CHAP. XXXVI.]

THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL.

"Take the road, man? in what sense?" said Richie.

"Even as a clerk to Saint Nicholas-as a highwayman, like Poins and Peto, and the good fellows in the play-and who think you was to be my captain?-for she had the whole out ere I could speak to her-I fancy she took silence for consent, and thought me damned too unutterably to have one thought left that savoured of redemption-who was to be my captain, but the knave that you saw me cudgel at the ordinary when you waited on Lord Glenvarloch, a cowardly, sharking, thievish bully about town here, whom they call Colepepper."

"Colepepper-umph-I know somewhat of that smaik," said Richie; "ken ye by ony chance where he may be heard of, Master Jenkin?-ye wad do me a sincere service to tell me."

"Why, he lives something obscurely," answered the apprentice, "on account of suspicion of some villany-I believe that horrid murder in Whitefriars, or some such matter. But I might have heard all about him from Dame Suddlechop, for she spoke of my meeting him at Enfield Chase, with some other good fellows, to do a robbery on one that goes northward with a store of treasure.'

"And you did not agree to this fine project ?" said Moniplies.

"I cursed her for a hag, and came away about my business," answered Jenkin.

"Ay, and what said she to that, man? That would startle her," said Richie.

"Not a whit. She laughed, and said she was in jest," answered Jenkin; "but I know the she-devil's jest from her earnest too well to be taken in that way. But she knows I would never betray her."

"Betray her! No," replied Richie; "but are ye in any shape bound to this birkie Peppercull, or Colepepper, or whatever they call him, that ye suld let him do a robbery on the honest gentleman that is travelling to the north, and may be a kindly Scot, for what we know?"

Ay-going home with a load of English money," said Jenkin." But be he who he will, they may rob the whole world an they list, for I am robbed and ruined."

Richie filled up his friend's cup, to the brim, and insisted that he should drink what he called "clean caup out." "This love," he said, "is but a bairnly matter for a brisk young fellow like yourself, Master Jenkin. And if ye must needs have a whimsy, though I think it would be safer to venture on a staid womanly body, why, here be as bonny lasses in London as this Peg-a-Ramsay. Ye need not sigh sae deeply, for it is very true-there is as good fish in the sea as ever came out of it. Now wherefore should you, who are as brisk and trig a young fellow of your inches as the sun needs to shine on-wherefore need you sit moping this way, and not try some bold way to better your fortune?"

"I tell you, Master Moniplies," said Jenkin, "I am as poor as any Scot among you-I have broke my indenture, and I think of running my country." A-well-a-day!" said Richie; "but that maunna be, man-I ken weel, by sad experience, that poortith takes away pith, and the man sits full still that has a rent in his breeks. But courage, man; you have served me heretofore, and I will serve you now. If you will but bring me to speech of this same Captain, it shall be the best day's work you ever did."

"I guess where you are, Master Richard-you would save your countryman's long purse," said Jenkin. I cannot see how that should advantage me, but I reck not if I should bear a hand. I hate that braggart, that bloody-minded, cowardly bully. If you can get me mounted, I care not if I show you where the dame told me I should meet him-but you must stand to the risk, for though he is a coward himself, I know he will have more than one stout fellow with him."

This elegant speech was made by the Earl of Douglas, called Tinemen, after being wounded and made prisoner at the battle of Shrewsbury, where "His well labouring sword Had three times slain the semblance of the King."

"We'll have a warrant, man," said Richie, "and
the hue and cry, to boot."

"We will have no such thing," said Jenkin, "if I
am to go with you. I am not the lad to betraying any
one to the harman-beck. You must do it by manhood
if I am to go with you. I am sworn to cutter's law,
"Aweel," said Richie, "a wilful man must have his
and will sell no man's blood."
way; ye must think that I was born and bred where
cracked crowns were plentier than whole ones. Be-
sides, I have two noble friends here, Master Lowes-
that will blithely be of so gallant a party."
toffe of the Temple, and his cousin Master Ringwood,

"Lowestoffe and Ringwood!" said Jenkin; "they
are both brave gallants-they will be sure company.
Know you where they are to be found?"

