 Chapter 22 of Paul Clifford by Edward Bower Lytton. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Chapter 22, Outlaw stands, sir, and throw us that you have about you. Valentine, Ruffians, forgo that rude, uncivil touch. The two gentlemen of Verona. Unleaving the scene in which he had been so unwelcome a guest, Clifford hastened to the little inn where he had left his horse. He mounted and returned to bath. His thoughts were absent and he unconsciously suffered the horse to direct its course wither it pleased. This was naturally towards the nearest halting place which the animal remembered and this halting place was at that illustrious tavern in the suburbs of Lytton in which we have before commemorated Clifford's re-election to the dignity of chief. It was a house of long-established reputation and here news of any of the absent Confederates was always to be obtained. This circumstance added to the excellence of its drink, its ease, and the electric chain of early habits rendered it a favorite haunt even despite their present gay and modish pursuits with Tomlinson and Pepper. And here when Clifford sought the pair at unseasonable hours was he for the most part sure to find them. As his meditations were interrupted by the sudden stopping of his horse beneath the well-known sign Clifford muttering an angry malediction on the animal spurred it onward in the direction of his own home. It already reached the end of the street when his resolution seemed to change and muttering to himself, I might as well arrange this very night for our departure. He turned his horse's head backward and was once more at the tavern door. He threw the bridle over an iron railing and knocking with a peculiar sound at the door was soon admitted. Our blank and blank here as he of the old woman as he entered mentioning the cant words by which among friends Tomlinson and Pepper were usually known. They're both gone on the sharps tonight replied the old lady lifting her unsnuffed candle to the face of the speaker with an intelligent look Oliver the moon is sleepy and the lads will take advantage of his nap. Do you mean, answered Clifford, replying in the same key which we take the liberty to paraphrase that they are out on any actual expedition? Do be sure we join the dame they who lagged late on the road may want money for supper. Ah, which road? You are a pretty fellow for Captain rejoined the dame with a good-natured sarcasm in her tone while Captain Groak, poor fellow, knew every turn of his men to a hair and never needed to ask what they were about. Ah, he was a fellow, none of your girl-faced mudgers who make love to ladies for suit. A pretty woman need not look far for a kiss when he was in the room. I warrant however coarse her duds might be and lock, but the Captain was a sensible man and liked a cow as well as a calf. So, so, on the road are they, cried Clifford musingly and without heeding the insinuated attack on his decorum but answer me, what is the plan, be quick. Why, replied the dame, there's some swell cove of our Lord gives a blow out today and the lads, dear souls, think to play the queer on some straggler. Without uttering a word Clifford darted from the house and was remounted before the old lady had time to recover her surprise. If you want to see them, cried she as he put spurs to his horse they ordered me to have supper ready at Blank. The horse's hoofs drowned the last words of the dame and carefully re-bolting the door and muttering an invidious comparison between Captain Clifford and Captain Groak. The good landlady returned to those culinary operations destined to rejoice the hearts of Tomlinson and Pepper. We turn, we ourselves to Lucy, it so happened that the squire's carriage was the last to arrive for the coachman long uninitiated among the shades of warlock into the dissipation of fashionable life entered on his debut at Bath and saw the vigorous heat of matured passions for the first time released into the festivities of the alehouse and having a milder master than most of his comrades the fear of displeasure was less strong in his oracle bosom than the love of companionship so that during the time this gentleman was amusing himself Lucy had ample leisure for enjoying all the thousand and one reports of the scene the lever and Clifford which regaled her ears nevertheless whatever might have been her feelings at these pleasing recitals a certain vague joy predominated over all a man feels but slight comparative happiness in being loved if he know that it is in vain but to a woman that simple knowledge is sufficient to destroy the memory of a thousand distresses and it is not till she has told her heart again and again that she is loved that she will even begin to ask if it be in vain it was a partially starlight yet a dim and obscured night for the moon had for the last hour or two been surrounded by mist and cloud when at length the carriage arrived and the lever for the second time that evening the escort conducted Lucy to the vehicle anxious to learn if she had seen or been addressed by Clifford the subtle earl as he led her to the gate dwelt particularly on the intrusion of that person and by the trembling of the hand which rested on his arm he drew no delicious omen for his own hopes however thought he the man goes tomorrow and then the field will be clear the girls a child yet and I forgive her folly and with an air of chivalric veneration the lever bowed the object of his pardon into her carriage as soon as Lucy felt herself alone with her father the emotions so long pence within her forced themselves into vent and leaning back against the carriage she wept though in silence tears burning tears of sorrow comfort, agitation, anxiety the good old squire was slow in perceiving his daughter's emotion it would have escaped him altogether if actuated by a kindly warming of the heart towards her originating in his new suspicion of her love for Clifford he had not put his arm round her neck and this unexpected caress so entirely unstrung her nerves that Lucy at once drew herself upon her father's breast and her weeping hither too so quiet became distinct and audible be comforted my dear dear child said the squire almost affected to tears himself and his emotion arousing him from his usual mental confusion rendered his words less involved and equivocal than they were want to be and now I do hope that you won't vex yourself the young man is indeed and I do assure you I always thought so a very charming gentleman there's no denying it but what can we do? you see what they all say of him and it really was, we must allow that very improper in him to come without being asked moreover my dearest child it is very wrong, very wrong indeed to love anyone and not know who he is and, and but don't cry my dear love don't cry so all will be very well I am sure quite sure as he said this the kind old man drew his daughter nearer him and feeling his hand hurt by something she wore unseen which pressed against it he inquired with some suspicion that the love might have proceeded to love gifts what it was it is my mother's picture that I see simply and putting it aside the old squire had loved his wife tenderly and when Lucy made this reply all the fond and warm recollections of his youth rushed upon him he thought too how earnestly on her deathbed that wife had recommended to his vigilant care their only child now weeping on his bosom he remembered how dwelling on that which to all women seems the grand epic of life she had said never let her affections be trifled with never be persuaded by your ambitious brother to make her marry where she loves not or to oppose her without strong reason where she does though she be but a child now I know enough of her to feel convinced that if ever she love she will love too well for her own happiness even with all things in her favor these words these recollections join to the remembrance of the cold hearted scheme of William Brandon which he had allowed himself to favor and of his own supineness towards Lucy's growing love for Clifford till resistance became at once necessary and too late all smote him with a remorseful sorrow and fairly sobbing himself he said thy mother child ah would that she were living she would never be as I have done the squire's self-reproach made Lucy's tears cease on the instant and as she covered her father's hands with kisses she replied only by vehement accusations against herself and praises of his too great fatherly fondness and affection this little burst on both sides of honest and simple hearted love ended in a silence full of tender and mingle thoughts and as Lucy still clung to the breast of the old man uncouth as he was in temper below even mediocrity and intellect and altogether the last person in age or mind or habit that seemed fit for a confidant in the love of a young and enthusiastic girl she felt the old homely truth that under all disadvantages there are in this hollow world few in whom trust can be so safely reposed few who so delicately and subtly respect the confidence as those from whom we spring the father and daughter had been silent for some minutes and the former was about to speak when the carriage suddenly stopped the squire heard a rough voice at the horse's heads he looked forth from the window to see through the mist of the night what could possibly be the matter and he encountered in this action just one inch from his forehead there protruded and shining barrel of a horse pistol we may believe without a reflection on his courage that Mr. Brandon threw himself back into his carriage with all possible dispatch and at the same moment the door was opened and a voice said not in a threatening but a smooth accent ladies and gentlemen I am sorry to disturb you but want is imperious oblige me with your money and any other little commodities of a similar nature so delicate a request the squire had not the heart to resist the more especially as he knew himself without any weapons of defense accordingly he drew out a purse not very full it must be owned together with an immense silver hunting watch with a piece of black ribbon attached to it there sir said he with a groan don't frighten the young lady the gentle applicant who indeed was no other than the specious Augustus Tomlinson slid the purse into his waist coat pocket after feeling its contents with a rapid and scientific finger your watch sir quote he and as he spoke he thrust it carelessly into his coat pocket as a schoolboy with thrust up peg top is heavy but trusting to experience since an accurate survey is denied me I fear it is more valuable from its weight than its workmanship however I will not wound your vanity by affecting to be fastidious but surely the young lady as you call her for I pay you the compliment of believing your word as to her age in as much as the night is too dark to allow me the happiness of a personal inspection the young lady has surely some little trinket she can dispense with beauty when on a dorm you know etc Lucy who though greatly frightened lost neither her senses know her presence of mind only answered by drawing forth the little silk purse that contains still less than the convenience of the square to this she added a gold chain and Tomlinson taking them with an affectionate squeeze of the hand and a polite apology was about to withdraw when his sagacious eyes were suddenly stricken by the green of jewels the fact was that in altering the position of her mother's picture which had been