 Chapter 9, Part 2 of Paul Clifford by Edward Bower Lytton. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. A day or two after the narrative of Mr. Tomlinson, Paul was again visited by Mrs. Lopkins for the regulations against frequent visitors were not then so strictly enforced as we understand them to be now. And the good dame came to deplore the ill success of our interview with Justice Byrne Flatt. We spare the tender-hearted reader a detail of the affecting interview that ensued. Indeed it was but a repetition of the one we had before narrated. We shall only say as a proof of Paul's tenderness of heart that when he took leave of the good matron and bad God bless her, his voice faltered and the tears stood in his eyes. Just as they were want to do in the eyes of George III, when that excellent monarch was pleased graciously to on core, God saved the king. I'll be hanged, soliloquized, our hero as he slowly bent his course towards the subtle Augustus. I'll be hanged, humped, the denunciation is prophetic, if I don't feel as grateful to the old lady for her care of me as if she had never ill-used me. As for my parents, I believe I have little to be grateful for or proud of in that quarter. My poor mother, by all accounts, seems scarcely to have had even the brute virtue of maternal tenderness. And in all human likelihood I shall never know whether I had one father or fifty, but what matters is I rather like the better to be independent. And after all what do nine-tenths of us ever get from our parents but an ugly name and advice which if we follow we are wretched and if we neglect we are disinherited. Comforting himself with these thoughts which perhaps took their philosophical complexion from the conversations he had lately held with Augustus and which broke off into the muddard air of why should we quarrel for riches? Paul repaired to his customary avocations. In the third week of our hero's captivity, Tomlinson communicated to him a plan of escape that had occurred to his sagacious brain. In the yard appropriated to the amusements of the gentleman misdemeaning there was a water pipe that, skirting the wall, passed over the door through which every morning the pious captives passed in their way to the chapel. By this Tomlinson proposed to escape for to the pipe which reached from the door to the wall in a slanting and easy direction there was a sort of skirting board and a dexterous and nimble man might readily by the help of this board convey himself along the pipe until the progress of that useful conductor which was happily very brief was stopped by the summit of the wall where it found a sequel in another pipe that descended to the ground on the opposite side of the wall. Now on this opposite side was the garden of the prison and this garden was a watchman and this watchman was the hobgoblin of Tomlinson's scheme for suppose as safe in the garden said he what shall we do with this confounded fellow? But that is not all added Paul for even were there no watchman there is a terrible wall which I noted especially last week when we were set to work in the garden which has no pipe save a perpendicular one that a man must have the legs of a fly to be able to climb nonsense return Tomlinson I will show you how to climb the stubbornest wall in Christendom if one has but the coast clear it is the watchman the watchman we must what as Paul observing his comrade did not conclude this sentence it was sometime before the sage Augustus replied he then said I've been thinking Paul whether it would be consistent with virtue and that strict code of morals by which all my actions are regulated to slay the watchman good heavens cried Paul horror stricken and I have decided continued Augustus solemnly without regard to the exclamation that the action would be perfectly justifiable the land exclaimed Paul recording to the other end of the stone box for it was night in which they were cooped but pursuit Augustus who seemed soliloquizing and whose voice sounding calm and thoughtful like young's in the famous monologue in Hamlet they noted that he heeded not the uncourteous interruption but opinion does not always influence conduct and although it may be virtuous to murder the watchman I have not the heart to do it I trust in my future history I shall not by discerning more the speed to severely censured for a weakness for which my physical temperament is alone to blame despite the turn of the soliloquy it was a long time before Paul could be reconciled to further conversation with Augustus and it was only from the belief that the moralist had leaned to the just in vain that he at length resumed the consultation the conspirators did not however bring their scheme that night to any ultimate decision the next day Augustus Paul and some others of the company were set to work in the garden and Paul then observed that his friend wheeling a barrow close by the spot where the watchman stood overturned its contents the watchman was good-natured enough to assist him in refilling the barrow and Thomas and profited so well by the occasion that that night he informed Paul that they would have nothing to dread from the watchman's vigilance he is promised at Augustus for certain considerations to allow me to knock him down he has also promised to be so much hurt as not to be able to move until we are over the wall our main difficulty now then is the first step namely to climb the pipe unperceived as to that said Paul who developed through the whole of the scheme organs of sagacity boldness and invention which charmed his friend and certainly promised well for his future career as to that I think we may manage the first ascent with less danger than you imagine the mornings of late have been very foggy they are almost dark at the hour we go to chapel that you and I close the file the pipe passes just above the door our hands as we have tried can reach it and a spring of no great agility will enable us to raise ourselves up to a footing on the pipe and the skirting board the climbing then is easy and what with the dense fog and our own quickness I think we shall have little difficulty in gaining the garden the only precautions we need use are to wait for a very dark morning and to be sure that we are the last of the file so that no one behind may give the alarm or attempt to follow our example and spoil the pie by a superfluous plum at Augustus you counsel admirably and one of these days if you are not hung in the meanwhile will I venture to auger be a great logician the next morning was clear and frosty but the day after was to use Tomlin's sensimily as dark as if all the Negroes of Africa had been stewed down into air you might have cut the fog with a knife as the proverb says Paul and Augustus could not even see how significantly each looked at the other it was a remarkable trait of the daring temperament of the former that young as he was it was fixed that he should lead the attempt at the hour then for chapel the prisoners passed as usual through the door when it came to Paul's turn he drew himself by his hands to the pipe and then creeping along its sinuous course gained the wall before he had even fetched his breath rather more clumsily Augustus followed his friend's example once his foot slipped and he was all but over he extended his hands involuntarily and caught Paul by the leg happily our hero had then gained the wall to which he was clinging and for once in a way one rogue raised himself without throwing over another behold Tomlin sin and Paul now seated for an instant on the wall to recover breath the latter then the descent to the ground was not very great letting his body down by his hands dropped into the garden Hurt asked the prudent Augustus and a horse whisper before he descended from his bad eminence being even willing to bear those ills he had then fly to others that he knew not of no without taking every previous precaution in his power was the answer in the same voice and Augustus dropped so soon as this latter worthy had recovered the shock of his fall he lost not a moment in running to the other end of the garden Paul followed by the way Tomlin sin stopped at a heap of rubbish and picked up an immense stone when they came to the part of the wall they had agreed to scale they found the watchman about whom they needed not by the by to have concerned themselves for had it not been arranged that he was to have met them the deep fog would have effectively prevented him from seeing them this faithful guardian Augustus knocked down not worth a stone but with ten guineas he then drew forth from his dress a thickish cord which he procured some days before from the turnkey and fastening the stone firmly to one end through that end over the wall now the wall had as walls of great strength mostly had an overhanging sort of battlement on either side and the stone when flung over and drawn to the tether of the cord to which it was attached necessarily hitched against this projection and thus the court was as it were fastened to the wall and Tomlin sin was enabled by it to draw himself up to the top of the barrier he performed his feet with gymnastic address like one who had often practiced it albeit the discreet adventurer had not mentioned in his narrative to Paul any previous occasion for the practice as soon as he had gained the top of the wall he threw down the cord to his companion and in consideration of Paul's inexperience in that manner of climbing gave the fastening of the rope an additional security by holding it himself with slowness and labor Paul hoisted himself up and then by transferring the stone to the other side of the wall where it made of course a similar hitch our two adventurers were enabled successively to slide down and consummate their escape from the house of correction follow me now instead of Augustus as he took to his heels and Paul pursued him through a labyrinth of alleys and lanes through which he shot and dodged with a variable and shifting celerity that had