CHAPTER XXIII
SWASH-BUCKLER. Bilboe's the word--PIERROT. It hath been spoke too often,The spell hath lost its charm--I tell thee, friend, The meanest cur thattrots the street, will turn, And snarl against your proffer'd bastinado.SWASH-BUCKLER. 'Tis art shall do it, then--I will dose the mongrels--Or,in plain terms, I'll use the private knife 'Stead of the brandish'dfalchion. _Old Play_.
The noble Captain Colepepper or Peppercull, for he was known by boththese names, and some others besides; had a martial and a swashingexterior, which, on the present occasion, was rendered yet morepeculiar, by a patch covering his left eye and a part of the cheek.The sleeves of his thickset velvet jerkin were polished and shone withgrease,--his buff gloves had huge tops, which reached almost to theelbow; his sword-belt of the same materials extended its breadth fromhis haunchbone to his small ribs, and supported on the one side hislarge black-hilted back-sword, on the other a dagger of like proportionsHe paid his compliments to Nigel with that air of predeterminedeffrontery, which announces that it will not be repelled by any coldnessof reception, asked Trapbois how he did, by the familiar title of oldPeter Pillory, and then, seizing upon the black-jack, emptied it off ata draught, to the health of the last and youngest freeman of Alsatia,the noble and loving master Nigel Grahame.
When he had set down the empty pitcher and drawn his breath, he began tocriticise the liquor which it had lately contained.--"Sufficient singlebeer, old Pillory--and, as I take it, brewed at the rate of a nutshellof malt to a butt of Thames--as dead as a corpse, too, and yet itwent hissing down my throat--bubbling, by Jove, like water upon hotiron.--You left us early, noble Master Grahame, but, good faith, we hada carouse to your honour--we heard _butt_ ring hollow ere we parted;we were as loving as inkle-weavers--we fought, too, to finish off thegawdy. I bear some marks of the parson about me, you see--a note of thesermon or so, which should have been addressed to my ear, but missed itsmark, and reached my left eye. The man of God bears my sign-manual too,but the Duke made us friends again, and it cost me more sack than Icould carry, and all the Rhenish to boot, to pledge the seer in the wayof love and reconciliation--But, Caracco! 'tis a vile old canting slavefor all that, whom I will one day beat out of his devil's livery intoall the colours of the rainbow.--Basta!--Said I well, old Trapbois?Where is thy daughter, man?--what says she to my suit?--'tis an honestone--wilt have a soldier for thy son-in-law, old Pillory, to mingle thesoul of martial honour with thy thieving, miching, petty-larceny blood,as men put bold brandy into muddy ale?"
"My daughter receives not company so early, noble captain," said theusurer, and concluded his speech with a dry, emphatical "ugh, ugh."
"What, upon no con-si-de-ra-ti-on?" said the captain; "and wherefore not,old Truepenny? she has not much time to lose in driving her bargain,methinks."
"Captain," said Trapbois, "I was upon some little business with ournoble friend here, Master Nigel Green--ugh, ugh, ugh--"
"And you would have me gone, I warrant you?" answered the bully; "butpatience, old Pillory, thine hour is not yet come, man--You see," hesaid, pointing to the casket, "that noble Master Grahame, whom you callGreen, has got the _decuses_ and the _smelt_."
"Which you would willingly rid him of, ha! ha!--ugh, ugh," answered theusurer, "if you knew how--but, lack-a-day! thou art one of those thatcome out for wool, and art sure to go home shorn. Why now, but that Iam sworn against laying of wagers, I would risk some consideration thatthis honest guest of mine sends thee home penniless, if thou darestventure with him--ugh, ugh--at any game which gentlemen play at."
"Marry, thou hast me on the hip there, thou old miserly cony-catcher!"answered the captain, taking a bale of dice from the sleeve of his coat;"I must always keep company with these damnable doctors, and they havemade me every baby's cully, and purged my purse into an atrophy; butnever mind, it passes the time as well as aught else--How say you,Master Grahame?"
The fellow paused; but even the extremity of his impudence couldscarcely hardly withstand the cold look of utter contempt with whichNigel received his proposal, returning it with a simple, "I only playwhere I know my company, and never in the morning."
