This is the time--Heaven's maiden sentinel
Hath quitted her high watch--the lesser spangles
Are paling one by one; give me the ladder
And the short lever--bid Anthony
Keep with his carabine the wicket-gate;
And do thou bare thy knife and follow me,
For we will in and do it--darkness like this
Is dawning of our fortunes.
_Old Play._
When Duke Hildebrod had withdrawn, Nigel's first impulse was an
irresistible feeling to laugh at the sage adviser, who would have thus
connected him with age, ugliness, and ill-temper; but his next thought
was pity for the unfortunate father and daughter, who, being the only
persons possessed of wealth in this unhappy district, seemed like a
wreck on the sea-shore of a barbarous country, only secured from plunder
for the moment by the jealousy of the tribes among whom it had been
cast. Neither could he help being conscious that his own residence here
was upon conditions equally precarious, and that he was considered by
the Alsatians in the same light of a godsend on the Cornish coast, or a
sickly but wealthy caravan travelling through the wilds of Africa, and
emphatically termed by the nations of despoilers through whose regions
it passes _Dummalafong_, which signifies a thing given to be devoured--a
common prey to all men.
Nigel had already formed his own plan to extricate himself, at whatever
risk, from his perilous and degrading situation; and, in order that he
might carry it into instant execution, he only awaited the return of
Lowestoffe's messenger. He expected him, however, in vain, and could
only amuse himself by looking through such parts of his baggage as had
been sent to him from his former lodgings, in order to select a small
packet of the most necessary articles to take with him, in the event of
his quitting his lodgings secretly and suddenly, as speed and privacy
would, he foresaw, be particularly necessary, if he meant to obtain
an interview with the king, which was the course his spirit and his
interest alike determined him to pursue.
While he was thus engaged, he found, greatly to his satisfaction, that
Master Lowestoffe had transmitted not only his rapier and poniard, but a
pair of pistols, which he had used in travelling; of a smaller and more
convenient size than the large petronels, or horse pistols, which were
then in common use, as being made for wearing at the girdle or in the
pockets. Next to having stout and friendly comrades, a man is chiefly
emboldened by finding himself well armed in case of need, and Nigel,
who had thought with some anxiety on the hazard of trusting his life, if
attacked, to the protection of the clumsy weapon with which Lowestoffe
had equipped him, in order to complete his disguise, felt an emotion
of confidence approaching to triumph, as, drawing his own good and
well-tried rapier, he wiped it with his handkerchief, examined its
point, bent it once or twice against the ground to prove its well-known
metal, and finally replaced it in the scabbard, the more hastily, that
he heard a tap at the door of his chamber, and had no mind to be found
vapouring in the apartment with his sword drawn.
It was his old host who entered, to tell him with many cringes that the
price of his apartment was to be a crown per diem; and that, according
to the custom of Whitefriars, the rent was always payable per advance,
although he never scrupled to let the money lie till a week or
fortnight, or even a month, in the hands of any honourable guest like
Master Grahame, always upon some reasonable consideration for the use.
Nigel got rid of the old dotard's intrusion, by throwing down two pieces
of gold, and requesting the accommodation of his present apartment for
eight days, adding, however, he did not think he should tarry so long.
The miser, with a sparkling eye and a trembling hand, clutched fast the
proffered coin, and, having balanced the pieces with exquisite pleasure
on the extremity of his withered finger, began almost instantly to
show that not even the possession of gold can gratify for more than an
instant the very heart that is most eager in the pursuit of it. First,
the pieces might be light--with hasty hand he drew a small pair
of scales from his bosom, and weighed them, first together, then
separately, and smiled with glee as he saw them attain the due
depression in the balance--a circumstance which might add to his
profits, if it were true, as was currently reported, that little of the
gold coinage was current in Alsatia in a perfect state, and that none
ever left the Sanctuary in that condition.
Another fear then occurred to trouble the old miser's pleasure. He had
been just able to comprehend that Nigel intended to leave the Friars
sooner than the arrival of the term for which he had deposited the rent.
