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."

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 a carle this Maister Heriot is. He hath supplied your lordship with wealth of gold, as I can understand; The style of conversation led so far from the point and if he has, I make it for certain he hath had his which had interested the young nobleman's curiosity, ain end in it, according to the fashion of the world. that there was no returning to it that night. He Now, had your lordship your own good lands at your therefore exchanged thanks and greeting with George guiding, doubtless this person, with most of his craft Heriot, and took his leave, promising to be equipped-goldsmiths they call themselves-I say usurersand in readiness, to embark with him on the second wad be glad to exchange so many pounds of African successive morning at ten o'clock. 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."

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 the 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"

VOL. IV.

E

'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?"

46

'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 notI 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 houseken 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 dwell 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 frae the heart, may be powerful to drive them away, even as the Evil Spirit was driven by the smell of the fish's liver from the bridalchamber of Sara, the daughter of Raguel? As to whilk story, nevertheless, I make scruple to say whether it be truth or not, better men than I am having doubted on that matter."

"Well, well, well," said his master, impatiently, "we are now near home, and I have permitted you to speak of this matter for once, that we may have an end of your prying folly, and your idiotical superstitions, for ever. For whom do you, or your absurd authors or informers, take this lady?"

"They tell me something is put in ilka day, for fashion's sake," replied the attendant; "but it is 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 weel 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-Ev'n 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 be"I can say naething, preceesely as to that," an-yond her ostensible situation in society-in a word, swered Moniplies; "certain it is her body died and Dame Ursula Suddlechop, wife of Benjamin Suddlewas laid in the grave many a day since, notwith-chop, the most renowned barber in all Fleet street. standing she still wanders on earth, and chiefly amongst Maister Heriot's family, though she hath been seen in other places by them that well knew her. But who she is, I will not warrant to say, or how she becomes attached, like a Highland Brownie, to some peculiar family. They say she has a row of apartments of her own, anteroom, parlour, and bedroom; but deil a bed she sleeps in but her own coffin, and the walls, doors, and windows, are so chinked up, as to prevent the least blink of daylight from entering; and then she dwells by torchlight."

"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?"

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 "Who-she!"-exclaimed Moniplies, as if sur- concerned in deeper and dearer secrets: She had been prised at the question; "they would need a lang a pupil of Mrs. Turner, and learned from her the sespoon would sup with her I trow. Always there is cret of making the yellow starch, and, may be, two something put for her into the Tower, as they call it, or three other secrets of more consequence, though whilk is a whigmaleery of a whirling-box, that turns perhaps none that went to the criminal extent of those half on the tae side o' the wa', half on the tother." whereof her mistress was accused. But all that was "I have seen the contrivance in foreign nunne-deep and dark in her real character, was covered by ries," said the Lord of Glenvarloch. "And is it thus she receives her food?"

the show of outward mirth and good-humour, the hearty laugh and buxom jest with which the dame

THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL.

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.

"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."

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 joyons expression of gayety 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 Urs"And why will it not do to-morrow, Jenny, my ley. 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 good woman?" said Dame Ursley; "for I have been poor, on the same mixed principles as young practi-as far as Whitehall to-day already, and I am well-nigh tioners in medicine assist them, partly from compas-worn off my feet, my good woman." sion, and partly to keep her hand in use.

"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 lower tone, "and I hope she will go to the devil in the flame of a tar-barrel, like many a Scots witchbefore her!"

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 West-
minster, 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 pro-
silver stew-
cess of dressing a veal sweetbread, in
pan 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".

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 beSo saying, the old emissary, without farther entreafore she sleeps, and that's a' that I ken on't." ty, 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."

66 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 "Left by her grandmother, Heaven rest her soul!" a-year in good land, at her own free disposal?" 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 was going to eat. For dinner I have tasted none, and it may be my young pretty Mistress Margaret will eat a morsel with me; for it is mere emptiness, Mistress Jenny, that often puts these fancies of illness inte young folk's heads." So saying, she put the silver

posset-cup with the ale into Jenny's hands, and as- to place her stewpan to the best advantage, drew suming her mantle with the alacrity of one determi- herself as close as she could to her patient, and began ned to sacrifice inclination to duty, she hid the stew-in a low, soothing, and confidential tone of voice, to pan under its folds, and commanded Wilsa, the little inquire what ailed her pretty flower of neighbours. mulatto girl, to light them across the street. "Whither away, so late?" said the barber, whom they passed seated with his starveling boys round a mess of stock-fish and parsnips, in the shop below. "If I were to tell you, Gaffer," said the dame, with most 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 to look to the house the whilst."