not Paul kept close upon him but very soon combined with the fog have snatched him from the eyes of his young ally happily the immaturity of the morning the obscurity of the streets passed through and above all the extreme darkness of the atmosphere prevented that detection and arrest which their prisoners guard would otherwise have ensured them at length they found themselves in the fields and skulking along hedges and diligently avoiding the high road they continued to fly onward until they had advanced several miles into the bowels of the land at that time the bowels of Augustus Tomlinson began to remind him of their demands and he accordingly suggested the desirability of their seizing the first peasant they encountered and causing him to exchange clothes with one of the fugitives who would thus be enabled to enter a public house and provide for their mutual necessities Paul agreed to this proposition and accordingly they watched their opportunity and caught a plowman Augustus dipped him of his frock hat and worsted stockings and Paul hardened by necessity and companionship helped to tie the poor plowman to a tree they then continued their progress for about an hour and as the shades of evening fell around them they discovered a public house Augustus emptied and returned in a few minutes laden with bread and cheese and a bottle of beer prison there cures a man of daintiness and the two fugitives dined on these homely vions with considerable complacency they then resumed their journey and at length wearied with exertion they arrived at a lonely haystack where they resolved to repose for an hour or two end of chapter 9 part 2 chapter 10 of Paul Clifford by Edward Bower Lytton this LibriVox recording is in the public domain chapter 10 unlike the ribald whose licentious jest pollutes his banquet and insults his guest from wealth and grandeur easy to descend thou joist to lose the master in the friend we round thy board the cheerful menial sea gay with the smile of bland equality no social care the gracious lord disdains love prompts to love and reverence reverence gains translation of Lucan to Passo prefixed to the 12th paper of the Rambler quarterly shone down the bashful stars upon our adventurers as after a short nap behind the haystack they stretched themselves and looking at each other burst into an involuntary and hilarious laugh after prosperous termination of their exploit hitherto they had been too occupied first by their flight then by hunger then by fatigue for self-gradulation now they rubbed their hands and joked like runaway schoolboys at their escape by degrees their thoughts turned from the past to the future and tell me my dear fellow said Augustus what you intend to do I trust I have long ago convinced you that it is no sin to serve our friends and to be true to our party and therefore I suppose you will decide upon taking to the road it is very odd answered Paul that I should have any scruples left after your lectures on the subject but I own to you frankly that somehow or other I have doubts whether thieving be really the honestest profession I could follow listen to me Paul answered Augustus and his reply is not unworthy of notice all crime and all excellence depend upon a good choice of words I see you look puzzled I will explain if you take money from the public and say you have robbed you have indubitably committed a great crime but if you do the same and say you have been relieving the necessities of the poor you have done an excellent action if in afterwards dividing this money with your companions you say you have been sharing booty you have committed an offense against the laws of your country but if you observe that you have been sharing with your friends the gains of your industry you have been performing one of the noblest actions of humanity to knock a man on the head is neither virtuous nor guilty but it depends upon the language applied to the action to make it murder or glory why not say then that you have testified the courage of a hero rather than the atrocity of a ruffian this is perfectly clear is it not we observe in a paragraph from an American paper copied without comment into the morning chronicle a singular proof of the truth of Tomlinson's philosophy Mr. Rowland Stevenson so runs the extract the celebrated English banker has just purchased a considerable tract of land et cetera most philosophical of paragraphs celebrated English banker that sentence is a better illustration of verbal fallacies than all Bentham's treatises put together celebrated oh Mercury what a dexterous epithet it seems so answered Paul it is so self-evident that it is the way all governments are carried on where for my good Paul we only do what all other legislators do we are never rogue so long as we call ourselves honest fellows and we never commit a crime so long as we can term it a virtue what say you now Paul smiled and was silent a few moments before he replied there is very little doubt but that you are wrong yet if you are so are all the rest of the world it is of no use to be the only white sheep of the flock where for my dear Tomlinson I will in future be an excellent citizen relieve the necessities of the poor and share the gains of my industry with my friends Bob very quiet Tomlinson and now that that is settled the sooner you are inaugurated the better since the star light has shown forth I see that I am in a place I ought to be very well acquainted with or if you like to be suspicious you may believe that I have brought you purposely in this direction but first let me ask if you feel any great desire to pass the part by this haystack or whether you would like a song and the punchbowl almost as much as the open air with the chance of being eaten up in a pinch of hay by some strolling cow you may conceive my choice answered Paul well then there is an excellent fellow near here who keeps a public house and is a firm ally and generous patron of the lads of the cross at certain periods they hold weekly meetings at his house this is one of the nights what say you shall I introduce you to the club I shall be very glad if they will admit me return Paul whom many and conflicting thoughts rendered laconic oh no fear of that under my auspices to tell you the truth though we are a tolerant set we welcome every new proselyte with enthusiasm but are you tired a little the house is not far you say about a mile off answer Tomlinson lean on me our wanderers now leaving the haystack struck across part of Finchley common for the abode of the worthy public and was felicitously situated and the scene in which his guests celebrated their festivities was close by that on which they often performed their exploit as they proceeded Paul questioned his friend touching the name and character of my host and the all knowing Augustus Tomlinson answered him Quaker like by a question have you never heard of gentlemen George what the noted head of a flash public house in the country to be sure I have often my poor nurse named Lopkins used to say he was the best-spoken man in the trade I so he is still in his youth George was a very handsome fellow but a little too fond of his last and his bottle to please his father a very state old gentleman who walked about on Sundays in a bob wig and a gold heady cane and was a much better farmer on weekdays than he was head of a public house George used to be a remarkably smart dress fellow and so he is to this day he has a great deal of wit is a very good with player has a capital seller and is so fond of seeing his friends drunk that he bought some time ago a large pewter measure in which six men can stand upright the girls are rather the old women to which last he used to be much more civil of the two always liked him they say nothing is so fine as his fine speeches and they give him the title of gentlemen George he is a nice kind-hearted man in many things pray heaven we shall have no cause to miss him when he departs but to tell you the truth he takes more than his share of our common purse what is he avaricious quite the reverse but he's so cursively fond of building he invests all his money and wants us to invest all ours in houses and there's one confounded dog of a bricklayer who runs him up terrible bills a fellow called cunning not who is equally adroit in spoiling ground and improving ground rent what do you mean are there by hangs a tail but we are near the place now you will see a curious set as Tomlinson said this the pair approach to house standing alone and seemingly without any other abode in the vicinity it was of curious and grotesque shaped painted white with a Gothic chimney a Chinese signpost on which was depicted a gentleman fishing with the words the Jolly Angler written beneath and a porch that would have been Grecian if it had not been Dutch it stood in a little field with a hedge behind it and the common in front Augusta stopped at the door and while he paused bursts of laughter rang cheerly within the merry boys he muttered I long to be with them and then with his clenched fist he knocked four times on the door there was a sudden silence which lasted about a minute and was broken by a voice within asking who was there Tomlinson answered by some cabalistic word the door was opened and a little boy presented himself where my lads at Augusta's and how is your master Stout and Hardy may judge by his voice I master Tommy I he's boozing away at a fine rate in the back parlor with Mr. Pepper and fighting Addie and have a score more of them you'll be woundy glad to see you I'll be bound show this gentleman into the bar rejoined Augusta's will I go and pay my respects to honest Geordie the boy made a sort of bow and leading our hero into the bar consigned him to the care of Sal a Buxom barmaid who reflected credit on the taste of the landlord and who received Paul with Mark Distinction and a Jill of Brandy Paul had not long to play the amiable before Tomlinson rejoined him with the information that gentlemen George would