THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. secretary or clerk, engaged in the service of the public, only that his low, flat, and unadorned cap, and his well-blacked, shining shoes, indicated that he belonged to the city. He was a well-made man, about the middle size, and seemed firm in health, though advanced in years. His looks expressed sagacity and good-humour; and the air of respectability which his dress announced, was well supported by his clear eye, ruddy cheek, and gray 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 its 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. "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 chield's crown?" Master George, with better-directed zeal, asked the apothecary whether bleeding might not be useful; when, after humming and hawing for a moment, and being unable, upon the spur of the occasion, to suggest any thing else, the man of pharmacy ob- "He had better lie down on the bed in the little "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 "Where a better cannot be come by," said Masnaturally taken in a truckle-bed." ter 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-onebeside, 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 gray 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 povertystruck garb, and seemed so much ashamed of the disclosure, that, muttering between his teeth, that he would be too late for an appointment, he made an effort to rise and leave the shop, which was easily prevented by Jenkin Vincent and his comrade, who, at the nod of Master George, laid hold of and de tained 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 gentlemen'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. "The Thames!" exclaimed Richie, in a tone of ineffable contempt-"God bless your honour's judg ment, 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 landloupers as you, that, with your falset and fair fashions, bring reproach on our whole country." "God forgie me, sir," said Richie, much surprised at finding the supposed southron converted into a native Scot, "I took your honour for an Englisher! But I hope there was naething wrang in standing up for ane's ain country's credit in a strange land, where all men cry her down?" Do you call it for your country's credit, to show that she has a lying, puffing rascal, for one of her children?" said Master George. "But come, man, never look grave on it,-as you have found a countryman, so you have found a friend, if you deserve one and 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 am a stranger, sir," said he, "that is certain : "I dinna ken, sir," said Richie, scratching his though methinks, that, being such, I have been some-head; "I hear muckle of an Earl of Warwick in what 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." 16 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?" 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 Grassmarket. 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 ac 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, 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, sir rah," continued Master George, addressing his coun- | Master George shook it heartily, while Jenkin and tryman, “will call at my house to-morrow morning, Frank exchanged sly looks with each other. agreeable to this direction." 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. "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." 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 blythe 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." "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 itand 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 Georgebut 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 story, occupied by his daughter, and his little household. The apprentices resumed their places in the frontshop, 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. "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 "And no Christ-Church fashion neither," said not a hair the less like to bear it in mind that I say Jenkin. "Fair play and Old England for ever!but little about it just now.-Gude night to you, my Besides, to tell you a secret, his voice had a twang kind countryman." So saying, he thrust out of the in it-in the dialect I mean-reminded me of a little sleeve of his ragged doublet a long bony hand and tongue, which I think sweeter-sweeter than the arm, on which the muscles rose like whip-cord.-last toll of St. Dunstan's will sound, on the day that 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 corGeorge Heriot.-This excellent person was but little known by his actions when alive, but we may well use, in this particular, the striking phrase of Scripture," that being dead he yet speaketh." We have already mentioned, in the Introduction, the splendid charity of which he was the founder; the few notices of his personal history are slight and meagre, George Heriot was born at Trabroun, in the parish of Gladsmuir; he was the eldest son of a goldsmith in Edinburgh, descended from a family of some consequence in East Lothian.His father enjoyed the confidence of his fellow-citizens, and was their representative in parliament. He was, besides, one of the deputies sent by the inhabitants of the city to propitiate the King, when he had left Edinburgh abruptly, after the riot of 17th December, 1596. George Heriot, the son, pursued his father's occupation of a goldsmith, then peculiarly lucrative, and much connected with that of a money-broker. He enjoyed the favour and protection of James, and of his consort, Anne of Denmark. He married, for his first wife, a maiden of his own rank, named Christian Majoribanks, daughter of a respectable burgess. This was in 1586. He was afterwards named jeweller to the Queen, whose account to him for a space of ten years amounted to nearly L.40,000. George Heriot, having lost his wife, connected himself with the distinguished house of Rosebery, by marrying a daughter of James Primrose, Clerk to the Privy Council. Of this lady he was deprived by her dying in child-birth in 1612, before attaining her twenty-first year. After a life spent in honourable and successful industry, George Heriot died in London, to which city he had followed his royal master, on the 12th February, 1624, at the age of sixty-one years. His picture, (copied by Scougal from a lost original,) in which he is represented in the prime of life, is thus described: "His fair hair, which overshades the thoughtful brow and calm calculating eye, with the cast of humour on the lower part of the countenance, are all indicative of the genuine Scottish character, and well distinguish a person fitted to move steadily and wisely through the world, with a strength of resolution to ensure success, and a disposition to enjoy it."-Historical and Descriptive Account of Heriot's Hospital, with a memoir of the Founder, by Messrs. James and John Johnstone. Edinburgh, 1827. I may add, as every thing concerning George Heriot is inte ners 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, laughterloving 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 wellscrubbed 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 ware-house 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 its extent, which an unscrupulous gallant might have been tempted to improve to the prejudice of honest resting, that his second wife, Alison Primrose, was interred in St. Gregory's church, from the register of which parish the Rev. Mr. Barham, Rector, has, in the kindest manner, sent me the following extract:-" Mrs. Alison, the wife of Mr. George Heriot, gentleman, 20th April, 1612." Saint Gregory's, before the Great Fire of London which consumed the cathedral, formed one of the towers of Old Saint Paul's, and occupied the space of ground now filled by Queen Anne's statue. In the south aisle of the choir Mrs. Heriot reposed under a handsome monument, bearing the following inscription: "Sanctissima et charissima conjugi ALISON HERIOT, Jacobi Primrosit, Regia Majestatis in Sanctiori Concilio Regni Scotie Amanuensis, fille, femina omnibus tum animi tumcorporis dotibus, ac pio cultu instructissima, mastissimus ipsius maritus GEORGIUS HERIOT, ARMIGER, Regis, Regina, Principum Henrici et Caroli Gemmarius, bene merenti, non sine lachrymis, hoc Monumentum pie posuit. Obiit Mensis Aprilis die 16, anno salutis 1612, atatis 20, in ipsa flore juventa, et mihi, parentibus, et amicis tristissimum sui desiderium relirull. Hic Alicia Primrosa Jacet crudo abruta fato, Intempestivas The loss of a young, beautiful, and amiable partner, at a period so interesting, was the probable reason of her husband devoting his fortune to a charitable institution. The epitaph occurs in Strype's edition of Stowe's Survey of London, Book iii. page 228. CHAP. III.] THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. John, who was at least a score of years older than [ and mend your breakfast with a morsel and a "At a word, my kind hostess, I cannot," said 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. 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 despatched 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, regard"My better comfort is, my good dame," answered ed her guest with some anxiety, and a great desire to comfort him if possible. She placed on the break-Olifaunt, "that the lad is no brawler or quarreller, fast-table a noble piece of cold powdered beef, with unless strongly urged, and that he has nothing valuaits usual guards of turnip and carrot, recommended ble about him to any one but me." 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 bareheaded 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 churchwarden. Well, sir, but I hope I have not offended you for my little joke and I hope the ale is to your honour's liking, and the beef-and the mustard?" "All excellent-all too good," answered Olifaunt; you have every thing so clean and tidy, dame, that I shall not know how 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 Macauly, 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, VOL. IV. C "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 despatched 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 |