"Ay, marry do I," replied Richie. "They are fast at the cards and dice, till the sma' hours, I warrant them."

"They are gentlemen of trust and honour," said Jenkin," and if they advise it, I will try the adventure. Go, try if you can bring them hither, since you have so much to say with them. We must not be seen niplies," continued he, as his countenance brightened abroad together.-I know not how it is, Master Moup, and while, in his turn, he filled the cups," but I feel my heart something lighter since I have thought of this matter."

CHAPTER XXXVI.

The thieves have bound the true men-Now, could thou and I rob the thieves, and go merrily to London.

Henry IV., Part I. THE sun was high upon the glades of Enfield were seen sporting in picturesque groups among the Chase, and the deer, with which it then abounded, ancient oaks of the forest, when a cavalier and a lady, on foot, although in riding apparel, sauntered slowly up one of the long alleys which were cut through the park for the convenience of the hunters. Their only attendant was a page, who, riding a Spanish jennet, which seemed to bear a heavy cloak-bag, followed them at a respectful distance. The female, attired in all the fantastic finery of the period, with more than the usual quantity of bugles, flounces, and trimmings, and holding her fan of ostrich feathers in one hand, and her riding-mask of black velvet in the other, seemed anxious, by all the little coquetry praccompanion, who sometimes heard her prattle without tised on such occasions, to secure the notice of her seeming to attend to it, and at other times interrupted "Nay, but, my lord-my lord, you walk so fast, his train of graver reflections, to reply to her. you will leave me behind you.-Nay, I will have hold of your arm, but how to manage with my mask and my fan? Why would you not let me bring my waiting-gentlewoman to follow us, and hold my things? But see, I will put my fan in my girdle, soh!-and not run away from me.' now that I have a hand to hold you with, you shall

"Come on, then," answered the gallant, "and let us walk apace, since you would not be persuaded to stay with your gentlewoman, as you call her, and with the rest of the baggage.-You may perhaps see that, though, you will not like to see."

She took hold of his arm accordingly; but as he continued to walk at the same pace, she shortly let go her hold, exclaiming that he had hurt her hand. and arm which she showed him, with exclamations The cavalier stopped, and looked at the pretty hand against his cruelty. "I dare say," she said, baring it is all black and her wrist and a part of her arm, blue to the very elbow."

"it "I dare say you are a silly little fool," said the cavalier carelessly kissing the aggrieved arm;

THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL.

them home either gold or martial glory, much more if he has both gold and laurels."

As he thus reflected, and called to mind the disgrace which he had suffered, as well as the causes he imagined for hating Lord Glenvarloch, his countenance altered under the influence of his contending emotions, to the terror of Nelly, who, sitting unnoticed at his feet, and looking anxiously in his face, beheld the cheek kindle, the mouth become compressed, the eye dilated, and the whole countenance express the desperate and deadly resolution of one who awaits an instant and decisive encounter with a mortal enemy. The loneliness of the place, the scenery so different from that to which alone she had been accustomed, the dark and sombre air which crept so suddenly over the countenance of her seducer, his command imposing silence upon her, and the apparent strangeness of his conduct in idling away so much time without any obvious cause, when a journey of such length lay before them, brought strange thoughts into her weak brain. She had read of women, seduced from their matrimonial duties by sorcerers allied to the hellish powers, nay, by the Father of Evil himself, who, after conveying his victim into some desert remote from human kind, exchanged the pleasing shape in which he gained her affections, for all his natural horrors. She chased this wild idea away as it crowded itself upon her weak and bewildered imagination; yet she might have lived to see it realized allegorically, if not literally, but for the accident which presently followed. The page, whose eyes were remarkably acute, at length called out to his master, pointing with his finger at the same time down one of the alleys, that horsemen were advancing in that direction. Lord Dalgarno started up, and shading his eyes with his hand, gazed eagerly down the alley; when, at the same instant, he received a shot, which, grazing his hand, passed right through his brain, and laid him a lifeless corpse at the feet, or rather across the lap, of the unfortunate victim of his profligacy. The countenance, whose varied expression she had been watching for the last five minutes, was convulsed for an instant, and then stiffened into rigidity for ever. Three ruffians rushed from the brake from which the shot had been fired, ere the smoke was dispersed. One, with many imprecations, seized on the page; another on the female, upon whose cries he strove by the most violent threats to impose silence; whilst the third began to undo the burden from the page's horse. But an instant rescue prevented their availing themselves of the advantage they had obtained.