be most happy to see him in the back parlor and that he would there find an old friend in the person Augusta's he here cried Paul the sorry knave to let me be caged in his stead gently gently no misapplication of terms said Augusta's that was not navery that was prudence the greatest of all virtues and the rarest but come along and Pepper shall explain tomorrow Threading a gallery or passage Augusta's preceded our hero opened the door and introduced into a long low apartment where sat round a table spread with pipes and liquor some 10 or a dozen men while at the top of the table in an armchair presided gentlemen George that dignitary was a portly and comely gentlemen with a knowing look and a Welsh Whig worn as the morning Chronicle says of his Majesty's hat in a Degage manner on one side being afflicted with the gout his left foot reclined on a stool and the attitude developed despite of a lambs wall stocking the remains of an exceedingly good leg as gentlemen George was a person of majestic dignity among the Knights of the Cross we trust we shall not be thought irreverent in applying a few of the words by which the aforesaid morning Chronicle depicted his Majesty on the day he laid the first stone of his father's monument to the description of gentlemen George he had on a handsome blue coat and a white waistcoat moreover he laughed most humbly as turning to Augustus Tomlinson he saluted him with so this is the youngster you present to us welcome to the jolly angler give us thy hand young sir I shall be happy to blow a cloud and see with all due submission said Mr. Tomlinson I think may first be as well to introduce my pupil and friend to his future companions you speak like a leery cove quite gentlemen George still squeezing our hero's hand and turning round in his elbow chair he pointed to each member as he severally introduced his guests to Paul here said he looked at my right hand the person best designated was a thin military looking figure in a shabby riding frog and with a commanding bolt aquiline countenance a little of the worst for wear here's a fine chap for you fighting Addie we calls him he's a devil on the road halt, deliver, must and shall can't and shan't do as I bid you or go to the devil that's all fighting Addie's once death it has a wonderful way of coming to the point a famous call is my friend Addie an old soldier has seen the world and knows what is what has lots of gumption and devil a bit of learning how some ever the high flowers doesn't like him and when he takes people's money he need not be quite so cross about it Addie let me introduce a new pal to you Paul made his bow standard ease man a veteran without taking the pipe from his mouth gentleman George then continued and after pointing out four or five of the company among whom our hero discovered to his surprise is old friends Mr. Eustace Fitzherbert and Mr. William Howard Russell came at length to one with a very red face and a lusty frame of body that gentleman said he is Scarlett Jem a dangerous fellow for our press though he says he likes robbing alone now for our general press does not have such a good thing as it used to be formally you have no idea what a hand at disguising himself Scarlett Jem is he has an old wig which he generally does business in and you would not go for to know him again when he conceals himself under the wig oh he's a precious rogue is Scarlett Jem as for the cove on Tother's side continue the host of the Jolly Angler pointing to long dead all I can say of him good bad or indifferent is that he has an unkem and fine head of hair and now youngster as you knows him suppose you goes and sits by him and he'll introduce you to the rest for a split my wig gentlemen George was a bit of a swearer if I've been tired and so here's to your health and if so be as your name's Paul may you always Rob Peter a portmanteau in order to pay Paul this witticism of mine host being exceedingly well received Paul went amidst the general laughter to take possession of the vacant seat beside Long Ned that tall gentleman who had hitherto been cloud compelling as Homer calls Jupiter in profound silence now turned to Paul with the warmest cordiality declared himself overjoyed to meet his old friend once more and congratulated him a like on his escape from Bridewell and his admission to the councils of gentlemen George but Paul mindful of that exertion of prudence on the part of Mr Pepper by which he had been left to his fate and the mercy of Justice Bernflatt received his advances very sullenly this illness so in sense Ned who was naturally choleric that he turned his back on our hero and being of an aristocratic spirit muttered something about upstart and vulgar Clifakers being admitted to the company of swell toby men this murmur called all Paul's blood into his cheek for though he had been punished as a Clifaker or pickpocket nobody knew better than Long Ned nor he was innocent and a reproach from him came therefore with double injustice and severity in his wrath he seized Mr Pepper by the ear and telling him he was a shabby scoundrel challenged him to fight so pleasing and invitation not being announced so to vote you but in a tone suited to the importance of the proposition everyone around heard it and before Ned could answer the full voice of gentlemen George thundered forth keep the peace there you youngster what are you just admitted into our merry makings and must you be wrangling already hard key gentlemen I have been plagued enough with your quarrels before now and the first Covres breaks the present quiet of the jolly anger shall be turned out neck and crop shant he addy March said the hero that's the word addy said gentlemen George and now Mr Pepper if there be any ill blood to excuse and the lad there washed it away in a bumper bingo and let's hear no more what some ever about it I'm willing cried Long Ned with the deferential air of a courtier and holding out his hand to Paul our hero being somewhat abashed by the novelty of his situation and the rebuke of gentlemen George accepted though with some reluctance the proffered courtesy order being thus restored the conversation of the convivialists began to assume a most fascinating bias they talked with infinite gout of the sums they had levied on the public and the speculations they had committed for what one called the good of the community and another the established order meaning themselves it was easy to see in what school the discerning Augustus Tomlinson had learned the value of words there was something edifying and hearing the rascals so nice was their language and so honest their enthusiasm for their own interests you might have imagined you were listening to a coterie of cabinet ministers conferring on taxes or debating on perquisites long may the commons flourish cried punning Georgie filling this glass it is by the commons were fed and may they never know cultivation three times three shouted long net and the toast was drunk as Mr. Pepper proposed a little moderate cultivation of the commons to speak frankly said Augustus Tomlinson modestly might not be amiss for it would decore people into the belief that they might travel safely and after all a hedge or barley field is as good as us as a barren heath where we have no shelter if once pursued you talks nonsense you spoonie cried a robber of note called bagshot who being aged and having been a lawyer's foot board was sometimes denominated old bags you talks nonsense these inner waiting plows are the ruin of us every blade of corn in a common is an encroachment on the institution and rights of the German highwaymen I'm old and man lived to see these things but mark my words a time will come when a man may go from London to Johnny Grotes without losing a penny by one of us when hounds love will be safe and finchly secure my eyes for a sad thing for us that'll be the venerable old man became suddenly silent and the tears started to his eyes gentlemen the great horror of blue devils and particularly disliked all disagreeable subjects thunder and oons old bags close mine host of the jolly angler this will never do we're all met here to be married and not to listen to your mulling cally tyrantarum says that pepper suppose you tips us a song and I'll beat time with my knuckles long net taking the pipe from what did like Walter Scott's Lady Heron one or two pretty excuses these being drowned by our universal shout the handsome pearl loiner gave the following song to the tune of time has not thinned my flowing hair long Ned's song oh if my hands adhere to cash my gloves at least are clean and rarely have the gentry flash in spruce or clothes been seen sweet public since your coffers must afford our wants relief oh soothes it not to yield the dust to such a charming thief and John may laugh at mine excellent cry gentlemen George lighting his pipe and winking at Addy I hears as how you be a famous fellow with the lasses Ned smiled and answered no man should boast but pepper pause significantly and then glancing at Addy said talking of lasses it is my turn to knock down a gentleman for a song and I knocked down fighting Addy I never sing said the warrior trees and trees and cried pepper it is the law and you must obey the law so begin it is true Addy said gentlemen George there was no appeal from the honest publicans fiat so quick and laconic manner it being Addy's favorite dogma that Lee said is the soon as mended the warrior song as follows fighting Addy's song air he was famed for deeds of arms I never robbed a single coach but with the lovers air and though you might my course reproach you never could my hair rise six dine it to rob your man without a do such my maxims if you doubt their wisdom to the right about signing to a shallow gentleman on the same side of the table to send up the brandy bowl pass round the bingo of a gun you musty dusky husky son John bull who loves a harmless joke is apt at me to grin so why be crossed with laughing folk unless they laugh and win