set in the few hereditary diamonds possessed by the Lord of Warlock Lucy had allowed it to hang on the outside of her dress and bending forward to give the robber her other possessions the diamonds at once came in full sight and gleamed the more invitingly from the darkness of the night ah madam said Tomlinson stretching forth his hand you would play me false would you treachery should never go unpunished favor me instantly with a little ornament round your neck I cannot I cannot said Lucy grasping her treasure with both her hands it is my mother's picture and my mother is dead the wants of others madam returned Tomlinson who could not for the life of him rob immorally are ever more worthy your attention than family prejudices seriously give it and that instantly we are in a hurry and your horses are plunging like devils they will break your carriage in an instant dispatch the squire was a brave man on the whole though no hero and the nerves of an old fox hunter soon recovered from a little alarm the picture of his buried wife was yet more inestimable to him than it was to Lucy and at this new demand his spirit was roused within him he clenched his fists and advancing himself as it were on his seat he cried in a loud voice be gone fellow I've given you for my own part I think so too much already and by God you shall not have the picture don't force me to use violence said Augustus and putting one foot on the carriage step he brought his pistol within a few inches of Lucy's breast rightly judging perhaps that the show of danger to her would be the best method to intimidate the squire at that instant the valorous moralist found himself suddenly seized with a powerful grip on their shoulder and a low voice trembling with passion he hissed in his ear whatever might be the words that startled his organs they operated as an instantaneous charm and to their astonishment the squire and Lucy beheld their assailant abruptly withdraw the door of the carriage was clapped to and scarcely two minutes had elapsed before the robber having remounted his comrade hid the two stationed at the horse's heads set spurs to his own seat and the welcome sound of receding hoofs smote upon the bewildered ears of the father and daughter the door of the carriage was again opened and a voice which made Lucy paler than the preceding terror said I fear Mr. Brandon the robbers have frightened your daughter there is now however nothing to fear the civilians are gone God bless me said the squire why is that Captain Clifford it is and he conceives himself too fortunate to have been of the smallest service to Mr. and Miss Brandon on having convinced himself that it was indeed to Mr. Clifford that he owed his safety as well as that of his daughter whom he believed to have been in a far more imminent peril than she really was for to tell the truth reader the pistol of Tomlinson rather calculated for show than use having a peculiarly long bright barrel with nothing in it the squire was at a loss how to express his gratitude and when he turned to Lucy to beg she would herself thank their gallant deliverer he found that overpowered with various emotions she had for the first time in her life fainted away good heavens cried the alarmed father she is dead my Lucy my Lucy they have killed her to open the door nearest to Lucy to bear her from the carriage in his arms was to Clifford the work of an instant utterly unconscious of the presence of anyone else unconscious even of what he said he poured forth a thousand wild passionate yet audible expressions and as he bore her to a bank by the roadside and seating himself supported her against his bosom it would be difficult perhaps to say something of delight of burning and thrilling delight was not mingled with his anxiety and terror he chafed her small hands in his own his breath all trembling and warm glowed upon her cheek and once and but once his lips drew near and breathing aside the disheveled richness of her tresses clung in a long and silent kiss to her own meanwhile by the help of the footman who had now somewhat recovered his astonished senses the squire descended from his carriage and approached with faltering steps the place where his daughter reclined at the instant that he took her hand Lucy began to revive and the first action in the bewildered unconsciousness of her waking was to throw her arm around the neck of her supporter could all the hours and realities of hope, joy, pleasure in Clifford's previous life have been melted down into a single emotion that emotion would have been but tamed through the rapture of Lucy's momentary and innocent caress and at a later yet no distant period when in the felons cell the grim visage of death scald upon him it may be questioned whether his thoughts dwelt not far more often on the remembrance of that delightful moment than on the bitterness and ignominy of an approaching doom she breathes, she moves, she wakes cried the father and Lucy attempting to rise and recognizing the squire's voice said faintly thank God my dear father you are not hurt and are they really gone and where, where are we the squire relieving Clifford of his charge folded his child in his arms while in his own elucidatory manner he informed her where she was and with whom the lovers stood face to face to each other but what delicious blushes did the night which concealed all but the outline of their forms hide from the eyes of Clifford the honest and kind heart of Mr. Brandon was glad of a release to the indulgent sentiments it had always cherished towards the suspected and maligned Clifford and turning now from Lucy it fairly poured itself forth upon her deliverer he grasped him warmly by the hand and insisted upon his accompanying them to bath in the carriage and allowing the footman to ride his horse this offer was still pending when the footman who had been to see after the health and comfort of his fellow servant came to inform the party in a dolerous accent of something which in the confusion and darkness of the night they had not yet learned namely that the horses and coachmen were gone gone said the squire gone why the villains can't for my part I never believed though I have heard such those sleight of hand have bagged them here a low groan was audible and the footman sympathetically guided to the spot when Sid emanated found the huge body of the coachman safely deposited with his face down in the middle of the kennel after this worthy had been lifted to his legs and had shaken himself into intelligence he was found that when the robber had detained the horses the coachman who required very little to conquer his more bellicose faculties had he himself said by a violent blow from the ruffian though perhaps the cause late near home quitted the coach box for the kennel the horses grew frightened and after plunging and rearing till he cared no longer to occupy himself with their arrest the high women had very quietly cut the traces and by the time present it was not impossible that the horses were almost at the door of their stables at bat the footman who had apprised the squire of this misfortune was unlike most news tellers the first to offer consolation there be an excellent public quothee about a half a mile on where your honor could get horses or may happen Miss Lucy poor heart be faint you may like to stop for the night though a walk of half a mile in a dark night and under other circumstances would not have seemed a grateful proposition yet at present when the squire's imagination had only pictured to him the alternatives of passing the night in the carriage were of crawling on foot to bath it seemed but a very insignificant hardship and talking his daughter's arm under his own while in a kind voice he told Clifford to support her on the other side the squire ordered the footman to lead the way with Clifford's horse and the coachman to follow or be during whichever he pleased in silence Clifford offered his arm to Lucy and silently she accepted the courtesy the squire was the only talker and the theme he chose was not ungrateful to Lucy for it was the praise of her lover but Clifford scarcely listened for a thousand thoughts and feelings contested within him and the light touch of Lucy's hand upon his arm would alone have been sufficient to distract and confuse his attention the darkness of the night the late excitement the stolen kiss that still glowed upon his lips the remembrance of Lucy's flattering agitation in the scene with her Lord Maleveros the yet warm one of that unconscious embrace which still tingle through every nerve of his frame all conspired with the delicious emotion which he now experienced at her presence and her contact to intoxicate and inflame him oh those burning moments in love and romance has just melded into passion and without losing anything of its luxurious vagueness mingles the enthusiasm of its dreams with the art of desires of reality and earth that is the exact time when love has reached its highest point when all feelings all thoughts the whole soul and the whole mind are seized and engrossed when every difficulty weight in the opposite scale seems lighter than dust when to renounce the object beloved is the most deadly and lasting sacrifice and when in so many breaths where honor conscience virtue are far stronger than we can believe them ever to have been in a criminal Clifford honor conscience virtue have perished at once and suddenly into ashes before that mighty and irresistible fire the servant who had had previous opportunities of ascertaining the topography of the public of which he spake and who was perhaps tolerably reconciled to his late terror in the anticipation of renewing his intimacy with the spirits of the past now directed the attention of our travels to a small end just before them. Our host had not yet retired to repose and it was not necessary to knock twice before the door was opened a bright fire an officious landlady a commiserate landlord a warm quotation and the promise of excellent beds all appeared to our squire to make ample amends for the intelligence that the end was not licensed to let post horses and mine host having promised forthwith to send two stout fellows a rope and a cart horse to bring a shelter for the squire valued the vehicle because it was twenty years old and moreover to have the harness repaired and the horses ready by an early hour the next day the good humor of Mr. Brandon rose into positive hilarity Lucy retired under the auspices of the landlady to bed and the squire having drunk a bowl of bishop and discovered a thousand new virtues in Clifford especially that of never interrupting a good story clapped the captain on the shoulder and making him promise not to leave the end till he had seen him again withdrew also to the repose of his pillow Clifford remained below gazing abstractedly on the fire for some time afterwards there was it till the drowsy chambermaid had thrice informed him of the prepared comforts of his bed that he adjourned to his chamber even then it seems that sleep did not visit his eyelids for a wealthy grazier who lay in the room below surely the next morning of some person walking overhead in all manner of strides just for all the world like a apparition in boots end of chapter 22 chapter 23 of Paul Clifford by Edward Boer Lytton this Libra box recording is in the public domain chapter 23 Viola and thus thou love me Lysander love thee Viola do I not fly thee when my being drinks light from thine eyes that flight is