It may easily be supposed that Richie Moniplies, having secured the assistance of the two Templars, ready enough to join in any thing which promised a fray, with Jin Vin to act as their guide, had set off, gallantly mounted and well armed, under the belief that they would reach Camlet Moat before the robbers, and apprehend them in the fact. They had not calculated that, according to the custom of robbers in other countries, but contrary to that of the English highwaymen of those days, they meant to ensure robbery by previous murder. An accident also happened to delay them a little while on the road. În riding through one of the glades of the forest, they found a man dismounted and sitting under a tree, groaning with such bitterness of spirit, that Lowestoffe could not forbear asking if he was hurt. In answer, he said he was an unhappy man in pursuit of his wife, who had been carried off by a villain; and as he raised his countenance, the eyes of Richie, to his great astonishment, encountered the visage of John Christie.

"For the Almighty's sake, help me, Master Moniplies!" he said; "I have learned my wife is but a short mile before, with that black villain Lord Dalgarno." "Have him forward by all means," said Lowestoffe;" a second Orpheus seeking his Eurydice! Have him forward-we will save Lord Dalgarno's purse, and ease him of his mistress-Have him with us, were it but for the variety of the adventure. I owe his lordship a grudge for rooking me. We have ten minutes good."

But it is dangerous to calculate closely in matters of life and death. In all probability the minute or two

Ay, woman! thou takest on sadly for the loss of thy paramour."-Then, looking on the bloody corpse of him from whom he had received so deep an injury, he repeated the solemn words of Scripture,-"Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord, and I will repay it.'I, whom thou hast injured, will be first to render theo the decent offices due to the dead."

So saying, he covered the dead body with his cloak, and then looking on it for a moment, seemed to reflect on what he had next to perform. As the eye of the injured man slowly passed from the body of the seducer to the partner and victim of his crime, who had sunk down to his feet, which she clasped without venturing to look up, his features, naturally coarse and saturnine, assumed a dignity of expression which overawed the young Templars, and repulsed the officious forwardness of Richie Moniplies, who was at first eager to have thrust in his advice and opinion. "Kneel not to me, woman," he said, "but kneel to offend such another worm as thyself. How often have the God thou hast offended, more than thou couldst I told thee, when thou wert at the gayest and the lightest, that pride goeth before destruction, and haughty spirit before a fall? Vanity brought folly, and folly brought sin, and sin hath brought death, his original companion. Thou must needs leave duty, and decency, and domestic love, to revel it gaily with the wild and with the wicked; and there thou liest, like a crushed worm, writhing beside the lifeless body of thy paramour. Thou hast done me much wrongdishonoured me among friends-driven credit from my house, and peace from my fireside-But thou wert my first and only love, and I will not see thee an ut

ter castaway, if it lies with me to prevent it.-Gentle- that the scrivener had carried off the writings along men, I render ye such thanks as a broken-hearted with him. We may here observe, that fears similar man can give.-Richard, commend me to your ho-to those of Skurliewhitter freed London for ever from nourable master. I added gall to the bitterness of the presence of Dame Suddlechop, who ended her his affliction, but I was deluded.-Rise up, woman, career in the Rasp-haus, (viz. Bridewell,) of Amsterand follow me." dam.