This might imply an expectation of refunding, which, as a Scotch wag
said, of all species of funding, jumped least with the old gentleman's
humour. He was beginning to enter a hypothetical caveat on this subject,
and to quote several reasons why no part of the money once consigned as
room-rent, could be repaid back on any pretence, without great hardship
to the landlord, when Nigel, growing impatient, told him that the money
was his absolutely, and without any intention on his part of resuming
any of it--all he asked in return was the liberty of enjoying in private
the apartment he had paid for. Old Trapbois, who had still at his
tongue's end much of the smooth language, by which, in his time, he had
hastened the ruin of many a young spendthrift, began to launch out
upon the noble and generous disposition of his new guest, until Nigel,
growing impatient, took the old gentleman by the hand, and gently, yet
irresistibly, leading him to the door of the chamber, put him out, but
with such decent and moderate exertion of his superior strength, as to
render the action in no shape indecorous, and, fastening the door, began
to do that for his pistols which he had done for his favourite sword,
examining with care the flints and locks, and reviewing the state of his
small provision of ammunition.
In this operation he was a second time interrupted by a knocking at the
door--he called upon the person to enter, having no doubt that it
was Lowestoffe's messenger at length arrived. It was, however, the
ungracious daughter of old Trapbois, who, muttering something about her
father's mistake, laid down upon the table one of the pieces of gold
which Nigel had just given to him, saying, that what she retained was
the full rent for the term he had specified. Nigel replied, he had paid
the money, and had no desire to receive it again.
"Do as you will with it, then," replied his hostess, "for there it lies,
and shall lie for me. If you are fool enough to pay more than is reason,
my father shall not be knave enough to take it."
"But your father, mistress," said Nigel, "your father told me--"
"Oh, my father, my father," said she, interrupting him,--"my father
managed these affairs while he was able--I manage them now, and that may
in the long run be as well for both of us."
She then looked on the table, and observed the weapons.
"You have arms, I see," she said; "do you know how to use them?"
"I should do so mistress," replied Nigel, "for it has been my
occupation."
"You are a soldier, then?" she demanded.
"No farther as yet, than as every gentleman of my country is a soldier."
"Ay, that is your point of honour--to cut the throats of the poor--a
proper gentlemanlike occupation for those who should protect them!"
"I do not deal in cutting throats, mistress," replied Nigel; "but I
carry arms to defend myself, and my country if it needs me."
"Ay," replied Martha, "it is fairly worded; but men say you are as
prompt as others in petty brawls, where neither your safety nor your
country is in hazard; and that had it not been so, you would not have
been in the Sanctuary to-day."
"Mistress," returned Nigel, "I should labour in vain to make you
understand that a man's honour, which is, or should be, dearer to him
than his life, may often call on and compel us to hazard our own
lives, or those of others, on what would otherwise seem trifling
contingencies."
"God's law says nought of that," said the female; "I have only read
there, that thou shall not kill. But I have neither time nor inclination
to preach to you--you will find enough of fighting here if you like
it, and well if it come not to seek you when you are least prepared.
Farewell for the present--the char-woman will execute your commands for
your meals."
She left the room, just as Nigel, provoked at her assuming a superior
tone of judgment and of censure, was about to be so superfluous as to
enter into a dispute with an old pawnbroker's daughter on the subject of
the point of honour. He smiled at himself for the folly into which the
spirit of self-vindication had so nearly hurried him.
Lord Glenvarloch then applied to old Deborah the char-woman, by whose
intermediation he was provided with a tolerably decent dinner; and the
only embarrassment which he experienced, was from the almost forcible
entry of the old dotard his landlord, who insisted upon giving his
assistance at laying the cloth. Nigel had some difficulty to prevent
him from displacing his arms and some papers which were lying on a small
table at which he had been sitting; and nothing short of a stern and
positive injunction to the contrary could compel him to use another
board (though there were two in the room) for the purpose of laying the
cloth.
Having at length obliged him to relinquish his purpose, he could not
help observing that the eyes of the old dotard seemed still anxiously
fixed upon the small table on which lay his sword and pistols; and that,
amidst all the little duties which he seemed officiously anxious to
render to his guest, he took every opportunity of looking towards and
approaching these objects of his attention. At length, when Trapbois
thought he had completely avoided the notice of his guest, Nigel,
through the observation of one of the cracked mirrors, oh which channel
of communication the old man had not calculated, beheld him actually
extend his hand towards the table in question. He thought it unnecessary
to use further ceremony, but telling his landlord, in a stern voice,
that he permitted no one to touch his arms, he commanded him to leave
the apartment. The old usurer commenced a maundering sort of apology, in
which all that Nigel distinctly apprehended, was a frequent repetition
of the word _consideration_, and which did not seem to him to require
any other answer than a reiteration of his command to him to leave the
apartment, upon pain of worse consequences.