all my answer the bride act two scene one the curtain meditations of the squire had not been without the produce of a resolve his warm heart at once reopened to the liking he had formerly conceived for Clifford he longed for an opportunity to atone for his past unkindness and to testify his present gratitude moreover he felt at once indignant at and ashamed of his late conduct in joining the popular and as he now fully believed the causeless prepossession against his young friend and before a more present and a stronger sentiment his habitual deference for his brother's counsels faded easily away coupled with these favorable feelings towards Clifford were his sagacious suspicions or rather certainty of Lucy's attachment to her handsome deliverer and he had at least sufficient penetration to perceive that she was not less for the night's adventure to all this was added the tender recollection of his wife's parting words and the tears and tail agitation of Lucy in the carriage were sufficient to his simple mind which knew not how lightly maiden's tears are shed and dried to confirm the prediction of the dear deceased nor were the squires more unkindly feelings utterly unmixed with selfish considerations proud but not the least ambitious he was always more ready to confer an honor than receive one and at heart he was secretly glad at the notion of exchanging as a son-in-law the polished and unfamiliar maleverer for the agreeable and social Clifford such in admired disorder were the thoughts which rolled through the teeming brain of Joseph Brandon and before he had turned on his left side which he always did prepare to surrendering himself to slumber the square had fully come to a determination most fatal to the schemes of the lawyer and the hopes of the Earl the next morning as Lucy was knitting the loose train of her amber dropping hair before the little mirror of her chamber which even through its dimmed and darkened glass gave back a face which might have shamed a grecian vision of Aurora a gentle tap at her door announced her father there was in his rosy and commonly countenance that expression generally characteristic of a man pleased with himself and persuaded that he is about to give pleasure my dear child said the squire fondly stroking down the luxuriance of his Lucy's hair and kissing her Damasque cheek I have come to have some little conversation with you sit down now and for my part I love to talk at my ease and by the by shut the window my love it is an easterly wind I wish that we may come to a clear and distinct understanding give me your hand my child on these matters one can scarcely speak to precisely and to the purpose although I am well aware for my own part I always wish to act to everyone to you especially my dearest child with the greatest consideration that we must go to work with as much delicacy as conciseness you know this captain Clifford does a brave youth is it not well nay never blush so deeply there is nothing for in these matters one can't have all one's wishes one can't have everything to be ashamed of tell me now child does think he is in love with me if Lucy did not immediately answer by words her pretty lips moved as if she could readily reply and finally they settled into so sweet and so assured a smile that the squire found as he was a precise information was in want of no fuller answer to his question I young lady said he looking at her with all of father's affection I see how it is and come now what do you turn away for does think if as I believe though there are envious persons in the world as there always are when a man's handsome or clever or brave though by the way which is a very droll thing in my eyes they don't envy at least not ill naturedly a man for being a lord or rich but quite on the contrary rank and money seem to make them think one has all the cardinal virtues home if I say this Mr. Clifford should turn out to be a gentleman of family for you know that is essential since the brandons have as my brother has probably told you been a great race many years ago does think my child that thou couldst give up the cat is out of the bag this old lord and marry a simple gentleman the hand which the square had held was now with an arch tenderness applied to his mouth and when he again seized it Lucy hit her glowing face in his bosom and it was only by a whisper as if the very air was garrulous that he could draw forth for it now he insisted on a verbal reply her happy answer we are not afraid that our reader will blame us for not detailing the rest of the interview between the father and daughter it did not last above an hour longer for the square declared that for his own part he hated more words than were necessary Mr. Brandon was the first to descend to the breakfast muttering as he descended the stairs now hang me if I am not glad that's all for I do not like to think much of so silly a matter my mind and as for my brother I shan't tell him till it's all over and settled and if he is angry he and the old lord may though I don't mean to be unbrotherly go to the devil together when the three were assembled at the breakfast table there could not perhaps have been found anywhere a stronger trust than that which the radiant face of Lucy bore to the Hagrid and one expression that disfigured the handsome features of her lover so Mark was the change that one night seemed to have wrought upon Clifford that even the square was startled and alarmed at it but Lucy whose innocent vanity pleased itself with accounting for the alteration consoled herself with the hope of soon witnessing a very different countenance of her lover and though she was silent and her happiness like quiet and deep within her yet in her eyes and that which seemed to Clifford an insult to his own misery and stung him to the heart however he exerted himself to meet the conversation of the square and to mask as well as he was able the evidence of the conflict which still raged within him the morning was wet and gloomy it was that drizzling and misty rain which is so especially nutritious to the growth of blue devils and the jolly squire failed not to rally his young friend upon his feminine susceptibility to the influences of the weather Clifford replied justingly and the just if bad was good enough to content the railer in this facetious manner past the time to Lucy at the request of her father left the room to prepare for return home drawing his chair near to Clifford's the squire then commenced in real and affectionate earnest his operations these he had already planned in the following order they were first to inquire into and to learn Clifford's rank family and prospects secondly having ascertained the proprieties of the outer man they were to examine the state of the inner one and thirdly should art skillful inquirer find his guesses that Clifford's affection for Lucy confirmed they were to expel the modest fear of a repulse which the squire allowed was naturally not and to lead the object of inquiry to a knowledge of the happiness that Lucy consenting might be in store for him while with his wanted ingenuity the squire was pursuing his benevolent designs Lucy remained in her own room in such meditation and such dreams as were natural to heart so sanguine and enthusiastic she had been more than half an hour alone when the chamber mate of the hostelry knocked at her door and delivered a message from the squire begging her to come down to him in the parlor with the heart that beat so violently it almost seemed to wear away its very life Lucy slowly and with tremulous steps descended to the parlor on opening the door she saw Clifford standing in the recess of the window his face was partly turned from her and his eyes downcast the good old squire sat in and elbow chair and a sort of puzzled and half satisfied complacency gave expression to his features come hither child said he clearing his throat Captain Clifford has done you the honor to and I dare say you will be very much surprised not that for my own part I think there is much to wonder at in it but such may be my partial opinion and it is certainly very natural in me to make you a declaration of love he declares moreover that he is the most miserable of men and that he would die sooner than have the presumption to hope therefore you see my love I've sent for you to give him permission to destroy himself in any way he pleases and I leave him to show cause why it is a fate that sooner or later happens to all his fellow men sentence of death should not be passed against him having delivered this speech with more propriety of word than usually fell to his chair the squire rose hastily and hobbled out of the room Lucy sank into the chair her father had quitted and Clifford approaching towards her said in a hoarse and low voice your father Miss Brandon says rightly that I would die rather than lift my eyes in hope to you I thought yesterday that I had seen you for the last time chance not my own folly or presumption has brought me again before you and even the few hours I have passed under the same roof with you have made me feel as if my love my madness had never reached this height till now oh Lucy continued Clifford in a more impassioned tone and as if by a sudden irresistible impulse throwing himself at her feet if I could hope to merit you if I could hope to raise myself if I could but no no no I am cut off from all hope and forever there was so deep so bitter so heart felt and anguish and remorse in the voice with which these last words were spoken that Lucy heard off her guard and forgetting everything in wondering sympathy and compassion answered extending her hand towards Clifford who still kneeling seized and covered it with kisses of fire do not speak thus Mr. Clifford do not accuse yourself of what I am sure quite sure you cannot deserve perhaps forgive me your birth your fortune are beneath your merits and you have penetrated into my father's weakness on the former point or perhaps you yourself have not avoided all the errors into which men are hurried perhaps you have been imprudent or faultless perhaps you have fashion is contagious played beyond your means or incurred debts these are faults it is true and to be regretted yet surely not irreparable for that instant can it be wondered that all Clifford's resolution and self-denial deserted him and lifting his eyes radiant with joy and gratitude to the face in benevolent innocence towards him he exclaimed no Ms. Brandon no Lucy dear angel Lucy my faults are less venial than these but perhaps they are no less the consequence of circumstances and contagion perhaps it may not be too late to repair them would you you indeed dain to be my guardian I might not despair of being saved if said Lucy blushing deeply and looking down while she spoke quick and eagerly as if to avoid humbling him by her offer if Mr. Clifford the want of wealth has in any way occasioned you uneasiness or or error do you believe me I mean us so much your friends as not for an instant to scruple in relieving us of some little portion of our last night's debt to you dear noble girl said Clifford while there arrived upon his lips one of those smiles of powerful sarcasm that sometimes distorted his features and thrillingly impressed upon Lucy a resemblance to one very different in reputation and character to her lover do not attribute my misfortunes to so petty a source it is not money that I shall want while I live though I shall to my last breath remember this delicacy in