have gone
on in a regular way, he might have been a rich man by this time: for he
had credit for evermore with the merchants in Amsterdam and Antwerp;
and with some others too that I'll say nothing about."

"Was this Nicholas then settled in business at this place?" asked the
Frenchman.

A smile appeared on the major part of the faces present; and the
landlord answered with a loud laugh--"Settled! my God! I would be glad
to see the place where Nicholas was ever settled for twenty-four hours
together. No, bless you! Nicholas was no settler. And there's some folk
will say that he never sate down in his life: but that's not true; for
I've seen him sit many a time in that very arm-chair where the young
gentleman is now sitting:" here he pointed to Bertram who felt somewhat
uneasy at the very marked attention which was at this moment directed
on him by the company. The landlord however took no notice, but
proceeded in his answer: "No, Nicholas was no settler: and just as
little can I call him a man in business. He was a sort of agent, you
see, in other people's business; and a d---d dangerous sort of business
too; and I suppose there's never been his match in that way since the
time of Owen Owalys. However we'll say nothing about all that: he
stocked the whole country with cheap brandies and other little matters.
And so I'll say nothing against his way of doing business; though I
reckon we mustn't praise it, except in a corner."

"You must understand, Monsieur," said a voice from behind, "that this
Nicholas set up an opposition trade against the government; and
undersold it, so that government lost all its trade in this part of the
country: for which reason government is jealous of him, and can't abide
him.--But, landlord, it seems you knew this Nicholas?"

"I knew him in a manner: but how? I knew him, and I knew him not.
Scores of times he has sate in this bar, and I never knew it to be him
until after he was gone. Sometimes he would come dressed like an old
beggar, and slink into a corner; sometimes like a labouring man, and
argue with me for the value of a halfpenny; other times I have known
him come like a lord, and make his guineas fly about like so much dust.
And once--egad! I can't help laughing--he came in the uniform of a
dragoon officer, and he would needs cudgel me for letting Nicholas
escape. He got me by the throat: I sung out for my very life:
Jenny--she ran for the constables: the neighbours came flocking