The ancient Hebe who acted as Lord Glenvarloch's cup-bearer, took his
part against the intrusion of the still more antiquated Ganymede, and
insisted on old Trapbois leaving the room instantly, menacing him at
the same time with her mistress's displeasure if he remained there any
longer. The old man seemed more under petticoat government than any
other, for the threat of the char-woman produced greater effect upon him
than the more formidable displeasure of Nigel. He withdrew grumbling and
muttering, and Lord Glenvarloch heard him bar a large door at the nearer
end of the gallery, which served as a division betwixt the other parts
of the extensive mansion, and the apartment occupied by his guest,
which, as the reader is aware, had its access from the landing-place at
the head of the grand staircase.
Nigel accepted the careful sound of the bolts and bars as they were
severally drawn by the trembling hand of old Trapbois, as an omen
that the senior did not mean again to revisit him in the course of
the evening, and heartily rejoiced that he was at length to be left to
uninterrupted solitude.
The old woman asked if there was aught else to be done for his
accommodation; and, indeed, it had hitherto seemed as if the pleasure of
serving him, or more properly the reward which she expected, had renewed
her youth and activity. Nigel desired to have candles, to have a fire
lighted in his apartment, and a few fagots placed beside it, that he
might feed it from time to time, as he began to feel the chilly effects
of the damp and low situation of the house, close as it was to the
Thames. But while the old woman was absent upon his errand, he began to
think in what way he should pass the long solitary evening with which he
was threatened.
His own reflections promised to Nigel little amusement, and less
applause. He had considered his own perilous situation in every light
in which it could be viewed, and foresaw as little utility as comfort in
resuming the survey. To divert the current of his ideas, books were, of
course, the readiest resource; and although, like most of us, Nigel had,
in his time, sauntered through large libraries, and even spent a long
time there without greatly disturbing their learned contents, he was now
in a situation where the possession of a volume, even of very inferior
merit, becomes a real treasure. The old housewife returned shortly
afterwards with fagots, and some pieces of half-burnt wax-candles, the
perquisites, probably, real or usurped, of some experienced groom of
the chambers, two of which she placed in large brass candlesticks, of
different shapes and patterns, and laid the others on the table, that
Nigel might renew them from time to time as they burnt to the socket.
She heard with interest Lord Glenvarloch's request to have a book--any
sort of book--to pass away the night withal, and returned for answer,
that she knew of no other books in the house than her young mistress's
(as she always denominated Mistress Martha Trapbois) Bible, which the
owner would not lend; and her master's Whetstone of Witte, being the
second part of Arithmetic, by Robert Record, with the Cossike Practice
and Rule of Equation; which promising volume Nigel declined to borrow.
She offered, however, to bring him some books from Duke Hildebrod--"who
sometimes, good gentleman, gave a glance at a book when the State
affairs of Alsatia left him as much leisure."
Nigfil embraced the proposal, and his unwearied Iris scuttled away on
this second embassy. She returned in a short time with a tattered quarto
volume under her arm, and a bottle of sack in her hand; for the Duke,
judging that mere reading was dry work, had sent the wine by way of
sauce to help it down, not forgetting to add the price to the morning's
score, which he had already run up against the stranger in the
Sanctuary.
Nigel seized on the book, and did not refuse the wine, thinking that a
glass or two, as it really proved to be of good quality, would be no
bad interlude to his studies. He dismissed, with thanks and assurance
of reward, the poor old drudge who had been so zealous in his service;
trimmed his fire and candles, and placed the easiest of the old
arm-chairs in a convenient posture betwixt the fire and the table at
which he had dined, and which now supported the measure of sack and the
lights; and thus accompanying his studies with such luxurious appliances
as were in his power, he began to examine the only volume with which the
ducal library of Alsatia had been able to supply him.