you and compare it with certain based remembrances in my own mind yes all past thoughts and recollections will make me hereafter worship you even more than I do now while in your heart they will unless heaven grant me one prayer make you scorn and detest me for mercy's sake do not speak thus to Lucy gazing in in distinct alarm upon the dark and working features of her lover scorn detest you impossible how could I after the remembrance of last night I last night said Clifford speaking through his ground teeth there is much in that remembrance to live long in both of us but you you fair angel in all harshness and irony banishing at once from his voice and countenance yielded to a tender and deep sadness mingled with a respect that bordered on reverence you never could have dreamed of more than pity for one like me you never could have stooped from your high and dazzling purity to know for me one such thought as that which burns at my heart for you you yes withdraw your hand I'm not worthy to touch it and clasping his own hands before his face he became abruptly silent but his emotions were but ill concealed and Lucy sought the muscular frame before her heaved and convulsed by passions which were more intense and rending because it was only for a few moments that they conquer his self-will and struggled into vent if afterwards but long afterwards Lucy were calling the mystery of his words confessed to herself that they betrayed guilt she was then too much affected to think of anything but her love and his emotion she bent down and with a girlish and found self-abandonment which none could have resisted placed both her hands on his Clifford started looked up and in the next moment he had clasped her to his heart and while the only tears he had shed since his career of crime fell fast and hot upon her countenance he kissed her forehead her cheek her lips in a passionate and wild transport his voice died within him he could not trust himself to speak only one thought even in that seeming forgetfulness of her and of himself stirred and spoke at his breast flight the more he felt he loved the more tender and the more confiding the object of his love the more urgent became the necessity to leave her all other duties had been neglected but he loved with a real love and love which taught him one duty for him triumphantly it's bitter ordeal he will hear from me tonight he muttered believe that I am mad accursed criminal but not utterly a monster I asked no more merciful opinion he drew himself from his perilous position and abruptly departed when Clifford reached his home he found his worthy co-agitors waiting for him with alarm and terror on their countenances an old feat in which they had mobilized themselves had long attracted the rigid attention of the police and certain officers have now been seen at bath and certain inquiries have been set on foot which portended no good to the safety of the sagacious Tomlinson and the valorous Pepper they came humbly and penitentially demanding pardon for their unconscious aggression of the squire's carriage and in treating their captain's instant advice if Clifford had before wavered his disinterested determination if visions of Lucy of happiness and reform had floated in his solitary ride too frequently and too glowingly before his eyes the sight of these men, their conversation their danger all suffice to restore his resolution merciful God thought he and is it to the comrade of such lawless villains to a man like them exposed hourly to the most ignominious of deaths that I have for one section of a moment dreamed of the innocent and generous girl whose trust or love is the only crime that could deprive her of the most brilliant destiny short were Clifford's instructions to his followers and so much do we do mechanically that they were delivered with his usual forethought and precision you will leave the town instantly go not for your lives to London or to rejoin any of your comrades ride for the red cave provisions are stored there and since our late alteration of the interior it will afford ample room to conceal your horses on the night of this second day from this I will join you but be sure that you enter the cave at night and quit it upon no account till I come yes said he when he was alone I will join you again but only to quit you one more offense against the law or at least one some rested from the swollen hands of the rich sufficient to equip me for a foreign army and I quit the country of my birth and my crimes if I cannot deserve Lucy Brandon I will be somewhat less unworthy perhaps why not I'm young my nerves are not weak my brain is not dull perhaps I may in some field of honorable adventure win a name that before my death bed I may not blush to acknowledge to her while this resolve be high within Clifford's breast Lucy sadly and in silence was continuing with the squire her short journey to bath the letter was very inquisitive to know why Clifford had gone and what he had about and Lucy scarcely able to answer through everything on the promised letter of the night I'm glad mothered the squire to her that he is going to write for somehow or other though I questioned him very tightly he slipped through my heart and bursting out at once as to his love for you left me as wise about himself as I was before no doubt from my own part I don't see what should prevent his being a great man in cog this letter will explain all late that night the letter came Lucy fortunately for her was alone in her room she opened it and read as follows Clifford's letter I have promised to write to you and I sit down to perform that promise at this moment the recollection of your goodness your generous consideration is warm within me and while I must choose calm and common words to express what I ought to say my heart is alternately melted and torn by thoughts which would ask words oh how different your father has questioned me often of my parentage and birth I've hitherto eluded his interrogatories learn now who I am in a wretched abode surrounded by the inhabitants of poverty and vice I recall my earliest recollections my father is unknown to me as to everyone my mother do you I dare not mention who or what she was she died in my infancy without a name but not without an inheritance my inheritance was large it was infamy I was thrown upon the world I had received by accident some education and imbibed some ideas not natural to my situation since then I've played many parts in life books and men I have not so neglected but that I have gleaned at intervals some little knowledge from both hence if I have seemed to you better than I am you will perceive the cause circumstances made me soon my own master they made me also one whom honest men do not love to look upon my deeds have been and my character is of a part with my birth and my fortunes I came in the noble hope to raise and redeem myself by gilding my fate with a wealthy marriage to this city I saw you whom I had once before met I heard you were rich hate me Miss Brandon hate me I resolved to make your ruin the cause of my redemption happily for you I scarcely you before I loved you that love deepened it caught something pure and elevated from yourself my resolution for sick me even now I could throw myself on my knees and thank God that you you dearest and noblest of human beings are not my wife now is my conduct clear to you if not imagine me all that is villainous save in one point where you are concerned another shadow of mystery will remain your kind father overrating the paltry service I rendered you would have consented to submit my fate to your decision I blush indignantly for him for you that any living man should have dreamed of such profanation for Miss Brandon yet I myself was carried away and intoxicated by so sudden and so soft a hope even I dare to lift my eyes to you to press you to this guilty heart to forget myself to dream that you might be mine can you forgive me for this madness and thereafter when in your lofty and glittering sphere of what it happened is can you remember my presumption and check your scoring perhaps you think that by so late a confession I've already deceived you alas you know not what it calls me now to confess I had only one hope in life it was that you might still long after you had ceased to see me fancy me not utterly beneath the herd you live this burning yet selfish vanity I tear from me and now I go where no hope can pursue me no hope for myself save one which can scarcely deserve the name for it is rather a rude and visionary wish that an expectation it is that under another name and under different auspices you may hear of me at some distant time and when I appraise you that under that name you may recognize one who loves you better than all created things and at least no cause for shame at your lover what will you be then a happy wife a mother the center of a thousand joys beloved, admired, blessed when the eye sees you and the ear hears and this is what I ought to hope this is the consolation that ought to cheer me perhaps the little time hence it will not that I shall love you less but that I shall love you less burningly and therefore less selfishly I have now written to you all that it becomes you to receive from me my horse waits below to bear me from this city and forever from your vicinity forever I you are the only blessing forever forbidden me well if I may gain a fair name even glory I may perhaps aspire to to heaven itself I may find a path but of you my very dreams cannot give me the shadow of a hope I do not say if you could pierce my soul while I write that you would pity me you may think it's strange but I would not have your pity for worlds I think I would even rather have your hate pity seems so much like contempt but if you knew what an effort has enabled me to tame down my language to curb my thoughts to prevent me from embodying that which now makes my brain whirl and my hand feel as if the living fire consumed it if you knew what has enabled me to triumph over the madness of my heart and spare you what if writ or spoken would seem like the ravings of insanity you would not and you could not despise me though you might abhor and now having garden blessed you nothing on earth could injure you and even the wicked who have looked upon you learn to pray I have prayed for you thus subrupt and signaturalist ended the expected letter Lucy came down the next morning at her usual hour and except that she was very pale nothing in her appearance seemed to announce past grief or emotion the squire asked her if she had received the promised letter she answered in a clear though faint voice that she had that Mr. Clifford had confessed himself of too low an origin to hope for marriage with Mr. Brandon's family that she trusted the squire would keep his secret and that the subject might never again be alluded to by either if in this speech there was something alien to Lucy's ingenious character and painful to her mind she felt it as it were a duty to her former lover not to betray the whole of that confession so bitterly rung from him perhaps too there was in that letter a charm which seemed to her too sacred to be revealed to anyone and mysteries were not excluded even from a love so ill placed and seemingly so transitory as hers Lucy's answer touched the squire in his weak point a man of decidedly low origin he confessed was utterly out of the question nevertheless the young man showed a great deal of candor in his disclosure he