He raised her up by the arm, while, with streaming eyes, and bitter sobs, she endeavoured to express her penitence. She kept her hands spread over her face, yet suffered him to lead her away; and it was only as they turned around a brake which concealed the scene they had left, that she turned back, and casting one wild and hurried glance towards the corpse of Dalgarno, uttered a shriek, and, clinging to her husband's arm, exclaimed wildly,"Save me-save me! They have murdered him." Lowestoffe was much moved by what he had witnessed; but he was ashamed, as a town-gallant, of his own unfashionable emotion, and did a force to his feelings when he exclaimed," Ay, let them gothe kind-hearted, believing, forgiving husband-the liberal, accommodating spouse. O what a generous creature is your true London husband!-Horns hath he, but, tame as a fatted ox, he goreth not. I should like to see her when she hath exchanged her mask and riding-beaver for her peaked hat and muffler. We will visit them at Paul's Wharf, coz-it will be a convenient acquaintance."

"You had better think of catching the gipsy thief, Lutin," said Richie Moniplies; " for, by my faith, he is off with his master's baggage and the siller."

A keeper, with his assistants, and several other persons, had now come to the spot, and made hue and cry after Lutin, but in vain. To their custody the Templars surrendered the dead bodies, and after going through some formal investigation, they returned, with Richard and Vincent, to London, where they received great applause for their gallantry. -Vincent's errors were easily expiated, in consideration of his having been the means of breaking up this band of villains; and there is some reason to think, that what would have diminished the credit of the action in other instances, rather added to it in the actual circumstances, namely, that they came too late to save Lord Dalgarno.

George Heriot, who suspected how matters stood with Vincent, requested and obtained permission from his master to send the poor young fellow on an important piece of business to Paris. We are unable to trace his fate farther, but believe it was prosperous, and that he entered into an advageous partnership with his fellow-apprentice, upon old David Ramsay retiring from business, in consequence of his daughter's marriage. That eminent antiquarian, Dr. Dryasdust, is possessed of an antique watch, with a silvet dial-plate, the mainspring being a piece of catgut instead of a chain, which bears the names of Vincent and Tunstall, Memory-Monitors.

Master Lowestoffe failed not to vindicate his character as a man of gayety, by inquiring after John Christie and Dame Nelly; but greatly to his surprise, (indeed to his loss, for he had wagered ten pieces that he would domesticate himself in the family,) he found the good-will, as it was called, of the shop, was sold, the stock auctioned, and the late proprietor and his wife gone, no one knew whither. The prevailing belief was, that they had emigrated to one of the new settlements in America.

The stout old Lord Huntinglen, with a haughty carriage and unmoistened eye, accompanied the fune ral procession of his only son to its last abode; and perhaps the single tear which fell at length upon the coffin, was given less to the fate of the individual, than to the extinction of the last male of his ancient

race.

CHAPTER XXXVII.

Jacques. There is, sure, another flood toward, and these couples are coming to the ark-Here comes a pair of very strange beasts.-As You Like It.

THE fashion of such narratives as the present, changes like other earthly things. Time was that the tale-teller was obliged to wind up his story by a circumstantial description of the wedding, bedding, and throwing the stocking, as the grand catastrophe to which, through so many circumstances of doubt and difficulty he had at length happily conducted his hero and heroine. Not a circumstance was then omitted, from the manly ardour of the bridegroom, and the modest blushes of the bride, to the parson's new surplice, and the silk tabinet mantua of the bridesmaid. But such descriptions are now discarded, for the same reason, I suppose, that public marriages are no longer fashionable, and that, instead of calling together their friends to a feast and a dance, the happy couple elope in a solitary post-chaise, as secretly as if they meant to go to Gretna-Green, or to do worse. I am not ungrateful for a change which saves an author the trouble of attempting in vain to give a new colour to the common-place description of such matters; but, notwithstanding, I find myself forced upon it in the present instance, as circumstances sometimes compel a stranger to make use of an old road which has been for some time shut up. The experienced reader may have already remarked, that the last chapter was employed in sweeping out of the way all the unnecessary and less interesting characters, that I might clear the floor for a blithe bridal.