"Cards may be more agreeable," said Captain Colepepper; "and, forknowing your company, here is honest old Pillory will tell you JackColepepper plays as truly on the square as e'er a man that trowleda die--Men talk of high and low dice, Fulhams and bristles, topping,knapping, slurring, stabbing, and a hundred ways of rooking besides;but broil me like a rasher of bacon, if I could ever learn the trick on'em!"
"You have got the vocabulary perfect, sir, at the least," said Nigel, inthe same cold tone.
"Yes, by mine honour have I," returned the Hector; "they are phrasesthat a gentleman learns about town.--But perhaps you would like a set attennis, or a game at balloon--we have an indifferent good court hardby here, and a set of as gentleman-like blades as ever banged leatheragainst brick and mortar."
"I beg to be excused at present," said Lord Glenvarloch; "and to beplain, among the valuable privileges your society has conferred on me, Ihope I may reckon that of being private in my own apartment when I havea mind."
"Your humble servant, sir," said the captain; "and I thank you foryour civility--Jack Colepepper can have enough of company, and thrustshimself on no one.--But perhaps you will like to make a match atskittles?"
"I am by no means that way disposed," replied the young nobleman,
"Or to leap a flea--run a snail--match a wherry, eh?"
"No--I will do none of these," answered Nigel.
Here the old man, who had been watching with his little peery eyes,pulled the bulky Hector by the skirt, and whispered, "Do not vapour himthe huff, it will not pass--let the trout play, he will rise to the hookpresently."
But the bully, confiding in his own strength, and probably mistakingfor timidity the patient scorn with which Nigel received his proposals,incited also by the open casket, began to assume a louder and morethreatening tone. He drew himself up, bent his brows, assumed a look ofprofessional ferocity, and continued, "In Alsatia, look ye, a man mustbe neighbourly and companionable. Zouns! sir, we would slit any nosethat was turned up at us honest fellows.--Ay, sir, we would slit itup to the gristle, though it had smelt nothing all its life but musk,ambergris, and court-scented water.--Rabbit me, I am a soldier, and careno more for a lord than a lamplighter!"
"Are you seeking a quarrel, sir?" said Nigel, calmly, having in truth nodesire to engage himself in a discreditable broil in such a place, andwith such a character.
"Quarrel, sir?" said the captain; "I am not seeking a quarrel, though Icare not how soon I find one. Only I wish you to understand you mustbe neighbourly, that's all. What if we should go over the water to thegarden, and see a bull hanked this fine morning--'sdeath, will you donothing?"
"Something I am strangely tempted to do at this moment," said Nigel.
"Videlicet," said Colepepper, with a swaggering air, "let us hear thetemptation."
"I am tempted to throw you headlong from the window, unless youpresently make the best of your way down stairs."
"Throw me from the window?--hell and furies!" exclaimed the captain; "Ihave confronted twenty crooked sabres at Buda with my single rapier, andshall a chitty-faced, beggarly Scots lordling, speak of me and a windowin the same breath?--Stand off, old Pillory, let me make Scotch collopsof him--he dies the death!"
"For the love of Heaven, gentlemen," exclaimed the old miser, throwinghimself between them, "do not break the peace on any consideration!Noble guest, forbear the captain--he is a very Hector ofTroy--Trusty Hector, forbear my guest, he is like to prove a veryAchilles-ugh-ugh----"
Here he was interrupted by his asthma, but, nevertheless, continuedto interpose his person between Colepepper (who had unsheathed hiswhinyard, and was making vain passes at his antagonist) and Nigel, whohad stepped back to take his sword, and now held it undrawn in his lefthand.
"Make an end of this foolery, you scoundrel!" said Nigel--"Do you comehither to vent your noisy oaths and
your bottled-up valour on me? Youseem to know me, and I am half ashamed to say I have at length beenable to recollect you--remember the garden behind the ordinary,--youdastardly ruffian, and the speed with which fifty men saw you run from adrawn sword.--Get you gone, sir, and do not put me to the vile labour ofcudgelling such a cowardly rascal down stairs."
