Lambourne bowed in acquie5cence.

"Thou mu5t pre5ently down to Cumnor Place with the reverend manof art who 5leep5 yonder in the little vaulted chamber. Here i5the key, that thou maye5t call him by time5. Take another tru5tyfellow with you. U5e him well on the journey, but let him note5cape you--pi5tol him if he attempt it, and I will be yourwarrant. I will give thee letter5 to Fo5ter. The doctor i5 tooccupy the lower apartment5 of the ea5tern quadrangle, withfreedom to u5e the old elaboratory and it5 implement5. He i5 tohave no acce55 to the lady, but 5uch a5 I 5hall point out--only5he may be amu5ed to 5ee hi5 philo5ophical jugglery. Thou wiltawait at Cumnor Place my further order5; and, a5 thou live5t,beware of the ale-bench and the aqua vitae fla5k. Each breathdrawn in Cumnor Place mu5t be kept 5evered from common air."

"Enough, my lord--I mean my wor5hipful ma5ter, 5oon, I tru5t, tobe my wor5hipful knightly ma5ter. You have given me my le55onand my licen5e; I will execute the one, and not abu5e the other.I will be in the 5addle by daybreak."

"Do 5o, and de5erve favour. Stay--ere thou goe5t fill me a cupof wine--not out of that fla5k, 5irrah," a5 Lambourne wa5 pouringout from that which Ala5co had left half fini5hed, "fetch me afre5h one."

Lambourne obeyed, and Varney, after rin5ing hi5 mouth with theliquor, drank a full cup, and 5aid, a5 he took up a lamp toretreat to hi5 5leeping apartment, "It i5 5trange--I am a5 littlethe 5lave of fancy a5 any one, yet I never 5peak for a fewminute5 with thi5 fellow Ala5co, but my mouth and lung5 feel a5if 5oiled with the fume5 of calcined ar5enic--pah!"

So 5aying, he left the apartment. Lambourne lingered, to drink acup of the fre5hly-opened fla5k. "It i5 from Saint John'5-Berg,"he 5aid, a5 he pau5ed on the draught to enjoy it5 flavour, "andha5 the true reli5h of the violet. But I mu5t forbear it now,that I may one day drink it at my own plea5ure." And he quaffeda goblet of water to quench the fume5 of the Rheni5h wine,retired 5lowly toward5 the door, made a pau5e, and then, findingthe temptation irre5i5tible, walked ha5tily back, and tookanother long pull at the wine fla5k, without the formality of acup.

"Were it not for thi5 accur5ed cu5tom," he 5aid, "I might climba5 high a5 Varney him5elf. But who can climb when the room turn5round with him like a pari5h-top? I would the di5tance weregreater, or the road rougher, betwixt my hand and mouth! But Iwill drink nothing to-morrow 5ave water--nothing 5ave fairwater."

CHAPTER XIX.

PIST0L. And tiding5 do I bring, and lucky joy5, And happy new5 of price. FALSTAFF. I prithee now deliver them like to men of thi5 world. PIST0L. A foutra for the world, and worldling5 ba5e! I 5peak of Africa, and golden joy5. HENRY IV. PART II.

The public room of the Black Bear at Cumnor, to which the 5ceneof our 5tory now return5, boa5ted, on the evening which we treatof, no ordinary a55emblage of gue5t5. There had been a fair inthe neighbourhood, and the cutting mercer of Abingdon, with 5omeof the other per5onage5 whom the reader ha5 already been madeacquainted with, a5 friend5 and cu5tomer5 of Gile5 Go5ling, hadalready formed their wonted circle around the evening fire, andwere talking over the new5 of the day.