In truth, it would be unpardonable to pass over slightly what so deeply interested our principal personage, King James. That learned and good-humoured monarch made no great figure in the politics of Europe; but then, to make amends, he was prodigiously busy, when he could find a fair opportunity of intermeddling with the private affairs of his loving subjects, and the approaching marriage of Lord Glenvarloch was matter of great interest to him. He had been much struck (that is, for him, who was not very accessible to such emotions) with the beauty and embarrassment of the pretty Peg-a-Ramsay, as he called her, when he first saw her, and he glorified himself greatly on the acuteness which he had displayed in detecting her disguise, and in carrying through the whole inquiry which took place in consequence of it.

He laboured for several weeks, while the courtship was in progress, with his own royal eyes, so as wellnigh to wear out, he declared, a pair of her father's best barnacles, in searching through old books and documents, for the purpose of establishing the bride's pretensions to a noble, though remote descent, and thereby remove the only objection which envy might conceive against the match. In his own opinion, at least, he was eminently successful; for, when Sir Mungo Malagrowther one day, in the presence-cham

Lady Dalgarno received the news of her unworthy husband's death with a variety of emotions, among which, horror that he should have been cut off in the middle career of his profligacy, was the most promininent. The incident greatly deepened her melancholy, and injured her health, already shaken by pre-ber, took upon him to grieve bitterly for the bride's vious circumstances. Repossessed of her own fortune by her husband's death, she was anxious to do justice to Lord Glenvarloch, by treating for the recovery of the mortgage. But the scrivener, having taken fright at the late events, had left the city and absconded, so that it was impossible to discover into whose hands the papers had now passed. Richard Moniplies was silent, for his own reasons; the Templars, who had witnessed the transaction, kept the secret at his request, and it was universally believed

lack of pedigree, the monarch cut him short with, "Ye may save your grief for your ain next occasions, Sir Mungo; for, by our royal saul, we will uphauld her father, Davy Ramsay, to be a gentleman of nine descents, whase great gudesire came of the auld martial stock of the House of Dalwolsey, than whom better men never did, and better never will, draw sword for King and country. Heard ye never of Sir William Ramsay of Dalwolsey, man, of whom John Fordoun saith,-' He was bellicosissimus, nobilissi

CHAP. XXXVII.]

THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL.

mus?'-His castle stands to witness for itself, not three miles from Dalkeith, man, and within a mile of Bannockrig. Davy Ramsay came of that auld and honoured stock, and I trust he hath not derogated from his ancestors by his present craft. They all wrought wi' steel, man; only the auld knights drilled holes wi' their swords in their enemies' corslets, and he saws nicks in his brass wheels. And I hope it is as honourable to give eyes to the blind as to slash them out of the head of those that see, and to show us how to value our time as it passes, as to fling it away in drinking, brawling, spear-splintering, and suchlike unchristian doings. And you maun understand, that Davy Ramsay is no mechanic, but follows a liberal art, which approacheth almost to the act of creating a living being, seeing it may be said of a watch, as Claudius saith of the sphere of Archimedes, the Syracusan

'Inclusus variis famulatur spiritus astris, Et vivum certis motibus urget opus.'" "Your Majesty had best give auld Davy a coat-ofarms, as well as a pedigree," said Sir Mungo.

get the Prince and Buckingham despatched on an ex-
pedition to Newmarket, in order that he might find
an opportunity in their absence of indulging himself
in his own gossiping, coshering habits, which were
distasteful to Charles, whose temper inclined to for
mality, and with which even the favourite, of late.
had not thought it worth while to seem to sympa-
thize. When the levee was dismissed, Sir Mungo
Malagrowther seized upon the worthy citizen in the
court-yard of the Palace, and detained him, in spite of
all his efforts, for the purpose of subjecting him to the
"This is a sair job on you, Master George the King
following scrutiny:-
must have had little consideration-this will cost you
"It will not break me, Sir Mungo," answered Heri-
a bonny penny, this wedding-dinner?"
ot; "the King hath a right to see the table which
his bounty hath supplied for years, well covered for a
single day."