John bull has money in his box and though his wits divine yet let me laugh at Johnny's locks and John may laugh at mine much of whatever amusement might be occasioned by the knot we trust ill nature travesties of certain imminent characters in this part of our work when first published like all political illusions loses point and becomes obscure as the application sees to be familiar it is already necessary perhaps to say that fighting adi here in typifies or illustrates the Duke of Wellington's abrupt dismissal of Mr husk is some the salad gentlemen in a horse voice adi the bingers now with me I can't resign it yet do you see adi seizing the bowl resign resign it cease your dust resting it away and fiercely regarding the salad gentlemen you have resigned it and you must chorus you have resigned it and you must while the chorus laughing at the discomforted tipper yelled forth the emphatic words of the heroic adi that personage emptied the brandy at a draft resumed his pipe and in as few words as possible called on bagshot for a song the excellent old highway men obeyed the request cleared his throat and struck off with a diddy somewhat to the tune of the old woman old bags his song are the days then gone went on howls low heath we flashed our nags when the stoutest bosoms quail beneath the voice of bags now was my work half undone lest I should be nabbed slow was old bags but he never ceased till the hole was grabbed chorus till the hole was grabbed when the slow coach paused and the Germans stormed I bore the brunt and the only sound which my grave lips formed was blunt still blunt oh those jovial days are near forgot but the tape lags when I bees dead you'll drink one pot to poor old bags chorus to poor old bags I that we will my dear bagshot cried gentlemen George affectionately but observing a tear in the fine old fellow's I he added cheer up what ho cheer up times will improve and Providence may yet send us one good year when you shall be as well off as ever you shakes your pole well don't be hum dirgin but knock down a German dashing away the drop of sensibility the veteran knocked down gentlemen George himself oh dang it said George with an air of dignity I ought to skip since I finds the lush but how some ever here goes gentlemen George's song air old king coal I bees the code the merry old code of whose max all the rufflers sing and a lushing cove I thinks by Joe is as great as a sober king course is as great as a sober king whatever the noise as is made by the boys at the bars they lush away the devil annoys my peace alloys as long as the rascals pay course as long as the rascals pay what if I sticks my stones and my bricks with mortar I takes from the barbish all who can feel for the public wheel likes the public house to be barbish course likes the public house to be barbish there gentlemen said the public can stop being short that's the pith of the matter and split my wig but I'm short of breath now so send round the brandy Augustus you sly dog you keeps it all to yourself by this time the whole conclave were more than half sees over or as Augustus bested their more austere qualities were relaxed by a pleasing and innocent indulgence Paul's eyes reeled and his tongue ran loose by degrees the room swam around the faces of his comrades altered the countenance of all bags assumed an awful and menacing air he thought long Ned insulted him and that all bags took the part of the assailant doubled his fist and put the plaintiff's knob into chancery if he disturbed the peace of the meeting various other imaginary evils beset him he thought he had robbed a male coach in company with pepper that Tomlinson informed against him and that gentleman George ordered him to be hanged in short he labored under a temporary delirium occasion by a sudden reverse of fortune from water to brandy and the last thing of which he retained protection before he sank under the table in company with long Ned scarlet gem and all bags was the bearing his part in the burden of what appeared to him a course of last dying speeches and confessions but what in reality was a song made an honor of gentlemen George and sung by his grateful guests as a finale of the festivities it ran thus the robbers grand toast the tumbler of blue ruin fill fill for me red tape those as likes it may drain but whatever the lush it a bumper must be if we near drinks a bumper again now now in the crib where ruffler may lie without fear that the traps should distress him with a drop in the mouth and a drop in the eye here's to gentlemen George God bless him God bless him here's to gentlemen George God bless him man the pals of the prince I've heard it's the go before they have tippled enough to smarten their punch with the best curago more carnage to render the stuff I boast not such lush but whoever his glass does not like I be hanged if I press him upstanding my kiddies round round let it pass to gentlemen George God bless him God bless him God bless him here's to gentlemen George God bless him see see the fine fellow grows weak on his stumps a system he rascals to stand why ye stir not a pig are you all in the dumps fighting at he go lend him a hand the robbers crowd around gentlemen George each under pretence of supporting him pulling him first one way and then another lean upon me at your service I am get away from his elbow you well him you'll only upset them airfellows but sham here's to gentlemen George God help him God help him God help him here's to gentlemen George God help him end of chapter 10 chapter 11 part 1 of Paul Clifford by Edward Boer Lytton this LibriVox recording is in the public domain chapter 11 I boast no song in magic wonders rife but yet oh nature is there not to prize familiar in that bosom scenes of life and dwells in daylight truths salubrious skies no form with which the soul may sympathize young innocent on whose sweet forehead mild the part of ringlet shown in simplest guise an inmate in the home of Albert smiled or blessed his noonday walk she was his only child Gertrude of Wyoming oh time thou has played strange tricks with us and we bless the stars that made us a novelist and permit us now to retaliate leaving Paul to the instructions of Augustus Tomlinson and the festivities of the jolly angler and separate him by slow but sure degrees to acquire the graces and the reputation of the accomplished and perfect appropriator of other men's possessions we shall pass for the lapse of years with the same heedless rapidity with which they have glided over us and summon our reader to a very different scene from those which would be likely to greet his eyes were he following the adventures of our new Telemachus nor wilt thou dear reader whom we make the umpire between ourself and those who never read the critics of gentle breeding gone with us among places where the novelty of the scene has we fear scarcely atone for the coarseness not giving thyself the errors of a dainty Abigail not prading lackey like on the low company thou has met nor wilt thou dear and friendly reader have caused to dread that we shall weary thy patience by a damnable iteration between localities pausing for a moment to glance over the divisions of our story which lies before us like a map we feel that we may promise in future to conduct the among aspects of society more familiar to that habits where events flow to their allotted gulf through landscapes of more pleasing variety and among tribes of a more luxurious organization upon the banks of one of England's fairest rivers and about 50 miles distant from London still stands an old fashioned abode which we shall hear term warlock manor house it is a building of brick buried by stone coppings and covered in great part with ivy and jasmine around it lie the ruins of the older part of the fabric and these are sufficiently numerous in extent and important in appearance to testify that the mansion was once not without pretensions to the magnificent these remains of power some of which bear date as far back as the reign of Henry III are sanctioned by the character of the country immediately in the vicinity of the old manor house a vast tract of waste land interspersed with grows of antique pollards and here in their irregular and sinuous ridges of green mound bechocked to the experienced eye the evidence of a dismantled chase or park which must originally have been of no common dimensions on one side of the house the lawn slopes towards the river divided from a terrace which forms the most important embellishment of the pleasure grounds by that fence to which has been given the ingenious and significant name of ha ha a few scattered trees of giant growth are the so obstacles that break the view of the river which has often seemed to us at that particular passage of its course to glad with unusual calmness and serenity on the opposite side of the stream there is a range of steep hills celebrated for more romantic than their property of imparting to the flocks that browse upon that short and seemingly stinted herbage of flavor peculiarly grateful to the lovers of that pastoral animal which changes its name into mutton after its disease upon these hills the best age of human habitation is not visible and at times when no boat defaces the lonely smoothness of the river and the evening as still the sounds of labor and of life we know few scenes so utterly tranquil so steeped in quiet as that which is presented by the old quaint fashioned house and its antique grounds the smooth lawn the silent and to speak truly though disparagingly the somewhat sluggish river together with the large hills to which we know from simple though metaphysical causes how untired the idea of quiet and immovability peculiarly attaches itself and the white flocks those most peaceful of God's creatures that in fleecy clusters stud the ascent in warlock house at the time we refer to lived a gentleman of the name of brandon he was a widower and had attained his 50th year without casting much regret in the past or