readily promised never to birch a subject necessarily so unpleasant and though he sighed as he finished his speech yet the extreme quiet of Lucy's manner reassured him and when he perceived that she resumed though unguidly her wanted avocations he felt but little doubt of her soon overcoming the remembrance of where he hoped was but a girlish and fleeting fancy he yielded with avidity to her proposal to return to warlock and in the same week as that in which Lucy had received her lover's mysterious letter the father and daughter commenced their journey home in the chapter 23 chapter 24 of Paul Clifford by Edward Bower Lytton this LibriVox recording is in the public domain chapter 24 Butler what are these sir yeoman and of what nature to what use the truck imagine the tragedy of Wallow quickly he's in Arthur's bosom if ever man went to Arthur's bosom Henry the Fifth the stream of our narrative now conducts us back to William Brandon the law promotions previously intended were completed and to the surprise of the public the envied barrister undergoing the degradation of knighthood had at the time we return to him just changed his storeroom occupations for the serene dignity of the bench whatever regret this wily and aspiring schemer might otherwise have felt at an elevation considerably less distinguished than he might reasonably have expected was entirely removed by the hopes afforded to him of a speedy translation to a more brilliant office it was whispered among those not unlikely to foresee such events that the interest of the government required his talents in the house of peers just at this moment to the failed disease whose ravages Brandon endeavored as jealousy as possible to hide from the public had appeared suddenly to yield to the skill of a new physician and by the administration of medicines which a man less stern or resolute might have trembled to adopt so powerful and for the most part deadly was their nature he passed from a state of almost insufferable torture to an illusium of tranquility and ease perhaps however the medicines which altered also decayed his institution and it was observable that in two cases where the physician had attained a like success by the same means the patients had died suddenly exactly at the time when their cure seemed to be finally completed however sir William Brandon appeared very little anticipated of danger his manner became more cheerful and even than it had ever been before there was a certain lightness in his gait a certain exhilaration in his voice and I which seemed the tokens of one from whom a heavy burden had been suddenly raised and it was no longer prevented from the eagerness of hope by the engrossing claims of a bodily pain he had always been bland in society but now his courtesy breathed less of artifice it took a more hearty tone another alteration was discernible as precisely the reverse of what might have been expected he became more thrifty more attentive to the expenses of life than he had been there were despiser of show and ostentation and far too hard to be luxurious he was too scientific and architect of the weaknesses of others not to have maintained during his public career an opulent appearance and a hospitable table he had adopted requires perhaps less of externals to aid it than any other still brandon had affected to preserve parliamentary as well as legal importance and though his house was situated in a quarter entirely professional he had been accustomed to assemble around his hospitable board all who were eminent in his political party for rank or for talent now however when hospitality and a certain largeness of expenses better became his station he grew closer and more exact in his economy brandon never could have degenerated into a miser money to one so habitually wise as he was could never have passed from means into an object but he had evidently for some cause or another formed the resolution to save some said it was the result of returning health and the hope of a prolonged life to which many objects for which wealth is desirable might occur but when it was accidentally ascertained that brandon had been making several inquiries respecting a larger state in the neighborhood of warlock formally in the possession of his family the gossips for brandon was a man to be gossiped about were no longer in want of a motive for surreal the judge's thrift it was shortly after his elevation to the bench and air the signs of change had become noticeable that the same strange ragamuffin whom we have mentioned before as introduced by mr. swappam to a private conference with brandon was admitted to the judge's presence well said brandon impatiently the moment the door was closed your news by your honor said the man bashfully twirling a thing that stood proxy for a hug i think says owl i shall be able to satisfy your worship's honor then approaching the judge and assuming an important air he whispered tis as owl i thought my god cried brandon with the eminence and he is alive and where i believe answered the seemingly confidant of sir william brandon that he bees alive and if he bees alive may i flash my ivories in a glass case if i does not ferret him out but as to saying where he be at this nick of the moment smash me if i can is he in this country said brandon or do you believe that he has gone abroad my much of one another love the other said the euphonia's confidant how speak plain man what do you mean but i mean your honor that i can't say there he is and this said brandon with a muttered oath this is your boasted news is it dog damn damn dog if you trifle with me or play me false i will hang you by the living god i will the man shrank back involuntarily from indicted forehead and kindled eyes but with the cunning peculiar to low vice answered though in a humbler tone and that good build that do your honor if so be is how you scraggs i will that put your worship in the bay of finding he never was there an obstacle in grammar through which a sturdy truth could not break and brandon after a moody pause said in a milder voice i did not mean to frighten you never mind what i said but you can surely guess where about he is or what means of life he pursues perhaps and the momentary pay on this cross brandon swore the visage perhaps he may have been driven into dishonesty in order to maintain himself the informant replied with great naive tay that such a thing was not impossible and brandon then entered into a series of seemingly careless but artful cross questionings which either the ignorance or the craft of a man enabled him to battle after some time brandon disappointed and dissatisfied gave up his professional task and bestowing on the man many sagacious and minute instructions as well as a very liberal donation he was forced to dismiss his mysterious visitor and to content himself within a short assertion that if the object of his inquiry should not already be gone to the devil the strange gentleman employed to discover him would certainly sooner or later bring him to the judge this assertion and the interview preceding it certainly inspired sir william brandon with a feeling like complacency although it was mingled with a considerable alloy i do not thought he concluding his meditations when he was left alone i do not see what else i can do since it appears that the boy had not even a name when he sat out alone from his wretched abode i fear that an advertisement would have but little chance of even designating much less of finding him after so long an absence besides it might make me the prey to imposters and in all probability he has either left the country or adopted some out of living which would prevent his daring to disclose himself this thought plunge the soliloquist into a gloomy abstraction which lasted several minutes and from which he started muttering aloud yes yes i dare to believe to hope it now for the minister and the peerage and from that time the root of sir william brandon's ambition spread with a firmer and more extended grasp over his mind we agree very much that the course of our story should now obliged us to record the event which we would willingly have spared ourselves the pain of narrating the good old square of warlock manor house had scarcely reached his home on his return from bath before william brandon received the following letter from his brother's gray headed butler honored sir i send this with all speed with the heavy bark to exquaint you with the sudden fear by his loving friends and well wishers which to be sir is all as knows him dangerous illness of the square poor dear gentleman for god never made up better no offense to your honor the moment he set footing in his own hall and when it's hung wrong me like a millstone ever sin is that instead of his saying how do you do samson as was his want whenever he returned from foreign parts sit as bath London and the like he said god bless you samson which makes me think somehow that it will be his last words for he has never spoke sin for all miss lucy b by his bedside continual she poor dear don't take on a tall in regard to crying and such women's work but looks never the last for all the world just like a cop I send time to pause still on with this ex press knowing he is a good hand at a gallop having not 16 years ago beat some of the best on un at a racing hoping as your honor will lose no time in coming to this house of mourning I remain with all respect your honors humble servant to command John samson the reader who has doubtless noticed how invariably servants of long standing acquire a certain tone from that of their master may observe that honors John samson they caught from the square of the habit of parenthetical composition so William Brandon we read this letter in order to make it more intelligible before he wrote to one of his professional calm peers requesting him to fill his place during his unavoidable absence on the melancholy occasion of his brother's expected death and having so done he immediately set off for warlock inexplicable even to himself was that feeling so nearly approaching to real sorrow which the worldly lawyer felt that the prospect of losing Gallus and unspeculating brother whether it be that turbulent and ambitious minds in choosing for their wavering affections the very opposite of themselves feel on losing the fellowship of those calm fair characters that have never crossed their rugged path as if they lost in losing them a kind of haven for their own restless thoughts and tempest-worn designs be this as it may certain it is when William Brandon arrived at his brother's door and was informed by the old butler who for the first time was slow to greet him that the squire had just breathed his last his austere nature for so came at once and he felt the shock with a severity perhaps still keener and that which are more genial and affectionate heart would have experienced as soon as he had recovered his self-possession so William made question of his niece finding that after an un-relaxing watch during the whole of the squire's brief illness nature had failed her at his death and she had been born senseless from his chamber to her own Brandon walked with a step far different from his usual stately gate to the room where his brother lay it was one of the oldest departments in the house and much of the ancient splendor that belonged to the mansion ere its size had been reduced with the fortunes of its success of owners still extinguished the chamber the huge mantelpiece