamdudum pronus jacet,
et prostratus?_"

[Footnote: 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.]

This last tribute to his polemical powers completed James's happiness,
which the triumph of exhibiting his erudition had already raised to a
considerable height.

He rubbed his hands, snapped his fingers, fidgeted, chuckled,
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 language 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 yourselves; whereby Latin, _quoad anglos_,
ceaseth to be _communis lingua_, 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, proceeded to
question Lord Nigel, but in the vernacular tongue,--"Weel, my likely
Alumnus 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; "and 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 weel nigh 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 Majesty's
Secretary of State," said Lord Glenvarloch--"but it seems----"

"That he would not receive it, I warrant?" said the king, interrupting
him; "bu 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 Remis 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 disappointment, 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 to 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, without
reference to your Secretary 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 Supplication 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 Babie Charles cannot abide him--neither can your own son,
my lord; and so, methinks, he had better go down to Scotland before he
comes toill 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 ought, 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 warmer 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 debts--and why
burden himsell with sae mony acres of barren woodland? let the 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
Babie 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 vineyard; 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 you 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, and away
with you and this young fellow. I wonder Steenie and Babie 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
James 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 protomartyr 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 courtiers, that James endured his
domination rather from habit, timidity, and a dread of encountering
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 presence 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-room, than he hastily sought
Lord Glenvarloch, who had withdrawn 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 ante-room. Here they found the worthy
goldsmith, 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 me a cast in it, as the watermen say;
and I, in requital, will give you both your dinner; for we must have
some conversation together."

They both followed the earl without speaking, and were in the second
ante-room when the important annunciation of the ushers, and the hasty
murmur with which all made ample way as the company 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 external show and
profuse expense, endeavoured to assert its paramount 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 that picturesque dress beyond any man of his time. At
present, however, his countenance seemed discomposed, his dress a
little more disordered than became the place, his step hasty, and his
voice imperative.

All marked the angry spot upon his brow, and bore back so suddenly to
make way for him, that the Earl of Huntinglen, who affected no
extraordinary haste on the occasion, with his companions, who could
not, if they would, have decently left him, remained 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 kindness."

"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, with emphasis. "My lord
duke, I desire you to know Nigel Olifaunt, Lord Glenvarloch,
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 Glenvarloch
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 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 quarrel with you,
my lord--we can neither be friends nor enemies--you have your path,
and I have mine."

Buckingham only replied by throwing on his bonnet, and shaking 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 lived 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 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 business-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 circumstanced.
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 Buckingham, 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 creditor 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 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 unproductive. 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 inheritance 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 wave 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 may be 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 dispatched without loss of time.

Nigel, who had sat almost stupefied 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 overlooked the
Thames, until his son's arrival should give the signal for dinner.

"I desire to introduce Dalgarno 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 summoned up.

"Does Lord Dalgarno 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 inheritance, 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 breast-plate. I would not that those days of battle returned; but I
should love well to make the oaks of my old forest of Dalgarno 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, 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 advantage of
them all. The prince is just and equitable in his sentiments, 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. Dalgarno 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, probably about five-and-
twenty, with a noble form and fine countenance, 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 forward 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 Glenvarloch
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 contrary, 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, 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 unexpected 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 beating 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 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 Glenvarloch'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 understand 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 concerned 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 understand 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 take 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 with his own affairs, so soon
as he hath any that are worth attending to."

When he had made this observation, they applied 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 an 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 elder, and the more 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 oatmeal 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
this 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 becoming
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 Glenvarloch--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 came from
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, therefore, 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
precarious."

"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 to 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, I 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 riot
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 goldsmith, 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 my
sovereign, it should be when I could maintain, without shifting or
borrowing, the dress and retinue which my rank requires."

"Which my rank requires!" said Lord Dalgarno, repeating his last
words; "that, now, is as good as if my father had spoke it. I fancy
you would love to move to Court with 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 ante-chambers 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 every 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, [Footnote: The cruel civil wars waged
by the Scottish barons during the minority of James VI., had the name
from the figure made in them by the celebrated James Douglas, Earl of
Morton. Both sides executed their prisoners without mercy or favour.]
where they cut each other's throats for 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 DIS-grace,
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."