feeling much anxiety for the future in a word joseph brandon was one of those careless, quiescent indifferent men by whom a thought upon any subject is never referred to without a very urgent necessity he was good natured inoffensive and weak and if he was not an incomparable citizen he was at least an excellent vegetable he was a family of high antiquity and formerly of considerable note for the last four or five generations however the proprietors of warlock house gradually losing something alike from their acres and their consequence had left to their descendants no higher rank than that of a small country squire one had been a jacobite and had drunk out half a dozen farms in honor of charlie over the water was no very dangerous person but charlie over the wine was rather more ruinous the next brandon had been a fox hunter and fox hunters lived as largely as patriotic politicians paul sonius tells us that the same people who were the most notorious for their love of wine were also the most notorious for their negligence of affairs times are not much altered since paul sonius wrote and the remark holds as good with the english as it did with the jullily eye after this brandon came one who though he did not scorn the sportsman rather assumed the fine gentleman he married an heiress who of course assisted to ruin him wishing no assistance and so pleasing an occupation he overturned her perhaps not on purpose in that new sort of carriage which he was learning to drive and the good lady was killed on the spot she left the fine gentleman to sons joseph brandon the present fame and the brother some years younger the elder being of a fitting age was sent to school and some would escape the contagion of the paternal mansion but the younger brandon having only at the time of his mother's deceased was retained at home whether he was handsome or clever or impertinent or like his father about the eyes that greatest of all merits we know not but the widower became so fond of him that it was at a late period and with great reluctance that he finally entrusted him to the providence of a school among harlots and gamblers and lords and sharpers and gentlemen of the guards together with their frequent accompaniments guards of the gentleman namely bailiffs William brandon passed the first stage of his boyhood he was about 13 when he was sent to school and being a boy of remarkable talents he recovered lost time so well that when at the age of 19 he adjourned to the university he had scarcely resided there a single term before he had born off two the highest prizes awarded to the academic or merit from the university he departed on the grand tour at that time thought so necessary to complete the gentleman he went in company with a young nobleman whose friendship he had won at the university stayed abroad more than two years and on his return he settled down to the profession of the law meanwhile his father died and his fortune as a younger brother being literally next to nothing and the family estate for his brother was not unwilling to assist him being terribly involved it was believed that he struggled for some years with very embarrassed and panuria circumstances during this interval of his life however he was absent from London and by his brother supposed to have returned to the continent at length it seems he profited by a renewal of his friendship with the young nobleman who had accompanied him abroad reappeared in town and obtained through his noble friend one or two legal appointments of reputable emigrant soon afterwards he got a brief on some cause where a major had been raising a core to his brother officer with the better consent of the brother officer's wife than of the brother officer himself Brandon's abilities here for the first time in his profession found an adequate vent his reputation seemed made at once he rose rapidly in his profession and at the time we now speak of he was sailing down the full tide of fame and wealth the envy and the oracle of all young Templars and barristers who having been starved themselves for ten years began now to calculate on the possibility of starving their clients at an early period in his career he had through the good offices of a nobleman we have mentioned obtained a seat in the House of Commons and though his eloquence was of an order much better suited to the bar than the Senate he had nevertheless acquired a very considerable reputation in the latter and was looked upon by many as likely to win to the same brilliant fortunes as the courtly Mansfield a great man whose political principles and her main address Brandon was supposed especially to affect as his own model of unblemished integrity in public life for as he supported all things that exist with the most unbending rigidity he could not be accused of inconsistency we in Brandon was as we have said in a former place of unhappy memory to our hero esteemed in private life the most honorable the most moral even the most austere of men and his grave and stern repute on this score joined to the dazzle of his eloquence and forensic powers had baffled in great measure the ranker of party hostility and obtained for him a character for virtues almost as high and as enviable as that which he had acquired for abilities while William was thus dreading a noted and an honorable career his elder brother carried into a clergyman's family and soon lost his consort had with his only child a daughter named Lucy resided in his paternal mansion in undisturbed obscurity the discreditable character and habits of the free seating lords of warlock which had sunk their respectability in the county as well as curtail their property had rendered the surrounding gentry little anxious to cultivate the intimacy of the present proprietor and the heavy mind and retired manners of Joseph Brandon were not calculated to counterbalance the faults of his forefathers nor to reinstate the name of Brandon in its ancient popularity and esteem though dull and little cultivated the squire was not without his proper pride he attempted not to intrude himself where he was unwelcome avoided county meetings the county ball smoked his pipe with the parson and not often with the surgeon and the solicitor and suffered his daughter Lucy to educate herself with the help of the parson's wife and to ripen for nature was more favorable to her than art into the very prettiest girl that the whole county belonged to say the whole country at that time could boast of never did glass give back a more lovely image than that of Lucy Brandon at the age of 19 her auburn hair fell in the richest luxuriance over a brow never ruffled and a cheek where the blood never slept with every instant the color varied and at every variation that smooth pure virgin cheek seems to look more lovely than before she had the most beautiful laugh that one who loved music could imagine silvery low full of joy all her movements as the old parson said seemed to keep time to that laugh from earth made a great part of her innocent and childish temper and yet the mirth was feminine never loud nor like that of young ladies who had received the last finish at high gate seminaries everything joyous affected her and at once air flowers sunshine butterflies unlike heroines in general she very seldom cried and she saw nothing charming in having the vapors but she never looked so beautiful as in sleep and as the light breath came from her part of lips and the ivory lids closed over those eyes which only in sleep was silent and her attitude in her sleep took that ineffable grace belonging solely to childhood or the fresh youth into which childhood emerges she was just what you might imagine a sleeping Margaret before that most simple of all a poet's visions of womanhood had met with foust or her slumbers been ruffled with a dream of love we cannot say much for Lucy's intellectual acquirement she could thanks to the parson's wife spell indifferently well and write a tolerable hand she may preserves and sometimes riddles it was more difficult to question the excellence of the former than to the theories of the latter she worked to the admiration of all who knew her and we beg to say that we deemed that an excellent thing in woman she made caps for herself and gowns for the poor and now and then she accomplished the more literary labor of a stray novel that had wandered down to the manor house or an abridgment of ancient history in which was omitted everything but the proper names to these attainments she added to the poem of skill upon the spin and the power of singing old songs with the richest and sweetest voice that ever made one's eyes moisten or one's heart beat her moral qualities were more fully developed than her mental she was the kindest of human beings the very dog that had never seen her before knew that truth at the first glance and lost no time in making her acquaintance the goodness of her heart upon her face like sunshine and the old wife at the lodge said poetically and truly of the effect it produced that one felt warm when one looked on her if we could abstract from the description a certain chilling transparency the following exquisite verses of a forgotten poet might express the purity and luster of her countenance her face was like the milky way in the sky a meeting of gentle lights without a name she was surrounded by pets of all kinds ugly and handsome from Ralph the Raven to beauty the pheasant and from Bob the sheep dog without a tail to bow the bledom with blue ribbons round his neck all things loved her and she loved all things it seemed doubtful at that time whether she would ever have sufficient steadiness and strength of character her beauty and her character appeared so essentially woman like soft yet lively boyant yet caressing that you could scarcely place in her that moral dependence that you might in a character less amiable but less yieldingly feminine time however and circumstance which alter and harden were to decide whether the inward nature