ascending to the carved ceiling in grotesque pilasters and scroll work of the blackest oak with the quarter arms of Brandon and Seville as sketched in the center the panel walls of the same dark wainscot the armory of ebony the highback chairs with their tapestry seats the lofty bed with its hearse-like plumes and draperies of a crimson damask that seemed so messy was the substance and so prominent as if it were rather a carving than a silk all conspired with the size of the room to give it a futile solemnity not perhaps suited to the rest of the house but well calculated to strike a gloomy awe into the breast of the worldly and proud man who now entered the death chamber of his brother silently we in Brandon motioned away the attendance and silently he seated himself by the bed and looked long and wistfully upon the calm and peace of the deceased it is difficult to guess at what passed within him during the space of time in which he remained alone in that room the apartment itself he could not at another period have tenanted without secret emotion it was that in which as a boy he had himself been accustomed to sleep and even then a schemer and an aspirant the very sight of the room supplies to call back all the hopes and visions the feverish desires which had now brought him to the envied state of an acknowledged celebrity and a shattered frame there must have been something awful in the combination of those active remembrances with the cause which had led him to that apartment and there was a homily in the serene countenance of the dead which preached more effectually to the heart of the living than we in Brandon would ever have cared to own he had been more than an hour in the room and the evening had already begun to cast deep shadows through the small pains of the half closed window when Brandon was startled by a slight noise he looked up and beheld Lucy opposite to him she did not see him but throwing herself upon the bed she took the cold hand of the deceased and after a long silence burst into a passion of tears my father she saw my kind good father who will love me now I said Brandon deeply affected and passing around the bed he took his niece in his arms I will be your father Lucy and you the last of our race shall be to me as a daughter End of Chapter 24 Chapter 25 of Paul Clifford by Edward Bower Lytton this LibriVox recording is in the public domain Chapter 25 falsehood in him was not the useless lie of boasting pride or laughing vanity it was the gainful the persuading art et cetera crab on with the horses off to Canterbury Tramp Tramp or pebble dash through puddle hurrah how swiftly speeds the post so merry here laws are all in violet none lay traps for the traveler every highways clear here he was interrupted by a knife with drat your eyes your money or your life Don Juan misfortunes are like the creations they destroy one another rouse from the torpor of mind occasioned by the loss of her lover at the sudden illness of the squire Lucy had no thought for herself no thought for anyone for anything but her father till long after the earth had closed over his remains the very activity of the latter grief was less dangerous than the quiet of the former in when the first keenness of sorrow passed away and her mind and mechanically returned to the remembrance of Clifford it was with an intensity less strong and less fatal to her health and happiness than before she thought it unnatural and criminal to allow anything else to grieve her while she had so sacred a grief as that of her loss and her mind once aroused into resistance to passion betrayed a native strength little to have been expected from her apparent character Sir William Brandon lost no time in returning to town after the burial of his brother he insisted upon taking his niece with him and though with real reluctance she yielded to his wishes and accompanied him by the squires will indeed Sir William was appointed guardian to Lucy and she yet wanted more than a year of her majority Brandon with that delicacy very uncommon to him where women for he was a confirmed woman hater were concerned provided everything that he thought could in any way conduce to her comfort he ordered it to be understood in his establishment that she was its mistress he arranged and furnished according to what he imagined to be her taste a suite of apartments for her soul accommodation a separate carriage and servants were appropriated to her use and he sought by perpetual presence of books or flowers or music to occupy her thoughts and the tone for the solitude to which his professional duties obliged him so constantly to consign her these attentions which showed the strange man in a new light seemed to bring out many little latent amiabilities which were usually embedded in the velocities of his rocky nature and even despite her causes for grief and the deep melancholy which consumed her Lucy was touched with gratitude at kindness doubly soothing in one who however urbane and polished was by no means addicted to the little attentions that are considered so gratifying by women and yet for which they so often despise while they like him who affords them there was much in Brandon that wound itself insensibly around the heart to one more experience than Lucy this involuntary attraction might not have been incompatible with suspicion and could scarce they have been associated with esteem and yet for all who knew him intimately even for the penetrating and selfish malevolor the attraction existed unprincipled crafty hypocritical even base when it suited his purpose secretly sneering at the dupes he made and knowing no code saved out of interest and ambition viewing men only as machines and opinions only as ladders there was yet a tone of powerful feelings sometimes elicited from a heart that could at the same moment have sacrificed a whole people to the pettiest personal object and sometimes with Lucy the eloquence or irony of his conversation deepened into a melancholy a half suppressed gentleness of sentiment that accorded with the state of her own mind and interested her kind feelings powerful in his it was these peculiarities in his converse which made Lucy love to hear him and she gradually learned to anticipate with a gloomy pleasure the hour in which after the occupations of the day he was accustomed to join her you look unwell uncle tonight she said when one evening he entered the room with looks more fatigued than usual and rising she leaned tenderly over him and kissed his forehead I said Brandon utterly unwon by and even unheeding the caress our way of life soon passes into the seer and yellow leaf and when Macbeth grieved it might not look to have that which should accompany old age he had grown doting and grieved for what was worthless nay uncle honor love obedience troops of friends these surely were worth the sighing for who not worth a single sigh the foolish wishes we form in youth have something noble and something bodily in them but those of age are utter shadows and the shadows of pygmies why what is honor after all what is this good name among men only a sort of heathenish idol set up to be adored by one set of fools and scorned by another do you not observe Lucy that the man you hear most praised by the party you meet today is most abused by that which you meet tomorrow public men are only praised by their party and their party sweet Lucy are such base minions that it moves once clean to think one is so little as to be useful to them thus a good name is only the good name of a sect and the members of that sect are only marvelous proper names but posterity does justice to those who really deserve fame posterity can you believe that a man who knows what life is cares for the penny whistles of grown children is death posterity Lucy no posterity is but the same perpetuity of fools and rascals and even were just as desirable at their hands they could not deal it do men agree whether Charles Stewart was a liar or a martyr for how many ages have we believed Nero a monster a writer now asks as if demonstrating a problem what real historian could doubt Nero was a paragon the patriarchs of scripture have been declared by modern philosophy to be a series of astronomical hieroglyphs and with greater show of truth we are assured that the patriot tell never existed posterity the word has goldman enough without my adding to the number I who loathe the living can scarcely venerate the unborn Lucy believe me that no man can mix largely with men in political life and not despise everything that in youth he adored age leaves us only one feeling content are you belied then said Lucy pointing to a newspaper the organ of the party opposed to Brandon are you belied when you are here called ambitious when they call you selfish and grasping I know they wrong you but I confess that I thought you ambitious yet can he who despises men desire their good opinion their good opinion repeated Brandon mockingly do we want the bray of the ass as we ride no he resumed after a pause it is power not honor it is the hope of elevating oneself in every respect in the world without as well as in the world of one's own mind it is this hope which makes me where I might rest and will continue the labor to my grave Lucy continued Brandon fixing his keen eyes on his knees have you no ambition have power and pomp and place no charm for your mind none said Lucy quietly and simply indeed yet there are times when I thought I recognized my blood in your veins you were sprung from a once noble but a fallen race are you ever susceptible to the weakness of ancestral pride you say answered Lucy that we should care not for those who live after us much less I imagine should we care for those who have lived ages before prettily answered said Brandon smiling I will tell you at one time or another what effect that weakness you despise already once had long after your age upon me you are early wise on some words profit by my experience and be so on all that is to say in despising all men and all things said Lucy also smiling well never mind my creed you may be wise after your own but trust one dearest Lucy who loves you purely and this is distantly and who is weighed with scales balanced to a hair all the advantages to be gleaned from an earth you truly think the harvest was gathered before we were put into it trust me Lucy and never think love that maiden's dream so valuable as rank and power pause well before you yield to the former accept the latter the moment they are offered you love puts you at the feet of another and that other a tyrant rank puts others at your feet and all those that subjected are your slaves Lucy moved her chair so that the new position concealed her face and did not answer and Brandon in an altered tone continued would you think Lucy that I once was fool enough to imagine that love was a blessing and to be eagerly sought for I gave up my hopes my chances of wealth of distinction all that had burned from the years of boyhood into my very heart I chose poverty obscurity humiliation but I chose also love what was my reward Lucy Brandon I was deceived deceived Brandon paused and Lucy took his hand affectionately but did not break the silence Brandon resumed yes I was deceived but I in my turn had a revenge and a fitting revenge for it was not the revenge of hatred but and the speaker laughed sardonically of contempt enough of this Lucy what I wish to say to you is this grown men and women know more of the truth of things than ye young