"Vera true, vera true-we'll have a' to pay, I doubt,
less or mair-a sort of penny-wedding it will prove,
where all men contribute to the young folk's main-
tenance, that they may not have just four bare legs
in a bed thegether. What do you purpose to give, Mas-
ter George?-we begin with the city when money is

"It's done, or ye bade, Sir Mungo," said the King; "and I trust we, who are the fountain of all earthly honour, are free to spirt a few drops of it on one so near our person, without offence to the Knight of Cas-in question."+ the Girnigo. We have already spoken with the learn-Only a trifle, Sir Mungo-I give my god-daughter ed men of the Herald's College, and we propose to grant him an augmented coat-of-arms, being his paternal coat, charged with the crown-wheel of a watch in chief, for a difference; and we propose to add Time and Eternity, for supporters, as soon as the Garter King-at-arms shall be able to devise how Eternity is to be represented."

"I would make him twice as muckle as Time," said Archie Armstrong, the Court fool, who chanced to be present when the King stated this dilemma.

"Peace, man-ye shall be whippet," said the King, in return for this hint; "and you, my liege subjects of England, may weel take a hint from what we have said, and not be in such a hurry to laugh at our Scottish pedigrees, though they be somewhat long derived, and difficult to be deduced. Ye see that a man of right gentle blood may, for a season, lay by his gentry, and yet ken where to find it, when he has occasion for it. It would be as unseemly for a packman, or pedler, as ye call a travelling-merchant, whilk is a trade to which our native subjects of Scotland are specially addicted, to be blazing his genealogy in the faces of those to whom he sells a bawbee's worth of riband, as it would be to him to have a beaver on his head, and a rapier by his side, when the pack was on his shoulders. Na, na-he hings his sword on the cleek, lays his beaver on the shelf, puts his pedigree into his pocket, and gangs as doucely and cannily about his peddling craft as if his blood was nae better than ditchwater; but let our pedler be transformed, as I have kend it happen mair than ance, into a bein thriving merchant, then ye shall have a transformation, my lords.

In nova fert animus mutatus dicere formas'

Out he pulls his pedigree, on he buckles his sword, gives his beaver a brush, and cocks it in the face of all creation. We mention these things at the mair length, because we would have you all to know, that it is not without due consideration of the circumstances of all parties, that we design, in a small and private way, to honour with our own royal presence the marriage of Lord Glenvarloch with Margaret Ramsay, daughter and heiress of David Ramsay, our horologer, and a cadet only thrice removed from the ancient house of Dalwolsey. We are grieved we cannot have the presence of the noble Chief of that House at the ceremony; but where there is honour to be won abroad, the Lord Dalwolsey is seldom to be found at home. Sic fuit, est, et erit.-Jingling Geordie, as ye stand to the cost of the marriage-feast, we look for good cheer."

Heriot bowed, as in duty bound. In fact, the King, who was a great politician about trifles, had maneuvred greatly on this occasion, and had contrived to

Chaucer says, there is nothing new but what it has been old. The reader has here the original of an anecdote which has since been fathered on a Scottish Chief of our own time. VOL. IV. R

Assigned it away to some one, that his wife might not get it after he was gane; it would have disturbed him in his grave, to think Glenvarloch should get that land back again," said Sir Mungo; "depend on it, he will have ta en sure measures to keep that noble lordship out of her grips or her nevoy's either."

Indeed it is but too probable, Sir Mungo," said Master Heriot; "but as I am obliged to go and look after many things in consequence of this ceremony, I must leave you to comfort yourself with the reflection."

"The bride-day, you say, is to be on the thirtieth of the instant month?" said Sir Mungo, hollaing

+ The penny-wedding of the Scots, now disused even among which, if the wedded pair were popular, the guests who conthe lowest ranks, was a peculiar species of merry-making, at vened, contributed considerable sums under pretence of paying for the bridal festivity, but in reality to set the married folk