did not possess some latent and yet undiscovered properties such was Lucy Brandon in the year such and such and in that year on a beautiful autumnal evening we first introduce her personally to our readers she was sitting on a garden seat by the Riverside with her father who was deliberately conning the evening paper of a former week and gravely seasoning the ancient news with the inspirations of that weed which so bitterly excited the royal indignation of our British Solomon it happens unfortunately for us for outward peculiarities are scarcely worthy the dignity to which comedy either in the drama or the narrative aspires that squire Brandon possess so few distinguishing traits of mind that he leaves his delineator little whereby to designate him save a confused and parenthetical habit of speech but which he very often appeared to those who did not profit by long experience or close observation to say exactly in someone ludicrously that which he did not mean to convey I say Lucy observed Mr. Brandon but without lifting his eyes from the paper I say corn has fallen think of that girl think of that these times in my opinion I and in the opinion of wiser heads than mine though I do not mean to say that I have not some experience in these matters which is more than can be said of all our neighbors are very curious and even dangerous indeed papa answered Lucy and I say Lucy dear resume the squire after a short pause there has been and very strange it is to when one considers the crowded neighborhood blessed me what times these are a shocking murder committed upon the tobacco stopper there it is think you know girl just by epping an old gentleman dear how shocking by whom I that's the question the corners inquest has what a blessing it is to live in a civilized country where a man does not die without knowing the why and the where for sat on the body and declared it is very strange but they don't seem to have made much discovery for why we knew as much before that the body was found it was found on the floor Lucy murdered murder are or murderers in the bureau which was broken open they found the money untouched unknown here there was again a slight pause and passing to another side of the paper Mr. Brandon resumed in a quicker tone ah well now this is odd but he's a deuce clever fellow Lucy that brother of mine has and in a very honorable manner to which I am sure is highly creditable to the family though he has not taken too much notice of me lately a circumstance which is elder brother I'm a little angry at distinguished himself in his speech remarkable the paper says for its great legal I wonder by the by whether William could get me that adjustment money is a heavy thing to lose but going to law as my poor father used to say is like fishing for gadgets not a bad little fish we can have some for supper with Yenny's knowledge as well as its spending and overpowering I do love willful keeping up family honor I'm sure it is more than I've done hi ho eloquence and on what subject has he been speaking papa or a very fine subject what you call a it is astonishing that in this country there should be such a wish for taking away people's characters which for my part I don't see is a bit more entertaining that what you are always doing playing with those stupid birds libel but is not my uncle William coming down to see us he promised to do so and it made you quite happy papa for two days I hope he will not disappoint you and I'm sure that it is not his fault if he ever seems to neglect you he spoke of you to me when I saw him in the kindest and most affectionate manner I do think my dear father that he loves you very much I am said the squire evidently flattered and yet not convinced my brother will is a very acute fellow and I make no my dear little girl question but that when you have seen as much of the world as I have you grow suspicious he thought that any good word said of me to my daughter would you see Lucy I am as clear-sided as my neighbors though I don't give myself all their heirs which I very well might do considering my great great great grandfather Hugo Brandon had a hand in detecting the gunpowder plot he told to me again nay but I'm quite sure my uncle never spoke of you to me with that intention possibly my dear job at when the evenings are much shorter than they were did you talk with your uncle about me oh when staying with Mrs. Warner in London to be sure it is six years ago but I remember it perfectly I recollect in particular that he spoke of you very handsomely to Lord Maul Leverer who dined with him one evening when I was there and when my uncle was so kind as to take me to the play I was afterwards quite sorry that he was so good nature as he lost you remember I told you the story a very valuable watch I I remember all about that and so how long friendship lasts with some people Lord Maul Leverer dined with William what a fine thing it is for a man it is what I never did indeed I like being what they call cock of the walk let me see now I think of it William comes to night to play a hit at backgammon to make friends with a great man early in yet Will did not do it very early poor fellow he struggled first with a great deal of sorrow hardship that is life it is many years now since Will has been hand in glove with my is a bit of a puppy Lord Maul Leverer what did you think of his lordship of Lord Maul Leverer indeed I scarcely observed him but he seemed a handsome man he was very polite Mrs. Warner said he had been a very wicked person when he was young but he seemed good natured enough now papa by the by said the squire his lordship has just been made this new ministry seems very unlikely old which rather puzzles me for I think it my duty do you see Lucy always to vote for his majesty's government especially seeing that old Hugo Brandon had a hand in detecting the gunpowder plot and it is a good thing that good now which one has always before been thinking abominable lord lieutenant of the county Lord Maul Leverer our lord lieutenant yes child and since his lordship is such a friend of my brother I should think considering especially what an old family in the county we are not that I wish to intrude myself where I am not thought as fine as the rest that he would be more attempted to us than lord so and so and so was but that my dear Lucy puts me in mind to pill him and so perhaps you would like to walk to the Parsons as it is a fine evening John shall come for you at nine o'clock with the moon is not up then the lantern leaning on his daughters willing on the good old man then rose and walked home where and so soon as she had wheeled round his easy chair place the backgammon board on the table in which the old gentleman an easy victory over his expected antagonist the apothecary Lucy died down her bonnet and took her way to the rectory when she arrived at the clerical mansion and entered the drawing room she was surprised to find the Parsons wife a good homely lethargic old lady run up to her seemingly in a state of great nervous agitation and crying oh my dear Miss Brandon which way did you come did you meet nobody by the road or I'm so frightened such an accident to poor dear Dr. Slapperton stopped in the King's Highway robbed of some type just received from farmer slow forth if it had not been for that dear angel good young man God only knows whether I might not have been a disconsulate widow by this time End of Chapter 11 Part 1 Chapter 11 Part 2 of Paul Clifford by Edward Bower Litton this liver box recording is in the public domain Chapter 11 Part 2 while the affectionate matron was thus running on Lucy's eye glancing round the room discovered in an arm chair the round and oily little person of Dr. Slapperton with the countenance from which all the carnation hues save in one circular excrescence on the nasal member that was left like the last rows of summer blooming alone were faded into an aspect of miserable power the little man tried to conjure up a smile while his wife was narrating his misfortune and to mutter for some syllable of unconcern but he looked for all his bravado so exceedingly scared that Lucy would despite herself have laughed outright and not or I rested upon the figure of a young man who had been seated beside the reverend gentleman but who had risen at Lucy's entrance and who now stood her intently but with an air of great respect blushing deeply and involuntarily she turned her eyes hastily away and approaching the good doctor made her inquiries into the present state of his nerves in a graver tone than she had a minute before imagined it possible that she should have been enabled to command are my good young ladies said the doctor squeezing her hand I may I may say the church for am I not its minister was in imminent danger but this excellent gentleman prevented the sacrilege at least in great measure I only lost some of my dues my rightful dues for which I console myself with thinking that the infamous and abandoned villain will suffer hereafter there cannot be the least out of that said the young man had he only robbed the male into a gentleman's house the offense might have been expealable but to rob a clergyman and a rector to owe the sacrilegious dog your warrant does you honor sir said the doctor beginning now to recover and I am very proud to have made the acquaintance of a gentleman of such truly religious opinions I cried the stranger my verbal sir if I may so speak is a sort of enthusiastic fervor for the Protestant establishment I never come across the very nave of the church without feeling an indescribable emotion a kind of sympathy as it were with you understand me sir I fear I express myself ill not at all not at all exclaim the doctor such sentiments are uncommon in one so young sir I learned them early in life I'm a friend and preceptive mind Mr. McGrawler and I trust they may continue with me to my dying day here the doctor servant entered with we bar a phrase from the novel of blank blank the tea equip each and