The bully's countenance grew dark as night at this unexpectedrecognition; for he had undoubtedly thought himself secure in his changeof dress, and his black patch, from being discovered by a person who hadseen him but once. He set his teeth, clenched his hands, and it seemedas if he was seeking for a moment's courage to fly upon his antagonist.But his heart failed, he sheathed his sword, turned his back in gloomysilence, and spoke not until he reached the door, when, turninground, he said, with a deep oath, "If I be not avenged of you for thisinsolence ere many days go by, I would the gallows had my body and thedevil my spirit!"
So saying, and with a look where determined spite and malice made hisfeatures savagely fierce, though they could not overcome his fear, heturned and left the house. Nigel followed him as far as the gallery atthe head of the staircase, with the purpose of seeing him depart, andere he returned was met by Mistress Martha Trapbois, whom the noise ofthe quarrel had summoned from her own apartment. He could not resistsaying to her in his natural displeasure--"I would, madam, you couldteach your father and his friends the lesson which you had the goodnessto bestow on me this morning, and prevail on them to leave me theunmolested privacy of my own apartment."
"If you came hither for quiet or retirement, young man," answered she,"you have been advised to an evil retreat. You might seek mercy in theStar-Chamber, or holiness in hell, with better success than quiet inAlsatia. But my father shall trouble you no longer."
So saying, she entered the apartment, and, fixing her eyes on thecasket, she said with emphasis--"If you display such a loadstone, itwill draw many a steel knife to your throat."
While Nigel hastily shut the casket, she addressed her father,upbraiding him, with small reverence, for keeping company with thecowardly, hectoring, murdering villain, John Colepepper.
"Ay, ay, child," said the old man, with the cunning leer whichintimated perfect satisfaction with his own superior address--"I know--Iknow--ugh--but I'll crossbite him--I know them all, and I can managethem--ay, ay--I have the trick on't--ugh-ugh."
"_You_ manage, father!" said the austere damsel; "you will manage tohave your throat cut, and that ere long. You cannot hide from them yourgains and your gold as formerly."
"My gains, wench? my gold?" said the usurer; "alack-a-day, few of theseand hard got--few and hard got."
"This will not serve you, father, any longer," said she, "and had notserved you thus long, but that Bully Colepepper had contrived a cheaperway of plundering your house, even by means of my miserable self.--Butwhy do I speak to him of all this," she said, checking herself, andshrugging her shoulders with an expression of pity which did not fallmuch short of scorn. "He hears me not--he thinks not of me.--Is itnot strange that the love of gathering gold should survive the care topreserve both property and life?"
"Your father," said Lord Glenvarloch, who could not help respecting thestrong sense and feeling shown by this poor woman, even amidst allher rudeness and severity, "your father seems to have his facultiessufficiently alert when he is in the exercise of his ordinary pursuitsand functions. I wonder he is not sensible of the weight of yourarguments."
"Nature made him a man senseless of danger, and that insensibility isthe best thing I have derived from him," said she; "age has left himshrewdness enough to tread his old beaten paths, but not to seek newcourses. The old blind horse will long continue to go its rounds in themill, when it would stumble in the open meadow."
"Daughter!--why, wench--why, housewife!" said the old man, awakeningout of some dream, in which he had been sneering and chuckling inimagination, probably over a successful piece of roguery,--"go tochamber, wench--go to chamber--draw bolts and chain--look sharp todoor--let none in or out but worshipful Master Grahame--I must take mycloak, and go to Duke Hildebrod--ay, ay, time has been, my own warrantwas enough; but the lower we lie, the more are we under the wind."
And, with his wonted chorus of muttering and coughing, the old man leftthe apartment. His daughter stood for a moment looking after him, withher usual expression of discontent and sorrow.
"You ought to persuade your father," said Nigel, "to leave this evilneighbourhood, if you are in reality apprehensive for his safety."