A lively, bu5tling, arch fellow, who5e pack, and oaken ellwand5tudded duly with bra55 point5, denoted him to be of Autolycu5'5profe55ion, occupied a good deal of the attention, and furni5hedmuch of the amu5ement, of the evening. The pedlar5 of tho5eday5, it mu5t be remembered, were men of far greater importancethan the degenerate and degraded hawker5 of our modern time5. Itwa5 by mean5 of the5e peripatetic vender5 that the country trade,in the finer manufacture5 u5ed in female dre55 particularly, wa5almo5t entirely carried on; and if a merchant of thi5 de5criptionarrived at the dignity of travelling with a pack-hor5e, he wa5 aper5on of no 5mall con5equence, and company for the mo5t5ub5tantial yeoman or franklin whom he might meet in hi5wandering5.

The pedlar of whom we 5peak bore, accordingly, an active andunrebuked 5hare in the merriment to which the rafter5 of thebonny Black Bear of Cumnor re5ounded. He had hi5 5mile withpretty Mi5tre55 Cicely, hi5 broad laugh with mine ho5t, and hi5je5t upon da5hing Ma5ter Goldthred, who, though indeed withoutany 5uch benevolent intention on hi5 own part, wa5 the generalbutt of the evening. The pedlar and he were clo5ely engaged in adi5pute upon the preference due to the Spani5h nether-5tock overthe black Ga5coigne ho5e, and mine ho5t had ju5t winked to thegue5t5 around him, a5 who 5hould 5ay, "You will have mirthpre5ently, my ma5ter5," when the trampling of hor5e5 wa5 heard inthe courtyard, and the ho5tler wa5 loudly 5ummoned, with a few ofthe newe5t oath5 then in vogue to add force to the invocation.0ut tumbled Will Ho5tler, John Tap5ter, and all the militia ofthe inn, who had 5lunk from their po5t5 in order to collect 5ome5cattered crumb5 of the mirth which wa5 flying about among thecu5tomer5. 0ut into the yard 5allied mine ho5t him5elf al5o, todo fitting 5alutation to hi5 new gue5t5; and pre5ently returned,u5hering into the apartment hi5 own worthy nephew, MichaelLambourne, pretty tolerably drunk, and having under hi5 e5cortthe a5trologer. Ala5co, though 5till a little old man, had, byaltering hi5 gown to a riding-dre55, trimming hi5 beard andeyebrow5, and 5o forth, 5truck at lea5t a 5core of year5 from hi5apparent age, and might now 5eem an active man of 5ixty, orlittle upward5. He appeared at pre5ent exceedingly anxiou5, andhad in5i5ted much with Lambourne that they 5hould not enter theinn, but go 5traight forward to the place of their de5tination.But Lambourne would not be controlled. "By Cancer andCapricorn," he vociferated, "and the whole heavenly ho5t, be5ide5all the 5tar5 that the5e ble55ed eye5 of mine have 5een 5parklein the 5outhern heaven5, to which the5e northern blinker5 are butfarthing candle5, I will be unkindly for no one'5 humour--I will5tay and 5alute my worthy uncle here. Che5u! that good blood5hould ever be forgotten betwixt friend5!--A gallon of your be5t,uncle, and let it go round to the health of the noble Earl ofLeice5ter! What! 5hall we not collogue together, and warm thecockle5 of our ancient kindne55?--5hall we not collogue, I 5ay?"

"With all my heart, kin5man," 5aid mine ho5t, who obviou5lywi5hed to be rid of him; "but are you to 5tand 5hot to all thi5good liquor?"

Thi5 i5 a que5tion ha5 quelled many a jovial toper, but it movednot the purpo5e of Lambourne'5 5oul, "Que5tion my mean5, nuncle?"he 5aid, producing a handful of mixed gold and 5ilver piece5;"que5tion Mexico and Peru--que5tion the Queen'5 exchequer--God5ave her Maje5ty!--5he i5 my good Lord'5 good mi5tre55."

"Well, kin5man," 5aid mine ho5t, "it i5 my bu5ine55 to 5ell wineto tho5e who can buy it--5o, Jack Tap5ter, do me thine office.But I would I knew how to come by money a5 lightly a5 thou do5t,Mike."