persons think for love is a mere bubble and no human being ever exchanged for it one solid advantage without repentance believe this and if rank ever puts itself under those pretty feet be sure not to spurn the footstool so saying with a slight laugh Brandon lighted his chamber candle and left the room for the night as soon as the lawyer reached his own apartment he indicted to Lord Milover the following epistle why dear Milover do you not come to town I want you your party wants you perhaps the king wants you and certainly if you are serious about my niece the care of your own love suit should induce you yourself to want to come hither I've paved the way for you and I think with that little management you may have a speedy success but Lucy is a strange girl and perhaps after all though you ought to be on the spot you'd better leave her as much as possible in my hands I know human nature Milover and that knowledge is the engine by which I will work your triumph as for the young lover I'm not quite sure whether it be not better for our sake that Lucy should have experienced a disappointment on that score for when a woman has once loved and the love is utterly hopeless the ideas of other lovers all together out of her head she becomes contented with a husband whom she can esteem sweet canter but you Milover want Lucy to love you and so she will after you have married her she will love you partly from the advantages she derives from you partly from familiarity to say nothing of your good qualities for my part I think domesticity goes so far that I believe a woman always inclined to be affectionate for a man whom she has once seen in his nightcap however you should come to town my poor brother's recent death allows us to see no one the coast would be clear from rivals grief has softened my niece's heart in a word you could not have a better opportunity come by the way you say one of the reasons which made you think ill of this captain Clifford was your impression that in the figure of one of his comrades you recognize something that appeared to you to resemble those who robbed you a few months ago I understand that at this moment the police are in active pursuit of three most accomplished robbers nor should I be at all surprised if in this very Clifford were to be found the leader of the gang namely the notorious Lutter I hear that the said leader is a clever and handsome fellow of a gentleman like address and that his general associates are two men of the exact stamp of the worthies you have so amusingly described to me I heard this yesterday from Nabon the police officer with whom I once scraped acquaintance on a trial and in my grudge against your rival I hinted at my suspicion that he Captain Clifford might not impossibly prove this Renault deening of the roads Nabon caught at my hint at once so that if it be founded on a true guest I may flatter my conscience as well as my friendship by the hope that I have had some hand in hanging this adonis of my niece's whether my guest be true or not Nabon says he is sure of this love it for one of his gang has promised to betray him hang these aspiring dogs I thought Thretry was confined to politics and that thought makes me turn to public matters in which all people are turning with the most edifying celerity so we in Brandon's epistle found me lever in a fitting mood for Lucy and for London our worthy peer had been not a little chagrin by Lucy's sudden departure from Bath and while in doubt whether or not to follow her the papers had informed him of the squire's death a lever being then fully aware of the impossibility of immediately urging his suit endeavored like the true philosopher he was to reconcile himself to his hope deferred few people were more easily susceptible of consolation and Lord Oliver he found an agreeable lady of a face more unfaded than her reputation to whom he entrusted the care of relieving his leisure moments from on we in being a lively woman the confidant discharged the trust with great satisfaction to Lord Malever for the space of a fortnight so that he naturally began to feel his love for Lucy gradually wearing away by absence and other ties but just as the triumph of time over passion was growing decisive the lady left Bath in company with a tall guardsman and Malever received Brandon's letter these two events were called our excellent lover to a sense of his allegiance and they're being now at Bath no particular attraction to counterbalance the order of his affection Lord Malever ordered the horses to his carriage and attended only by his ballot set out for London nothing perhaps could convey a better portrait of the world's spoiled darling than a sight of Lord Malever's thin fastidious features peering forth through the closed window of his traveling chariot the rest of the outer man being carefully enveloped in furs half a dozen novels during the seat of the carriage and a lean French dog exceedingly like its master sniffing in vain for the fresh air which to the imagination of Malever was people with all sorts of asmas and guitars Malever got out of his carriage at Salisbury to stretch his limbs and to amuse himself with a cutlet our nobleman was well known on the roads and as nobody could be more affable popular the officious landlord bustled into the room to wait himself upon his lordship and tell all the news of the place well Mr. Cheerley said Malever bestowing a penetrating glance on his cutlet the bad times I see have not ruined your cook indeed my lord your lordship is very good and the times indeed are very bad very bad indeed is there enough gravy perhaps your lordship will try the pickled onions the what onions oh nothing can be better but I never touch them so are the roads good your lordship has I hope found them good to Salisbury I believe so oh to be sure excellent to Salisbury but how are they to London we have had wet weather lately I think know my lord here the weather has been dry as a bone or a cutlet but Malever and the host continue as for the roads themselves my lord so far as the roads are concerned they're pretty good my lord but I can't say as how there is not something about them that might be mended by no means improbable you mean the ends and the turnpikes rejoin Malever your lordship is pleased to be facetious know I met something worse than them what the cooks know my lord the highway men the highway men indeed said Malever anxiously for yet with him a case of diamonds which at that time were on grand occasions often the ornaments of a gentleman's dress in the shape of buttons buckles etc he had also tolerably large some of ready money about him a blessing he had lately begun to find very rare by the way the rascals robbed me before on this very road my pistols shall be loaded this time Mr. Julie you had better order the horses one may as well escape the nightfall certainly my lord certainly gem the horses immediately your lordship will have another cutlet not a morsel a tart a dip not for the world bring the cheese John much obliged you Mr. Julie but I've dined and if I have not done justice to your good cheer thank yourself from the highway men where do these highway men attack one why my lord the neighborhood of is I believe the worst part but they are very troublesome all the way to Salt Hill damn nation the very neighborhood in which the rob me before you may well call them troublesome why the deuce don't the police clear the country of such movable species of trouble indeed my lord I don't know today is how captain love it the famous Robert be one of the set and nobody can catch him I fear because I suppose the dog has the sense to bribe as well as bully what is the general number of these ruffians why my lord sometimes one sometimes two but seldom more than three the lever drew himself up my dear diamonds and my pretty purse thought he I may save you yet have you been long plagued with the fellows he asked after a pause as he was paying the bill my lord we have and we have not I fancy as how they have a sort of a haunt near Reading for sometimes they are intolerable just about there and sometimes they are quiet for months together for instance my lord we thought them all gone some time ago but lately they have regularly stopped everyone though I hear as how they have cleared no great booty as yet here the waiter announced the horses and lever slowly re-entered his carriage among the bowels and smiles of the charm spirits of the hostery during the daylight lever who was naturally of a gallant and fearless temper no more of the high women a species of danger so common at that time that men almost considered it disgraceful to suffer the dread of it to be a cause of delay on the road travelers seldom deemed it best to lose time in order to save money and they carried with them a stout heart and embrace the pistols instead of sleeping all night on the road lever rather a coup chevalier was precisely of this order of wayfarers and a night at an end when it was possible to avoid it was to him as to most rich Englishmen a tedious torture zealously to be shunned it never therefore entered into the head of our excellent nobleman despite his experience that his diamonds and his purse might be saved from all danger if he would consent to deposit them with his own person at some place of hospitable reception or indeed was it till he was within a stage of writing and the twilight had entirely closed in that he traveled his head much on the matter but while the horses were putting to he summoned the post boys to him and after regarding their countenances with the eye of a man accustomed to read physiognomies he thus eloquently addressed them gentlemen I am informed that there is some danger being robbed between this town and Salt Hill now I beg to inform you that I think it next to impossible for your horses properly directed to be stopped by less than four men to that number I shall probably yield to a last number I shall most assuredly give nothing but bullets you understand me the post boys grin touched their hats and lever slowly continued if therefore mark me one two or three men stop your horses and I find that the use of your whips and spurs are ineffectual and releasing the animals from the hold of the robbers I intend with these pistols you observe them to shoot at the gentleman who but as though I am generally a dead shot my eyesight waivers a little in the dark I think it very possible that I may have the misfortune to shoot you gentlemen instead of the robbers you see the rascals will be close by you sufficiently so to put you in jeopardy unless indeed you knock them down with the butt end of your whips I merely mentioned this that you may be prepared should such a mistake occurred you need not be uneasy beforehand for I will take every possible care of your widows should it not and should we reach the call to in safety I intend to testify my sense of the excellence of your driving by a present of ten guineas apiece gentlemen I've done with you I give you my honor that I am serious and what I have said to you do me the favor to mount lever then called to his favorite servant who sat in the diki in front rumble tumble's not being then in use smooth sin city for last time we were attacked on this very road you behave damnably see that you do better this time or it may be the worst for you have pistols tonight about you a well that's right and you are sure they're loaded very well now then if we are stopped don't lose a moment jump down and fire one of