"He would be safe in no other quarter," said the daughter; "I wouldrather the old man were dead than publicly dishonoured. In otherquarters he would be pelted and pursued, like an owl which ventures intosunshine. Here he was safe, while his comrades could avail themselves ofhis talents; he is now squeezed and fleeced by them on every pretence.They consider him as a vessel on the strand, from which each may snatcha prey; and the very jealousy which they entertain respecting him as acommon property, may perhaps induce them to guard him from more privateand daring assaults."
"Still, methinks, you ought to leave this place," answered Nigel, "sinceyou might find a safe retreat in some distant country."
"In Scotland, doubtless," said she, looking at him with a sharp andsuspicious eye, "and enrich strangers with our rescued wealth--Ha! youngman?"
"Madam, if you knew me," said Lord Glenvarloch, "you would spare thesuspicion implied in your words."
"Who shall assure me of that?" said Martha, sharply. "They say you area brawler and a gamester, and I know how far these are to be trusted bythe unhappy."
"They do me wrong, by Heaven!" said Lord Glenvarloch.
"It may be so," said Martha; "I am little interested in the degree ofyour vice or your folly; but it is plain, that the one or the otherhas conducted you hither, and that your best hope of peace, safety, andhappiness, is to be gone, with the least possible delay, from a placewhich is always a sty for swine, and often a shambles." So saying, sheleft the apartment.
There was something in the ungracious manner of this female, amountingalmost to contempt of him she spoke to--an indignity to whichGlenvarloch, notwithstanding his poverty, had not as yet been personallyexposed, and which, therefore, gave him a transitory feeling of painfulsurprise. Neither did the dark hints which Martha threw out concerningthe danger of his place of refuge, sound by any means agreeably to hisears. The bravest man, placed in a situation in which he is surroundedby suspicious persons, and removed from all counsel and assistance,except those afforded by a valiant heart and a strong arm, experiencesa sinking of the spirit, a consciousness of abandonment, which fora moment chills his blood, and depresses his natural gallantry ofdisposition.
But, if sad reflections arose in Nigel's mind, he had not time toindulge them; and, if he saw little prospect of finding friends inAlsatia, he found that he was not likely to be solitary for lack ofvisitors.
He had scarcely paced his apartment for ten minutes, endeavouring toarrange his ideas on the course which he was to pursue on quittingAlsatia, when he was interrupted by the Sovereign of the quarter, thegreat Duke Hildebrod himself, before whose approach the bolts and chainsof the miser's dwelling fell, or withdrew, as of their own accord; andboth the folding leaves of the door were opened, that he might rollhimself into the house like a huge butt of liquor, a vessel to whichhe bore a considerable outward resemblance, both in size, shape,complexion, and contents.
"Good-morrow to your lordship," said the greasy puncheon, cocking hissingle eye, and rolling it upon Nigel with a singular expression offamiliar impudence; whilst his grim bull-dog, which was close at hisheels, made a kind of gurgling in his throat, as if saluting, in similarfashion, a starved cat, the only living thing in Trapbois' house whichwe have not yet enumerated, and which had flown up to the top of thetester, where she stood clutching and grinning at the mastiff, whosegreeting she accepted with as much good-will as Nigel bestowed on thatof the dog's master.
"Peace, Belzie!--D--n thee, peace!" said Duke Hildebrod. "Beasts an
dfools will be meddling, my lord."
"I thought, sir," answered Nigel, with as much haughtiness as wasconsistent with the cool distance which he desired to preserve, "Ithought I had told you, my name at present was Nigel Grahame."
His eminence of Whitefriars on this burst out into a loud, chuckling,impudent laugh, repeating the word, till his voice was almostinarticulate,--"Niggle Green--Niggle Green--Niggle Green!--why, my lord,you would be queered in the drinking of a penny pot of Malmsey, if youcry before you are touched. Why, you have told me the secret even now,had I not had a shrewd guess of it before. Why, Master Nigel, since thatis the word, I only called you my lord, because we made you a peerof Alsatia last night, when the sack was predominant.--How you looknow!--Ha! ha! ha!"
Nigel, indeed, conscious that he had unnecessarily betrayed himself,replied hastily,--"he was much obliged to him for the honours conferred,but did not propose to remain in the Sanctuary long enough to enjoythem."