"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 firebrand 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 ambassador 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_ be a fool when I pay--and you, Sir
Mungo, craving your pardon, _are_ a fool _in praesenti_, for speaking
of what concerns you not."

So saying, the earl addressed himself to the serious business of the
table and sent the wine around with a profusion which increased the
hilarity, but rather threatened the temperance, of the company, until
their joviality was interrupted by the annunciation that the scrivener
had engrossed such deeds as required to be presently executed.

George Heriot rose from the table, observing, that wine-cups and legal
documents were unseemly neighbours. The earl asked the scrivener if
they had laid a trencher and set a cup for him in the buttery and
received the respectful answer, that heaven 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 bring 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 day and place assigned for such redemption.
[Footnote: 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.]

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 on 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 Glenvarloch,
landing at Paul's Wharf, took leave of his friend the citizen, and
retired to his own apartment, where his attendant, Richie, not a
little elevated with the events of the day, and with the hospitality
of Lord Huntinglen's house-keeping, 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 XI


  You are not for the manner nor the times,
  They have their vices now most like to virtues;
  You cannot know them apait by any difference,
  They wear 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 Jonson_

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 apartments 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."

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, and 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 wherefore 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."

"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 Dalgarno'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 suppose 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 Buckingham, 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 advance towards him."

"You would act becomingly in every other case," said Lord Dalgarno,
"but here you are wrong. In the Court horizon Buckingham is Lord of
the Ascendant, and as he is adverse or favouring, so sinks or rises
the fortune of a suitor. The king would bid you remember your
Phaedrus,

'Arripiens geminas, ripis cedentibus, ollas--'

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."

"O, 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
more 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 in 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 Dalgarno,
"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 company his
morals may become depraved?"

"Let his company look to their own," answered Lord Dalgarno, cooly;
"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 moralities, 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 companion, "to
render an account to them."

"He may be 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 acddens, spoke no naughty words, brushed
his hat, and wore his best doublet only on Sunday,--that, instead of
such a Jacky Goodchild, I should have something like this?"

He whistled shrill and clear, and the page he spoke of darted 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 jesting 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, notwithstanding his natural good sense and high
spirit, admitted, more readily than seemed consistent with either, the
tone of authoritative instruction which 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 reasoning 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, by insisting
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, Lord 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 prophecies, 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 slips 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-bottles enough
to wait on him, and can well dispense with such a butterfly 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 broadsword 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 Blackfriars.
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 a press of gallants," he said; "and, if we walked thus muffled,
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 his 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 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 a 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!" exclaimed 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 very soul of the choicest grape, refined
as the genius of the poet, and ancient and generous as the blood of
the nobles. And then the 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 enhance, the exquisite
quality 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."

"Reckoning!" exclaimed Lord Dalgarno in the same tone as before,
"perish the peasantly phrase! What profanation! Monsieur le Chevalier
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 Lully'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
what not--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 ceremony 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 take 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-priest, 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 Dalgarno, "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 St. Paul's; the morning was
misty, and the parson drowsy, and 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 cannot 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 accommodation 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 what is wrong," said
Nigel; "but my father had a horror for games of chance, religious I
believe, as well as prudential. He judged from I know not what
circumstance, a fallacious one I should hope, that I should have 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."

Unsatisfied with this reasoning, Nigel still insisted upon the promise
he had given to his father, until his companion appeared rather
displeased, and disposed to impute to him injurious and unhandsome
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 offered
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 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 willingness 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 presided.




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 Bear-Garden._

The Ordinary, now an ignoble 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 establishment
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 embroidered
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
amusement of the place, for Lord Dalgarno 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 were already assembled.
Feathers waved, spurs jingled, lace and embroidery glanced everywhere;
and at first sight, at least, it certainly 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 these 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 sensation 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
upon a future occasion, as the newest and most authentic fashion.