The contents, though of a kind generally interesting, were not well
calculated to dispel the gloom by which he was surrounded. The book was
entitled "God's Revenge against Murther;" not, as the bibliomaniacal
reader may easily conjecture, the work which Reynolds published under
that imposing name, but one of a much earlier date, printed and sold
by old Wolfe; and which, could a copy now be found, would sell for much
more than its weight in gold.[Footnote: Only three copies are known
to exist; one in the library at Kennaquhair, and two--one foxed and
cropped, the other tall and in good condition--both in the possession
of an eminent member of the Roxburghe Club.--_Note by_ CAPTAIN
CLUTTERBUCK.] Nigel had soon enough of the doleful tales which the book
contains, and attempted one or two other modes of killing the evening.
He looked out at window, but the night was rainy, with gusts of wind;
he tried to coax the fire, but the fagots were green, and smoked without
burning; and as he was naturally temperate, he felt his blood somewhat
heated by the canary sack which he had already drank, and had no farther
inclination to that pastime. He next attempted to compose a memorial
addressed to the king, in which he set forth his case and his
grievances; but, speedily stung with the idea that his supplication
would be treated with scorn, he flung the scroll into the fire, and, in
a sort of desperation, resumed the book which he had laid aside.
Nigel became more interested in the volume at the second than at the
first attempt which he made to peruse it. The narratives, strange and
shocking as they were to human feeling, possessed yet the interest of
sorcery or of fascination, which rivets the attention by its awakening
horrors. Much was told of the strange and horrible acts of blood by
which men, setting nature and humanity alike at defiance, had, for
the thirst of revenge, the lust of gold, or the cravings of irregular
ambition, broken into the tabernacle of life. Yet more surprising and
mysterious tales were recounted of the mode in which such deeds of blood
had come to be discovered and revenged. Animals, irrational animals,
had told the secret, and birds of the air had carried the matter. The
elements had seemed to betray the deed which had polluted them--earth
had ceased to support the murderer's steps, fire to warm his frozen
limbs, water to refresh his parched lips, air to relieve his gasping
lungs. All, in short, bore evidence to the homicide's guilt. In other
circumstances, the criminal's own awakened conscience pursued and
brought him to justice; and in some narratives the grave was said to
have yawned, that the ghost of the sufferer might call for revenge.
It was now wearing late in the night, and the book was still in Nigel's
hands, when the tapestry which hung behind him flapped against the wall,
and the wind produced by its motion waved the flame of the candles by
which he was reading. Nigel started and turned round, in that excited
and irritated state of mind which arose from the nature of his studies,
especially at a period when a certain degree of superstition was
inculcated as a point of religious faith. It was not without emotion
that he saw the bloodless countenance, meagre form, and ghastly aspect
of old Trapbois, once more in the very act of extending his withered
hand towards the table which supported his arms. Convinced by this
untimely apparition that something evil was meditated towards him, Nigel
sprung up, seized his sword, drew it, and placing it at the old man's
breast, demanded of him what he did in his apartment at so untimely an
hour. Trapbois showed neither fear nor surprise, and only answered
by some imperfect expressions, intimating he would part with his
life rather than with his property; and Lord Glenvarloch, strangely
embarrassed, knew not what to think of the intruder's motives, and still
less how to get rid of him. As he again tried the means of intimidation,
he was surprised by a second apparition from behind the tapestry, in the
person of the daughter of Trapbois, bearing a lamp in her hand. She
also seemed to possess her father's insensibility to danger, for, coming
close to Nigel, she pushed aside impetuously his naked sword, and even
attempted to take it out of his hand.
"For shame," she said, "your sword on a man of eighty years and
more!-=this the honour of a Scottish gentleman!--give it to me to make a
spindle of!"
"Stand back," said Nigel; "I mean your father no injury--but I _will_
know what has caused him to prowl this whole day, and even at this late
hour of night, around my arms."
"Your arms!" repeated she; "alas! young man, the whole arms in the Tower
of London are of little value to him, in comparison of this miserable
piece of gold which I left this morning on the table of a young
spendthrift, too careless to put what belonged to him into his own
purse."
So saying, she showed the piece of gold, which, still remaining on the
table, where she left it, had been the bait that attracted old Trapbois
so frequently to the spot; and which, even in the silence of the night,
had so dwelt on his imagination, that he had made use of a private
passage long disused, to enter his guest's apartment, in order to
possess himself of the treasure during his slumbers. He now exclaimed,
at the highest tones of his cracked and feeble voice--
"It is mine--it is mine!--he gave it to me for a consideration--I will
die ere I part with my property!"