"Why, that may be as you will, an you will walk by wise counsel,"answered the ducal porpoise; and, although Nigel remained standing, inhopes to accelerate his guest's departure, he threw himself into one ofthe old tapestry-backed easy-chairs, which cracked under his weight, andbegan to call for old Trapbois.
The crone of all work appearing instead of her master, the Duke cursedher for a careless jade, to let a strange gentleman, and a brave guest,go without his morning's draught.
"I never take one, sir," said Glenvarloch.
"Time to begin--time to begin," answered the Duke.--"Here, you oldrefuse of Sathan, go to our palace, and fetch Lord Green's morningdraught. Let us see--what shall it be, my lord?--a humming double pot ofale, with a roasted crab dancing in it like a wherry above bridge?--or,hum--ay, young men are sweet-toothed--a quart of burnt sack, with sugarand spice?--good against the fogs. Or, what say you to sipping a gill ofright distilled waters? Come, we will have them all, and you shall takeyour choice.--Here, you Jezebel, let Tim send the ale, and the sack, andthe nipperkin of double-distilled, with a bit of diet-loaf, or some suchtrinket, and score it to the new comer."
Glenvarloch, bethinking himself that it might be as well to endurethis fellow's insolence for a brief season, as to get into fartherdiscreditable quarrels, suffered him to take his own way, withoutinterruption, only observing, "You make yourself at home, sir, in myapartment; but, for the time, you may use your pleasure. Meanwhile,I would fain know what has procured me the honour of this unexpectedvisit?"
"You shall know that when old Deb has brought the liquor--I never speakof business dry-lipped. Why, how she drumbles--I warrant she stops totake a sip on the road, and then you will think you have had unchristianmeasure.--In the meanwhile, look at that dog there--look Belzebub inthe face, and tell me if you ever saw a sweeter beast--never flew but athead in his life."
And, after this congenial panegyric, he was proceeding with a tale of adog and a bull, which threatened to be somewhat of the longest, whenhe was interrupted by the return of the old crone, and two of his owntapsters, bearing the various kinds of drinkables which he had demanded,and which probably was the only species of interruption he would haveendured with equanimity.
When the cups and cans were duly arranged upon the table, and whenDeborah, whom the ducal generosity honoured with a penny farthing inthe way of gratuity, had withdrawn with her satellites, the worthypotentate, having first slightly invited Lord Glenvarloch to partakeof the liquor which he was to pay for, and after having observed, that,excepting three poached eggs, a pint of bastard, and a cup of clary, hewas fasting from every thing but sin, set himself seriously to reinforcethe radical moisture. Glenvarloch had seen Scottish lairds and Dutchburgomasters at their potations; but their exploits (though each mightbe termed a thirsty generation) were nothing to those of Duke Hildebrod,who seemed an absolute sandbed, capable of absorbing any given quantityof liquid, without being either vivified or overflowed. He drank offthe ale to quench a thirst which, as he said, kept him in a fever frommorning to night, and night to morning; tippled off the sack to correctthe crudity of the ale; sent the spirits after the sack to keep allquiet, and then declared that, probably, he should not taste liquor till_post meridiem_, unless it was in compliment to some especial friend.Finally, he intimated that he was ready to proceed on the businesswhich brought him from home so early, a proposition which Nigel readilyreceived, though he could not help suspecting that the most importantpurpose of Duke Hildebrod's visit was already transacted.
In this, however, Lord Glenvarloch proved to be mistaken. Hildebrod,before opening what he had to say, made an accurate survey of theapartment, laying, from time to time, his finger on his nose, andwinking on Nigel with his single eye, while he opened and shut thedoors, lifted the tapestry, which concealed, in one or two places, thedilapidation of time upon the wainscoted walls, peeped into closets,and, finally, looked under the bed, to assure himself that the coastwas clear of listeners and interlopers. He then resumed his seat, andbeckoned confidentially to Nigel to draw his chair close to him.
"I am well as I am, Master Hildebrod," replied the young lord, littledisposed to encourage the familiarity which the man endeavoured to fixon him; but the undismayed Duke proceeded as follows:
"You shall pardon me, my lord--and I now give you the title rightseriously--if I remind you that our waters may be watched; for thoughold Trapbois be as deaf as Saint Paul's, yet his daughter has sharpears, and sharp eyes enough, and it is of them that it is my business tospeak."