The _genius loci_, the Chevalier himself, was not the last to welcome
this prime stay and ornament of his establishment. He came shuffling
forward with a hundred apish _conges_ and _chers milors_, 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
believe 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! tres honore--Je m'en souviens,--oui. J'ai connu autrefois un
Milor Kenfarloque en Ecosse. Yes, I have memory of him--le pere de
milor apparemment-we were vera intimate when I was at Oly Root with
Monsieur de la Motte--I did often play at tennis vit Milor Kenfarloque
at L'Abbaie d'Oly Root--il etoit meme 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 dechaine--Aha! I have memory--"

"Better have no more memory of the late Lord Glenvarloch," said Lord
Dalgarno, interrupting the Chevalier without ceremony; 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 represented him, was, on the
contrary, strict and severe in his course of life, almost to the
extent of rigour.

"You have the reason, milor," answered the Chevalier, "you have the
right--Qu'est ce que nous avons a faire avec le temps passe?--the time
passed did belong to our fathers--our ancetres--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 him, 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, I 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 cullionly niggard. But here comes dinner, and we will
see whether you like the Chevalier's good cheer better than his
conversation."

Dinner was announced accordingly, and the two friends, being seated in
the most honourable station at the board, were ceremoniously 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 depressed by anxiety and misfortune, naturally
found himself at ease, and his spirits raised and animated.

Some of the company had real wit, and could use it both politely and
to advantage; others were coxcombs, 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 ceremonies, 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 Futile," chose to address to him in particular, on the subject of
cookery. To gratify, at the same time, the taste for antiquity, 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 Marechal
Strozzi--tres 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 one 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 coupe 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
couverts; that the English and Scottish officers and nobility, who had
the honour to dine with Monseigneur upon the rendition, could not tell
what the devil any 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 profession,
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 to 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!"

"O Monsieur." answered the swordsman, "we know the Frenchman 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-arms."

"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 contemptuously.

"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 at 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 run,
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 inquire 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 captain
showed no instant alacrity to follow him; yet, at last, roused by the
laugh and sneer around him, he assured the company, 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 particularly to
the Chevalier's establishment, 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 worse come on't. Behold the valiant shop-keeper 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 could never have believed that the
fellow would have stood to receive a thrust--he has 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 nowhere 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 Chevalier, "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 way again."

"Ventre saint gris, milor," said the Chevalier, "leave that to me.--
Begar, the maid shall throw the wash-sud upon the grand poltron!"

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 bowling-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 young Scotsman 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 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 Shakespeare'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 paternal interdiction of the theatre as well as of the
ordinary."

"I never heard my father speak of stage-plays," said Lord Glenvarloch,
"for they are shows of a modern date, and unknown in Scotland. Yet, if
what I have heard to their 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 himself, 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 wild-fire, and the ride will
digest our venison and ortolans, and dissipate the fumes of the wine,
and so let's to horse--Godd'en to you, gentlemen--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 on 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 if thine eye hath seen the
brawling 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; we 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 Shakespeare, 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 man

  ----' 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 apprentices, 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 opportunity 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 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 realise 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 feather'd 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 altogether 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, 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 appeared to flow 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 restricted 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 subordinate."

"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 witmongers 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 necessity of eating till evening, when, if
they are industrious, they will find patrons or players to feed them.
[Footnote: The condition of men of wit and talents was never more
melancholy than about this period. Their lives were so irregular, and
their means of living so precarious, that they were alternately
rioting in debauchery, or encountering and struggling with the meanest
necessities. 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 literature 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.] 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 buskin. It is not, however,
of him I mean now to speak; but I 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 Glenvarloch
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 accuracy 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 her
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 civilised 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 Buckingham, so that they were little seen
together, and the former seemed considerably to have withdrawn herself
into privacy, it was whispered that Lady Blackchester's interest with
the great favourite was not diminished in consequence of her breach
with his lady.

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
irreproachable, still 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 scrupulous 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 done 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 quality 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.

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 public 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 dissuaded 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, addressing
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."