Mrs. Lapperton be taking herself to its superintendents inquired with more composure than hitherto had belonged to her demeanor sort of a looking creature the ruffian was I will tell you my dear I will tell you miss Lucy all about it I was walking home from Mr. slow forth with his money in my pocket thinking my love of buying you that topaz cross you wish to have dear good man cried Mrs. Lapperton what a fiend it must have been to Rob so excellent a creature and resume the doctor occurred to me that the Madeira was nearly out the Madeira I mean with the red seal and I was thinking it might not be a miss to devote part of the money to buy six dozen more and the remainder my love which would be about one pound 18 I thought I would divide for he that give it to the poor lend it to the Lord among the 30 poor families on the common that is if they behaved well and the apples in the back garden were not continuously abstracted excellent charitable man ejaculated Mrs. Lapperton while I was thus meditating I lifted my eyes and saw before me two men one of prodigious height and with a great perfusion of hair about his shoulders the other was smaller and wore his hat slouched over his face it was a very large hat my attention was arrested by the singularity of the tall person's hair smiling at its luxuriance I heard him say to his companion well Augustus as you are such a moral dog he is in your line not mine so I leave him to you little did I think those words related to me no sooner were they uttered then the tall rascal leaped over a gate and disappeared the other fellow then marching up to me very smoothly asked me the way to the church and while I was going to him to turn first to the right and then to the left and so on for the best way is you know exceedingly crooked the hypocritical scoundrel sees me by the collar and cried out your money or your life I do assure you that I never trembled so much not my dear Miss Lucy so much for my own sake as for the sake of the 30 poor families on the common whose wants it had been my intention to relieve I gave up the money finding my prayers and expostulations were in vain and the dog then brandishing over my head an enormous bludgeon said what abominable language I think doctor I shall put an end to an existence derogatory to yourself and useless to others at that moment the young gentleman beside me sprang over the very gate by which the tall ruffian had disappeared and cried hold villain on seeing my deliverer the coward started back and plunged into a neighboring would the good young gentleman pursued him for a few minutes but then returning to my aid conducted me home and as we used to say at school Tay ready you say in Co Lumen Gaudier which being interpreted means sir excuse upon I'm sure so great a friend to the church understands Latin that I'm very glad to get back safe to my friend. He he he and I miss Lucy you must thank that young gentleman for having saved the life of your pastoral teacher which act will no doubt be remembered at the great day as Lucy looking towards the stranger said something in compliment she observed a big and as it were covert smile upon his countenance which immediately and as if by sympathy conjured one to her own the hero of the river in a very grave tone replied to her compliment at the same time bowing profoundly mention it not madame I were unworthy of the name of a Britain and a man could I pass the highway without relieving the distress or lightening the burden of a fellow creature and continued the stranger after a momentary pause coloring while he spoke and concluding in the high flown gallantry of the day me thinks it were worried had I saved the whole church instead of one of its most valuable members to receive the thanks of a lady whom I might reasonably take for one of those celestial beings to whom we have been pious they taught that the churches especially the care though there might have been something really ridiculous in this over strain compliment coupled as it was with preservation of Dr. Slopperton yet coming from the mouth of one who Lucy thought the very handsomest person she'd ever seen it appeared to her anything but absurd and for a very long time afterwards her heart thrilled with pleasure when she remembered that the cheek of the speaker had glowed and his voice had trembled as he spoke it the conversation now turning from robbers in particular dwelt upon robberies in general it was edifying to hear the honest indignation with which the stranger spoke of the lawless depredators with whom the country in that day of mack heaths was infested a pack of infamous rascals said he in a glow who attempt to justify their misdeeds by the example of honest men and who say that they do no more than is done by lawyers and doctors soldiers clergymen and ministers of state pitiful delusion or rather shameless hypocrisy it all comes of educating the poor said the doctor the moment they pretend to judge the conduct of their betters there's an end of all order they see nothing sacred in the laws though we hang the dogs ever so fast and the very peers of the land spiritual and temporal sees to be venerable in their eyes talking of peers said mrs. Loperton I hear that lord ma leverer is to pass by this road tonight on his way to ma leverer park do you know his lordship miss lucy he is very intimate with your uncle I've only seen him once answered lucy are you sure that his lordship will come this road asked the stranger carelessly I heard something of it this morning but did not know it was settled oh quite so rejoin mrs. Loperton his lordship's gentleman wrote for post horses to meet his lordship at why burn about three miles on the other side of the village at 10 o'clock tonight his lordship is very impatient of delay praise of the doctor who had not much heated this turn in the conversation and was now on hospitable cares intent pracer if not impertinent are you visiting or lodging in the neighborhood or will you take a bed with us you are extremely kind my dear sir but I fear I must soon wish you good evening I have to look after a little property I have some miles hence which indeed brought me down into this part of the world property in what direction sir if I may ask with the doctor I know the country for miles do you indeed where's my property you say why it is rather difficult to describe it and it is after all a mere trifle it is only some common land near the high road and I came down to try the experiment of hedging and draining it is a good plan if one has capital and does not require a speedy return yes but one likes a good interest for the loss of principle and a speedy return is always desirable although alas it is often attended with risk I hope sir said the doctor if you must leave us so soon that your property will often bring you into our neighborhood you overpower me with so much unexpected goodness answer the stranger to tell you the truth nothing can give me greater pleasure than to meet those again who have once obliged me whom you have obliged rather cried Mrs. Loperton and then added in a loud whisper to Lucy how modest but it is always so with true courage I assure you madame return the benevolent stranger that I never think twice of the little favors I render my fellow men my only hope is that they may be as forgetful as myself charmed with so much unaffected goodness of disposition the doctor Mrs. Loperton now set up a sort of duet in praise of their guest after enduring their commendations and compliments for some minutes with much grimace of disavow and diffidence the strangers modesty seemed at last to take pain at the excess of their gratitude and accordingly pointing to the clock which was within a few minutes June 9 he said I fear my respected host and my admired hostess that I must now leave you I have far to go but are you yourself not afraid of the high remnant cried Mrs. Loperton interrupting him the highwayman said the stranger smiling no I do not fear them besides I have little about me worth robbing do you superintendent your property yourself said the doctor who farmed his own glee but who unwilling to part was so charming a guest seized him now by the button superintendent myself by not exactly there is a bailiff whose views of things don't agree with mine and who now and then gives me a good deal of trouble then why don't you discharge them all together I wish I could but it is unnecessary evil we landed proprietors my dear sir must always be plagued with something of the sort for my part I've found those cursed bailiffs would take away if they could all the little property one has been trying to accumulate but abruptly changing his manner into one of great softness could I not proper my services and my companionship to this young lady which he allowed me to conduct her home and indeed stamp this day upon my memory is one of the few delightful ones I've ever known thank you dear sir said Mrs. Loperton answering it once for Lucy it is very considerate of you and I'm sure my love I could not think of letting you go home alone with her after such an adventure to the poor dear doctor Lucy began an excuse which the good lady would not hear but as the servant whom Mr. Brandon was to send without lantern to attend his daughter home had not arrived and as Mrs. Loperton despite her prepossessions in favor of her husband's delivery did not for a moment contemplate his accompanying without any other attendance her young friend across the fields at that unseasonable the stranger was forced for the present to reassume his seat an open harpsichord at one end of the room gave him an opportunity to make some remark upon music and this introducing an eulogy on Lucy's voice from Mrs. Loperton necessarily ended in a request to Ms. Brandon to indulge the stranger with the song never had Lucy who was not a shy girl she was too innocent to be bashful felt nervous hitherto in singing before a stranger but now she hesitated and faltered and went through a whole series of