"Say away, then, sir," said Nigel, edging his chair somewhat closer tothe Quicksand, "although I cannot conceive what business I have eitherwith mine host or his daughter."
"We will see that in the twinkling of a quart-pot," answered thegracious Duke; "and first, my lord, you must not think to dance in a netbefore old Jack Hildebrod, that has thrice your years o'er his head, andwas born, like King Richard, with all his eye-teeth ready cut."
"Well, sir, go on," said Nigel.
"Why, then, my lord, I presume to say, that, if you are, as I believeyou are, that Lord Glenvarloch whom all the world talk of--the Scotchgallant that has spent all, to a thin cloak and a light purse--be notmoved, my lord, it is so noised of you--men call you the sparrow-hawk,who will fly at all--ay, were it in the very Park--Be not moved, mylord."
"I am ashamed, sirrah," replied Glenvarloch, "that you should have powerto move me by your insolence--but beware--and, if you indeed guess whoI am, consider how long I may be able to endure your tone of insolentfamiliarity."
"I crave pardon, my lord," said Hildebrod, with a sullen, yet apologeticlook; "I meant no harm in speaking my poor mind. I know not what honourthere may be in being familiar with your lordship, but I judge thereis little safety, for Lowestoffe is laid up in lavender only for havingshown you the way into Alsatia; and so, what is to come of those whomaintain you when you are here, or whether they will get most honour ormost trouble by doing so, I leave with your lordship's better judgment."
"I will bring no one into trouble on my account," said Lord Glenvarloch."I will leave Whitefriars to-morrow. Nay, by Heaven, I will leave itthis day."
"You will have more wit in your anger, I trust," said Duke Hildebrod;"listen first to what I have to say to you, and, if honest JackHildebrod puts you not in the way of nicking them all, may he never castdoublets, or dull a greenhorn again! And so, my lord, in plain words,you must wap and win."
"Your words must be still plainer before I can understand them," saidNigel.
"What the devil--a gamester, one who deals with the devil's bones andthe doctors, and not understand Pedlar's French! Nay, then, I must speakplain English, and that's the simpleton's tongue."
"Speak, then, sir," said Nigel; "and I pray you be brief, for I havelittle more time to bestow on you."
"Well, then, my lord, to be brief, as you and the lawyers call it--Iunderstand you have an estate in the north, which changes masters forwant of the redeeming ready.--Ay, you start, but you cannot dance ina net before me, as I said before; and so the kin
g runs the frowninghumour on you, and the Court vapours you the go-by; and the Princescowls at you from under his cap; and the favourite serves you out thepuckered brow and the cold shoulder; and the favourite's favourite--"
"To go no further, sir," interrupted Nigel, "suppose all this true--andwhat follows?"
"What follows?" returned Duke Hildebrod. "Marry, this follows, that youwill owe good deed, as well as good will, to him who shall put you inthe way to walk with your beaver cocked in the presence, as an ye wereEarl of Kildare; bully the courtiers; meet the Prince's blighting lookwith a bold brow; confront the favourite; baffle his deputy, and--"
"This is all well," said Nigel! "but how is it to be accomplished?"
"By making thee a Prince of Peru, my lord of the northern latitudes;propping thine old castle with ingots,--fertilizing thy failing fortuneswith gold dust--it shall but cost thee to put thy baron's coronet for aday or so on the brows of an old Caduca here, the man's daughter of thehouse, and thou art master of a mass of treasure that shall do all Ihave said for thee, and--"
"What, you would have me marry this old gentlewoman here, the daughterof mine host?" said Nigel, surprised and angry, yet unable to suppresssome desire to laugh.
"Nay, my lord, I would have you marry fifty thousand good sterlingpounds; for that, and better, hath old Trapbois hoarded; and thou shalldo a deed of mercy in it to the old man, who will lose his golden smeltsin some worse way--for now that he is well-nigh past his day of work,his day of payment is like to follow."