"and I told you before, that if you cannot find out what ails me, I shall never have the heart to tell

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.

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 noblemanand a Scots nobleman, to make the matter complete, who are all as proud as Lucifer, and as poor as Job? "Nay, then," said Dame Ursula, "I must exert my-A Scots nobleman, quotha? I had as lief you told skill in good earnest.-You must give me this pretty me of a Jew pedler. I would have you think how all hand, and I will tell you by palmistry, as well as any this is to end, pretty one, before you jump in the gipsy of them all, what foot it is you halt upon." dark."

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.

"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."*

"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, sweet-heart? Ay, ay," said Dame Ursula ; even so I never or perhaps you pshaw at my prophecy; but there is a knew a Scot of you but was descended, as ye call it, cross in every one's line of life as well as in yours, from some great house or other; and a píteous dedarling. And what though I see a 'prentice's flat cap scent it often is-and as for the distance you speak of, in this pretty palm, yet there is a sparkling black eye it is so great as to put you out of sight of each other. under it, hath not its match in the Ward of Farring-Yet do not toss your pretty head so scornfully, but don-Without." tell me the name of this lordly northern gallant, and we will try what can be done in the matter."

"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.

แ

'It is Lord Glenvarloch, whom they call Lord Nigel Olifaunt," said Margaret in a low voice, and turning away to hide her blushes.

66

Marry, Heaven forefend!" exclaimed Dame Suddlechop; "this is the very devil, and something worse!" "Ay, sets the wind in that quarter, Beauty!" quoth "How mean you?" said the damsel, surprised at the dame; "why, it has changed something since the vivacity of her exclamation. we spoke together last, for then I would have sworn Why, know ye not," said the dame, "what it blew fairer for poor Jin Vin; and the poor lad powerful enemies he has at Court? know ye notdotes on you too, and would rather see your eyes But blisters on my tongue, it runs too fast for my wit than the first glimpse of the sun on the great holyday-enough to say, that you had better make your on May-day." bridal-bed under a falling house, than think of young Glenvarloch."

"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!"

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 Í seen him in all the mid-day glare of prosperity."

"Romances have cracked her brain!" said Dame Maybe I may"-answered Margaret, "but not Ursula; "she is a castaway girl-utterly distraught with my father's 'prentice-I thank you, Dame-loves a Scots lord and likes him the better for

Ursula."

Nay, then, the devil may guess your thoughts for me," said Dame Ursula ; this comes of trying to shoe a filly that is eternally wincing and shifting ground!"

"Hear me, then," said Margaret, "and mind what I say. This day I dined abroad".

"I can tell you where," answered her counsellor, -"with your godfather the rich goldsmith-ay, you see I know something-nay, I could tell you, an I would, with whom, too."

Indeed!" said Margaret, turning suddenly round with an accent of strong surprise, and colouring up to the eyes.

"With old Sir Mungo Malagrowther," said the oracular dame," he was trimmed in my Benjamin's shop in his way to the city."

"Pshaw! the frightful old mouldy skeleton!" said the damsel.

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."

46

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."

"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,

"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,

and of whom, as their chief, the individuals of that name look
*The head of the ancient and distinguished house of Ramsay,
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."

✦ Mrs. Anne Turner was a dame somewhat of the occupation of Mrs. Suddlechop in the text; that is, half milliner half procuress, and secret agent in all manner of proceedings. She was a trafficker in the poisoning of Sir Thomas Overbury, for which so many subordinate agents lost their lives, while, to the great scandal of justice, the Earl of Somerset and his Countess were suffered to escape, upon a threat of Somerset to make public some secret which nearly affected his master, King James. Mrs. Turner introduced into England a French custom of using yellow starch in getting up bands and cuffs, and, by Lord Coke's orders, she appeared in that fashion at the place of execution.