"By my faith, and I hold the laddie to be in the right on't, Malcom!"
answered the stout old Scots lord.--"What right hath Buckingham, 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," answered 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 has 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-mask. Besides, father, loyal haste hath its inconveniences. I
have heard, and from royal lips too, that when you stuck 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 valiant 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
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 better 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 prosecution
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 a
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 conclude. "If I have fewer means of
influence than my father has, or rather had, till he threw them away
for butts of sack, hawks, hounds, and such carrion, I can, far better
than he, improve that which I possess; and that, my dear Nigel, is all
engaged in your behalf. Do not be surprised or offended that you now
see me less than formerly. The stag-hunting is commenced, and the
prince looks that I should attend him more frequently. I must also
maintain 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 suspicious
disputant," answered Dalgarno, "than as I am now pleading the duke's
cause with thee. Surely I only mean to claim a share in our royal
master's favourite benediction, _Beati Pacifici_."

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 obstacles 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 Buckingham.

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 preparations
for a journey to Paris, upon business of great importance in the way
of his profession, and by an especial commission from the Court and
the Duke of Buckingham, which was likely 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. Lord Glenvarloch expressed
himself rejoiced at that reconciliation, observing, that it had been a
most painful reflection to him, that Master Heriot should, in his
behalf, have incurred the dislike, 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 I 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 unbeseeming 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-chest," she said, "had been taken upstairs 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."

Everybody 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 by as liberal payment as they could be prevailed upon
to accept, to alleviate the 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 resuming
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.

"My lord,"--said Richie, 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 reading 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, though I was bred at a flasher's stall, I have not through my
life had a constant intimacy with collops."

"Now, what is the meaning of all this trash?" said Nigel; "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 your 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; "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 dealing
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, 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-haunting, 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 take 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 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 asks 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 presumptuous 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 Monsieur
Lutin,--and you might as well call him Gibbet, since that is 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 correction--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 bearing 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 feather 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 pretended 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 looked 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 tormented 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 service, 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 conversation."

"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 business here,
and such like, I did not think it proper to tell her altogether 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, beginning 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 concluded his narrative with a low, but very
expressive whistle.

"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 heartscald 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 forward 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 judgment."

"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 Sifflication,
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 interest--
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; but Richie, shaking his head,
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 experiencing some twinges
of conscience, while he felt in some degree the charges which Richie
had preferred against him, and experienced 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
conceited, 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 formality, and intrusive presumption, 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 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,
exclaimed--"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 accordingly.




CHAPTER XV


  Twas when fleet Snowball's head was woxen 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?
  Swaffhanm 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, turn'd 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 verdant
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 reflections
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.

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 thread-bare 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 cunning, 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 nobleman,
attempting to pass on.

"O, ye are ganging to the French ordinary belive," 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 wad have been
blithe to see you keeping such worshipful society."

"I believe," said Lord Glenvarloch, thinking himself obliged to 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--"Impertinent
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 ofima_, 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
Mungo; "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 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 consistency 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
ye were such, my lord," said Sir Mungo, who found it impossible 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 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 _great_ gamester, to
whatever other name he may be 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 Rullion
Rattray, and the baton of the satellites employed by the Lady Cockpen.
"And for the truth of the matter," he continued, "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 curse justly 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 reputation."

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 malam 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 pouching the siller of your
friends and equals; forby, that the plebeian knaves have had the
advantage, _tecum certasse_, as Ajax Telamon sayeth, _apud
Metamorphoseos_; 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--"

"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 respecting me?"

"Dootless--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 Blackchester, 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 gray 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, _'Jacta est alea!_--Glenvarlochides is turned dicer and
drinker.'--My Lord Dalgarno took your part, and he 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
like 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.

"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 ordinary, 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 Dalgarno 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 something
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 unimprovable
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 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, however, 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 countenance, 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 Buckingham, whose commanding, and at the same
time graceful, deportment, 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 himself 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 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 such circumstance towards Nigel, for they turned their
heads in that direction and looked at him attentively--the Prince with
a countenance, 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. Commencing 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."

"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 Highness 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 public 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 surprise,--
"Beard the Prince of Wales--the heir-apparent of the kingdoms!--By my
saul, you shall beard him yourself then."