"Truly, this is a most courteous offer," said Lord Glenvarloch; "but mayI pray of your candour, most noble duke, to tell me why you dispose ofa ward of so much wealth on a stranger like me, who may leave youto-morrow?"
"In sooth, my lord," said the Duke, "that question smacks more of thewit of Beaujeu's ordinary, than any word I have yet heard your lordshipspeak, and reason it is you should be answered. Touching my peers, it isbut necessary to say, that Mistress Martha Trapbois will none of them,whether clerical or laic. The captain hath asked her, so hath theparson, but she will none of them--she looks higher than either, andis, to say truth, a woman of sense, and so forth, too profound, and ofspirit something too high, to put up with greasy buff or rusty prunella.For ourselves, we need but hint that we have a consort in the land ofthe living, and, what is more to purpose, Mrs. Martha knows it. So, asshe will not lace her kersey hood save with a quality binding, you, mylord, must be the man, and must carry off fifty thousand decuses, thespoils of five thousand bullies, cutters, and spendthrifts,--alwaysdeducting from the main sum some five thousand pounds for our princelyadvice and countenance, without which, as matters stand in Alsatia, youwould find it hard to win the plate."
"But has your wisdom considered, sir," replied Glenvarloch, "how thiswedlock can serve me in my present emergence?"
"As for that, my lord," said Duke Hildebrod, "if, with forty or fiftythousand pounds in your pouch, you cannot save yourself, you willdeserve to lose your head for your folly, and your hand for beingclose-fisted."
"But, since your goodness has taken my matters into such seriousconsideration," continued Nigel, who conceived there was no prudencein breaking with a man, who, in his way, meant him favour rather thanoffence, "perhaps you may be able to tell me how my kindred will belikely to receive such a bride as you recommend to me?"
"Touching that matter, my lord, I have always heard your countrymen knewas well as other folks, on which side their bread was buttered. And,truly, speaking from report, I know no place where fifty thousandpounds--fifty thousand pounds, I say--will make a woman more welcomethan it is likely to do in your ancient kingdom. And, truly, saving theslight twist in her shoulder, Mrs. Martha Trapbois is a person of veryawful and majestic appearance, and may, for aught I know, be come ofbetter blood than any one wots of; for old Trapbois looks not overlike to be her father, and her mother was a generous, liberal sort of awoman."
"I am afraid," answered Nigel, "that chance is rather too vague toassure her a gracious reception into an honourable house."
"Why, then, my lord," replied Hildebrod, "I think it like she will beeven with them; for I will venture to say, she has as much ill-nature aswill make her a match for your whole clan."
"That may inconvenience me a little," replied Nigel.
"Not a whit--not a whit," said the Duke, fertile in expedients; "if sheshould become rather intolerable, which is not unlikely, your honourablehouse, which I presume to be a castle, hath, doubtless, both turrets anddungeons, and ye may bestow your bonny bride in either the one or theother, and then you know you will be out of hearing of her tongue, andshe will be either above or below the contempt of your friends."
"It is sagely counselled, most equitable sir," replied Nigel, "and suchrestraint would be a fit meed for her folly that gave me any power overher."
"You entertain the project then, my lord?" said Duke Hildebrod.
"I must turn it in my mind for twenty-four hours," said Nigel; "and Iwill pray you so to order matters that I be not further interrupted byany visitors."
"We will utter an edict to secure your privacy," said the Duke; "and youdo not think," he added, lowering his voice to a confidential whisper,"that ten thousand is too much to pay to the Sovereign, in name ofwardship?"
"Ten thousand!" said Lord Glenvarloch; "why, you said five thousand butnow."
"Aha! art avised of that?" said the Duke, touching the side of hisnose with his finger; "nay, if you have marked me so closely, you arethinking on the case more nearly than I believed, till you trapped me.Well, well, we will not quarrel about the consideration, as old Trapboiswould call it--do you win and wear the dame; it will be no hard matterwith your face and figure, and I will take care that no one interruptsyou. I will have an edict from the Senate as soon as they meet for theirmeridiem."
So saying, Duke Hildebrod took his leave.