"It is indeed his own, mistress," said Nigel, "and I do entreat you to
restore it to the person on whom I have bestowed it, and let me have my
apartment in quiet."
"I will account with you for it, then,"--said the maiden, reluctantly
giving to her father the morsel of Mammon, on which he darted as if his
bony fingers had been the talons of a hawk seizing its prey; and then
making a contented muttering and mumbling, like an old dog after he
has been fed, and just when he is wheeling himself thrice round for the
purpose of lying down, he followed his daughter behind the tapestry,
through a little sliding-door, which was perceived when the hangings
were drawn apart.
"This shall be properly fastened to-morrow," said the daughter to Nigel,
speaking in such a tone that her father, deaf, and engrossed by his
acquisition, could not hear her; "to-night I will continue to watch him
closely.--I wish you good repose."
These few words, pronounced in a tone of more civility than she had yet
made use of towards her lodger, contained a wish which was not to be
accomplished, although her guest, presently after her departure, retired
to bed.
There was a slight fever in Nigel's blood, occasioned by the various
events of the evening, which put him, as the phrase is, beside his
rest. Perplexing and painful thoughts rolled on his mind like a troubled
stream, and the more he laboured to lull himself to slumber, the farther
he seemed from attaining his object. He tried all the resources common
in such cases; kept counting from one to a thousand, until his head
was giddy--he watched the embers of the wood fire till his eyes were
dazzled--he listened to the dull moaning of the wind, the swinging and
creaking of signs which projected from the houses, and the baying of
here and there a homeless dog, till his very ear was weary.
Suddenly, however, amid this monotony, came a sound which startled him
at once. It was a female shriek. He sat up in his bed to listen, then
remembered he was in Alsatia, where brawls of every sort were current
among the unruly inhabitants. But another scream, and another, and
another, succeeded so close, that he was certain, though the noise was
remote and sounded stifled, it must be in the same house with himself.
Nigel jumped up hastily, put on a part of his clothes, seized his sword
and pistols, and ran to the door of his chamber. Here he plainly heard
the screams redoubled, and, as he thought, the sounds came from the
usurer's apartment. All access to the gallery was effectually excluded
by the intermediate door, which the brave young lord shook with eager,
but vain impatience. But the secret passage occurred suddenly to his
recollection. He hastened back to his room, and succeeded with some
difficulty in lighting a candle, powerfully agitated by hearing the
cries repeated, yet still more afraid lest they should sink into
silence.
He rushed along the narrow and winding entrance, guided by the noise,
which now burst more wildly on his ear; and, while he descended a narrow
staircase which terminated the passage, he heard the stifled voices
of men, encouraging, as it seemed, each other. "D--n her, strike
her down--silence her--beat her brains out!"--while the voice of his
hostess, though now almost exhausted, was repeating the cry of "murder,"
and "help." At the bottom of the staircase was a small door, which gave
way before Nigel as he precipitated himself upon the scene of action,--a
cocked pistol in one hand, a candle in the other, and his naked sword
under his arm.
Two ruffians had, with great difficulty, overpowered, or, rather, were
on the point of overpowering, the daughter of Trapbois, whose resistance
appeared to have been most desperate, for the floor was covered with
fragments of her clothes, and handfuls of her hair. It appeared that her
life was about to be the price of her defence, for one villain had drawn
a long clasp-knife, when they were surprised by the entrance of Nigel,
who, as they turned towards him, shot the fellow with the knife dead on
the spot, and when the other advanced to him, hurled the candlestick at
his head, and then attacked him with his sword. It was dark, save some
pale moonlight from the window; and the ruffian, after firing a pistol
without effect, and fighting a traverse or two with his sword, lost
heart, made for the window, leaped over it, and escaped. Nigel fired his
remaining pistol after him at a venture, and then called for light.
"There is light in the kitchen," answered Martha Trapbois, with more
presence of mind than could have been expected. "Stay, you know not the
way; I will fetch it myself.--Oh! my father--my poor father!--I knew
it would come to this--and all along of the accursed gold!--They have
_murdered_ him!"