Accordingly, he was about to leave Nigel very hastily, when some
unwonted touch of good-natured interest in his youth and experience,
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 possessed
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 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 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 unwilling 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 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 reclining 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 his 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;
  I have a heart to feel the injury,
  A hand to night 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 conceived 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 around
a thicket of 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, walking
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 Glenvarloch,
"you must stand and answer me."

"Hey-day!" said Lord Dalgarno, with an air of great astonishment,
"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 having 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 Glenvarloch;
"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 quarelling 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 complain, after having
experienced 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 have
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 your 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 seem to have conceived, my lord, that you and I were
Pylades and Orestes--a second edition of Damon and Pythias--Theseus
and Pirithoiis 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 countryman, 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
resolution 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 contradict
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 moment he unsheathed his
rapier.

"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 from a
calumniator and a coward." He then pressed on Lord Dalgarno, and
struck him with the flat 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, who 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 Glenvarloch
remained on the spot, taking compassion on his youthful appearance,
said to him, "Are you aware that 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 concealment, 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 apprehend 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 gentleman from the country, and
that the stranger had cudgelled him soundly. A favourite, or the
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 wye du fait_, and both prejudices were in Nigel's favour. The
officers, therefore, who came to apprehend 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 which he had
just committed. He had also the comfortable reflection, 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 afterwards, 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 of evil. But if I escape 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 Whitefriars, 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 _facilis_ descensus Averni, 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 demose,
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 Barratter, who lived in the chambers
immediately below him. Such was Reginald Lowes-toffe, 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 before 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
intention to take refuge in so disreputable a quarter, or to describe
the situation in which he stood--"I have some curiosity to see
Whitefriars."

"What! your lordship is for a frolic 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 considerable
stake--I beg pardon, but if the bones have proved perfidious, 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 connexion 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 dependence 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 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, as you are like to be.
We converse here greatly 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 undergo 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 have 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 favourable 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 doubt 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 on what account, Master Lowestoffe?" said Lord Glenvarloch.

"O, my lord," replied the Templar, "it was for a hap that chanced
after you left the ordinary, one evening about three weeks 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 sharking 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 touch 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 sweeping clause that the
dice, like the grave, levelled those distinguishing points of society,
to which Nigel's early prejudices clung perhaps but too fondly. It was
impossible, however, to object any thing to the learned reasoning of
the young Templar, and therefore Nigel was contented to turn the
conversation, by making some inquiries respecting the present state of
White-friars. 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 are in the use of blocking all bailiffs
out of our bounds, and we are powerfully aided by our neighbours, who
tolerate not a rag belonging 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 Whitefriars 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 continued, 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 present 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 best suited
effectually to disguise his guest in venturing into the lawless and
turbulent society of Alsatia.




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 moderate hose. We allow no cloak, for your ruffian
always walks in _cuerpo_; and the tarnished doublet of bald velvet,
with its discoloured embroidery, 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 assuming; but when he
considered the bloody consequences which law attached to his rash act
of violence, the easy and indifferent temper of James, the prejudices
of his son, the overbearing influence 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 authorised 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 particulars, his
friendly host re-entered the sleeping apartment--"Zounds!" he said,
"my lord, it was well you went not straight into that 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 Lowestoffe," said Lord
Glenvarloch; "or, what is the same thing, I have paid no attention 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 White-friars, 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 intermediate stages of
oligarchy, limited monarchy, and even gynocracy; for I myself remember
Alsatia governed for nearly nine months by an old fish-woman. 'I hen
it fell under the dominion of a broken attorney, who was dethroned by
a reformado captain, who, proving tyrannical, was deposed by a
hedgeparson, who was succeeded, upon resignation of his power, by Duke
Jacob Hildebrod, 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 morning's draught at
seven o'clock; convene a second time at eleven for their _ante-
meridiem_, or whet; and, assembling in solemn conclave 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 Hildebrod's predecessors 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 Ilildebrod
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 lesidenter, whose circumstances 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 Lowestoffe," 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 monarchy,
or whatsoever you call it.--He who desires that no questions 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 propitious, 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!-