your pistols at the first robber keep the other four sure aim one shot is to intimidate the second to slay you comprehend my pistols are in excellent order I suppose let me the ram ride so so no trick this time they would kill a fly my lord provided your lordship fired straight upon it I do not doubt you 711 light the lanterns and tell the post boys to drive on it was a frosty and tolerably clear night the ducks of the twilight had melted away beneath the moon which had just risen and the hoary rhyme glittered from the bushes and the sword breaking into a thousand diamonds as it caught the rays of the stars on went the horses briskly their breath steaming against the fresh air and their hoofs sounding cheerly on the hard ground the rapid motion of the carriage the bracing coolness of the night and the excitement occasioned by anxiety and the forethought of danger all conspired to stir the languid blood of Lord Malever into a vigorous and exhilarated sensation natural and youth to his character but utterly contrary to the nature he had imbibed from the customs of his manhood he felt his pistols and his hands trembled a little as he did so not the least from fear but from that as peculiar to nervous persons placed in a new situation in this country he said to himself I've been only once robbed in the course of my life it was then a little my fault for before I took to my pistols I should have been certain they were loaded tonight I shall be sure to avoid a similar blunder and my pistols have an eloquence in their barrels which is exceedingly moving another milestone these fellas drive well but we are entering a pretty looking spot for misused the disciples of Robin Hood it was indeed a picturesque spot by which the carriage was now rapidly whirling a few miles from Maidenhead on the Henley Road our readers will probably remember a small tractor forest like land lying on either side of the road to the left the green waste bears away among the trees and bushes and one skilled in that country may pass from that spot through a landscape as little tenanted as was formerly into the chains of wild common and deep beech woods which border a certain portion of Oxfordshire and contrast so beautifully the general characteristics of that county at the time we speak of the country was even far wilder than it is now and just on that point where the Henley and the Reading Roads unite was a spot communicating then with the wasteland we have described then which perhaps few places could be more adapted to the purposes of such true men as have recourse to the primary law of nature certainly was that at this part of the road the lever looked more anxiously from his window than he had hitherto done and apparently the increased earnestness of his survey was not altogether without meeting its reward about a hundred yards to the left three dark objects were just discernible in the shade a moment more and the objects emerging grew into the forms of three men well mounted riding at a brisk trot only three thought malever that as well in leaning from the front window with a pistol in either hand malever cried out to the post boys in a stern tone drive on and recollect what I told you remember he added to his servant the post boys scarcely looked round but their spurs were buried in their horses and the animals flew on like lightning the three strangers made a halt as if in conference their decision was prompt to move round from their comrade and darted at full gallop by the carriage malever's pistol was already protruded from the front window went to his astonishment and to the utter baffling of his ingenious admonition to his drivers he beheld the two post boys knocked from their horses one after the other with a celerity that scarcely allowed him an exclamation and before he had recovered his self-possession the horses taking fright and that fright being skillfully taken advantage the carriage was fairly whirled into a ditch on the right side of the road and upset meanwhile smoothson had leaped from his station in the front and having fired though without effect at the third robber who approached menacingly towards him he gained the time to open the carriage door and extricate his master the moment malever bound himself on terra firma he prepared his courage for offensive measures and he as smoothson standing side by side in front of the unfortunate vehicle presented no unformatable aspect to the enemy the two robbers who had so decisively rid themselves of the post boys acted with no less determination towards the horses one of them dismounted cut the traces and suffered the plunging quadrupeds to go wither they listed this measure was not however allowed to be taken with impunity a ball from lever's pistol passed through the hat of the highway men with an aim so slightly earring that it whizzed a box of the astounded hero with a sound that sent a terror to his heart no less from a lever of his head than from anxiety for his hair the shocks staggered him for a moment and a second shot from the hands of malever would have probably finished his earthly career had not the third robber who had hitherto remained almost inactive thrown himself from his horse which to do to such facility remained perfectly still and advancing with a bold step and a level pistol towards malever and his servant said in a resolute voice gentlemen it is useless to struggle we are well armed and resolved on effecting our purpose your person shall be safe if you lay down your arms and also such part of your property as you may particularly wish to retain but if you resist I cannot answer for your lives malever had listened patiently to this speech in order that he might have more time for adjusting his aim his reply was a bullet which grazed the side of the speaker and tore away the skin without inflicting any more dangerous wound muttering a curse upon the error of his aim and resolute to the last when his blood was once up malever backed one pace through his sword and threw himself into the attitude of a champion well skilled in the use of the instrument he wore but that incomparable personage was in a fair way of ascertaining what happiness in the world to come is reserved for a man who has spared no pains to make himself available in this for the two first and most active robbers having finished the achievement of the horses now approached malever and the taller of them still indignant at the late peril to his hair cried out in a stentorian voice by jove you'll fool if you don't throw down your toasting fork out be the death of you the speaker suited the action to the word back cocking an immense pistol malever stood his ground but smooth sin retreated and stumbling so backward the next instant the second highermen had possessed himself of the valet's pistols and quietly seated on the fallen man's stomach and used himself by inspecting the contents of the domestics pockets malever was now alone and his stubbornness so enraged the tall bully that his hand was already on his trigger when the third robber whose side malever's bullet had grazed thrust himself between the two hold Ned he said he pushing back his comrades pistol and you my lord his rashness ought to cost you your life learn that men can rob generously so saying with one vexed a stroke from the robbers riding with malever a sword flew upwards and alighted at the distance of ten yards from its owner approach now said the victor to his comrades rifle the carriage and with all dispatch the tall highermen hastened to execute disorder and the lesser one having satisfactorily finished the inquisition into mr. smooth since drew forth from his own pouch a tolerably thick rope with this he tied the hands of the prostrate valet moralizing as he wound the rope round and round the wrists of the fallen man in the following at a fine strain lies still sir lies still I beseech you all wise men are fatalists and no profit there's more pity than that which says what can't be cured must be endured lies still I tell you little perhaps do you think that you are performing one of the noblest functions of humanity yes sir you are filling the pockets of the destitute about my present action I'm securing you from any weakness of the flesh likely to impede so praiseworthy and end and so hazard the excellence of your action there sir your hands are tight lies still and reflect as he said this with three gentle applications of his feet the moralists rolled mr. smooth since into the ditch and hasten to join his lengthy comrade in his pleasing occupation in the interim from lever and the third robber who in the true spirit of government remain dignified and inactive while his followers plundered what he certainly designed to share if not to monopolize stood within a few feet of each other face to face lever had now convinced himself that all endeavor to save his property was hopeless and yet also the consolation of thinking he had done his best to defend it he therefore bad all his thoughts returned to the care of his person he adjusted his fur color around his neck with great sang foie drew on his gloves and patting his terrified poodle who sat shivering on its haunches with one paw raised and nervously trembling he said you sir seem to be a civil person and I really should have felt quite sorry if I had had the misfortune to wound you you will not hurt I trust pray if I may inquire how am I to proceed my carriage is in the ditch my horses by this time are probably at the end of the world as for that matter said the robber who's face like those of his comrades was closely masked in the approved fashion of high women of that day I believe you will have to walk to maiden head it is not far and the night is fine a very trifling hardship indeed said me lever ironically but his new acquaintance made a reply nor did he appear at all desirous of entering into any further conversation with me lever the Earl therefore after watching the operations of the other robbers for some moments turn on his heel and remained humming and opera tune with dignified indifference until the pair had finished rifling the carriage and C. Z. Malever proceeded to rifle him with a curled lip and a raised brow that supreme personage suffered himself to be as the taller robber expressed it cleaned out his watch his rings his purse and his snuff box all went it was long since the rascals had captured such a booty they are scarcely finished when the post boys had now begun to look about them uttered a simultaneous cry and at some distance a wagon was seen heavily approaching Malever really wanted his money to say nothing of his diamonds and so soon as he perceived assistance at hand a new hope darted within him his sword still lay on the ground he sprang towards it seized it uttered a shout for help and threw himself fiercely on the highway men who had disarmed him but the robber warding off the blade with his whip retreated to his saddle which he managed despite of Malever's lunges to regain with impunity the other two had already mounted and within a minute afterwards not a vestige of the trio was visible this is what may be called single blessedness so Malever as dropping his useless sword he thrust his hands into his pockets leaving our peerless peer to find his way to maiden head on foot accompanied to say nothing of the poodle wagoner two post boys and the released Mr. Smoothson all four charming him with their condolences we follow with our story the steps of the three alieny appetentes End of Chapter 25