little natural affectations before she complied with the request she chose a song composed somewhat after the old English school which at that time was reviving into fashion the song though conveying a sort of conceit was not perhaps altogether without tenderness it was a favorite with Lucy she scarcely knew why and ran thus Lucy's song why sleep ye gentle flowers are why when tender eaves falling and starlight drinks the happy sigh of winds to fairies calling calling with low and plaining note most like a ring dove chiding or flute paint heard from distant boat or smoothest waters gliding low round you steals the wooing breeze low on you falls the dew oh sweets awake for scarcely these can charm while wanting you wake ye not yet while vast below the silver time is fleeing oh heart of mine those flowers but show thine own contented being the twilight but preserves the bloom the sun can but decay the warmth that brings the rich perfume but steals the life away oh heart enjoy thy present calm rest peaceful in the shade and dread the sun that gives the balm to bid the blossom fade when Lucy ended the strangers praise was less loud than either the doctors or his ladies but how far more sweet it was and for the first time in her life Lucy made the discovery that eyes can praise as well as lips for our part we have often thought that that discovery is an epic in life it was now that Mrs. Loperton declared her thorough conviction that the stranger himself could sing he had that about him she said which made her sure of it indeed dear madame said he with his usual half frank half late and smile my voice is but so so and any memory so indifferent that even in the easiest passages I soon come to a stand my best notes are in the falsetto and as for my execution but we won't talk about nay nay you are so modest said Mrs. Loperton I'm sure you could oblige us if you would your command said the stranger moving to the harpsichord is all sufficient and since you madame turning to Lucy have chosen a song after the old school may I find pardon if I do the same my selection is to be sure from a lawless song and is supposed to be a ballad by Robin Hood or at least one of his merry men a very different sort of outlaws from the naves who attacked you sir with this preface the stranger sung to a wild yet jovial air with a tolerable voice the following effusion the love of our profession or the robbers life on this dream of the world the robbers life is born on the blithe this wave now it bounds into light in a glass of strife now it laughs in its hiding cave at his maiden's ladders he stays the rain how still is his coarser proud still is a wind when it hangs or the main in the breast of the boating cloud with the champed bit and the arched crest and the eye of a listening deer like dollar fretful most in rest least chafed when in career fit slave to a lord whom all else refuse to save at his desperate need by my trap I think one whom the world pursues hath a right to a gallant steed away my beloved I hear their feet I blow thee a kiss my fair and I promise to bring thee when next we meet a braid for thy body hair hurrah for the booty my steed hurrah the roue bush through break go wee and the coy moon smiles on our merry way like my own love timidly the parson he rides with a jingling pouch how it blabs of the rifle poor the courtier he laws and his gilded coach how it smacks of a sinecure the lawyer revolves in his whirling chaise sweet thoughts of a mischief done and the lady that knoweth the card she plays is counting her guineas one he lady what hola ye sinless men my claim ye can scarce refuse for when honest folk live on their neighbors then they encroach on the robbers dues the lady changed cheek like a bashful maid the lawyer talked wonder spare the parson blasphemed and the courtier prayed and the robber bore off his share hurrah for the rebel steed hurrah through bush through break go wee it is ever a virtue when others pay to ruffle it merrily oh there never was life like the robbers so jolly and bold and free and its end why a cheer from the crowd below and a leap from a leafless tree this very moral lay being ended mrs slob pretend declared it was excellent though she confessed she thought the sentiments rather loose perhaps the gentleman might be induced to favor them with a song of a more refined and modern turn something sentimental in short glancing towards lucy the stranger answered that he only knew one song of the kind mrs. slobberton specified and it was so short that he could scarcely weary her patience by granting her request at this moment the river which was easily described from the windows of the room glimmered in the starlight and directing his looks towards the water as if the scene had suggested to him the verse as he sung he gave the following stanzas in a very low sweet tone and with a far purer taste than perhaps would have suited the preceding and rudor song the wish as sleeps the dreaming eve low its holiest star keeps ward above and yonder wave begins to glow like friendship brightening into love ah would that bosom were that stream near wood saved by the virgin air ah would that I were that star whose beam looks down and finds his image there scarcely was the song ended before the arrival of mrs. brandon servant was announced and her destined escort starting up gallantly assisted her with her cloak and her hood happy no doubt to escape in some measure the overwhelming compliments of his entertainers but said the doctor as he shook hands with his deliverer about what name shall I remember and lifting his reverend eyes pray for the gentleman to whom I am so much indebted you are very kind said the stranger my name is cliford madame turning to lucy may I offer my hand down the stairs lucy accepted the courtesy and the stranger was half way down the staircase when the doctor stretching out his little neck exclaimed good evening sir I do hope we shall meet again fear not said mr. cliford laughing gaily I am too great a traveler to make that hope a matter of impossibility take care madame one step more the night was calm and tolerably clear though the moon had not yet risen as lucy and her companion passed through the fields with the servant preceding them at a little distance with the lantern after a pause of some link cliford said with a little hesitation is mrs. brandon related to the celebrated barrister of her name he is my uncle said lucy do you know him only your uncle said cliford with the vacity and evading lucy's question I feared hem hem that is I thought he might have been a nearer relation there was another but a shorter pause when cliford resumed in a lower voice will miss brandon think me very presumptuous if I say that a countenance like hers once seen can never be forgotten and I believe some years since I had the honor to see her in london at the theater it was but a momentary and distant glance that I was then able to gain and yet he added significantly it sufficed I was only once at the theater while in london some years ago said lucy a little embarrassed and indeed an unpleasant occurrence which happened to my uncle with whom I was is sufficient to make me remember it and what was it while in going out of the playhouse his watch was stolen by some dexter's pickpocket was the rogue caught asked the stranger yes and was sent the next day to bride well my uncle said he was extremely young and yet quite hardened I remember that I was foolish enough when I heard of his sentence to beg very hard that my uncle would intercede for him but in vain did you indeed intercede for him said the stranger in so earnest a tone that lucy colored for the twentieth time that night without seeing any necessity for the blush Clifford continued in a gayer tone well it is surprising how rogues hang together I should not be greatly surprised if the person who dispoiled your uncle for one of the same gang as the rascal who so terrified your worthy friend the doctor but is this handsome old place your home this is my home answered lucy but it is an old fashioned strange place and few people to whom it was not endeared by associations would think it handsome pardon me said lucy's companion stopping and surveying with a look of great interest the quaint pile which now stood close before them it's dark bricks gable ends and ivy walls tinged by the starry light of the skies and contrasted by the river which rolled in silence below the shutters to the large orial window of the room in which the square usually sat were still unclosed and the steady and warm light of the apartment shone forth casting a glow even to the smooth waters of the river at the same moment to the friendly bark of the house dog was hurt as in welcome and was followed by the note of the great bell announcing the hour for the last meal of the old fashioned and hospitable family there is a pleasure in this said the stranger unconsciously and with a half sigh I wish I had a home and if you not a home said lucy with naive day as much as a bachelor can have perhaps answered Clifford recovering without an effort his gaiety and self possession but you know we wanderers are not allowed the same boast as the more fortunate we send our hearts in search of a home and we lose the one without gaining the other but I keep you in the cold and we are now at your door you will come in of course of miss Brandon and partake of our evening cheer the stranger hesitated for an instant and then said in a quick don't know many many thanks it is already late though miss Brandon except my gratitude for her condescension in permitting the attendance of one unknown to her as he thus spoke Clifford bowed profoundly over the hand of his beautiful charge and Lucy wishing him good night hastened with a light step to her father's side meanwhile Clifford after lingering a minute when the door was closed on him turned abruptly away and muttering to himself prepared with rapid steps to whatever object he had then in the end of chapter 11 part 2