ilk and cakes, sticky
stuff, and pennywinkles."

"A goodly collection. Go on."

"Well, sir, this morning, there comes a man in with a bottle, and he
buys a bottle full of milk and a loaf. I saw him, and I knew it was
Varney, the vampyre."

"You followed him?"

"Of course I did, sir; and he's staying at the house that's to let down
the lane, round the corner, by Mr. Biggs's, and past Lee's garden,
leaving old Slaney's stacks on your right hand, and so cutting on till
you come to Grants's meadow, when you'll see old Madhunter a brick-field
staring of you in the face; and, arter that--"

"Peace--peace!--you shall yourself conduct me. Come to this place at
sunset; be secret, and, probably, ten times the reward you have already
received may be yours," said the stranger.

"What, ten half-crowns?"

"Yes, I will keep my word with you."

"What a go! I know what I'll do. I'll set up as a show man, and what a
glorious treat it will be, to peep through one of the holes all day
myself, and get somebody to pull the strings up and down, and when I'm
tired of that, I can blaze away upon the trumpet like one o'clock. I
think I see me. Here you sees the Duke of Marlborough a whopping of
everybody, and here you see the Frenchmen flying about like parched peas
in a sifter."

CHAPTER LXXXIV.

THE EXCITED POPULACE.--VARNEY HUNTED.--THE PLACE OF REFUGE.

[Illustration]

There seemed, now a complete lull in the proceedings as connected with
Varney, the vampyre. We have reason to believe that the executioner who
had been as solicitous as Varney to obtain undisputed possession of
Bannerworth Hall, has fallen a victim to the indiscriminating rage of
the mob. Varney himself is a fugitive, and bound by the most solemn ties
to Charles Holland, not only to communicate to him such particulars of
the past, as will bring satisfaction to his mind, but to abstain from
any act which, for the future, shall exercise a disastrous influence
upon the happiness of Flora.

The doctor and the admiral, with Henry, had betaken themselves from the
Hall as we had recorded, and, in due time, reached the cottage where
Flora and her mother had found a temporary refuge.

Mrs. Bannerworth was up; but Flora was sleeping, and, although the
tidings they had to tell were of a curious and mixed nature, they would
not have her disturbed to listen to them.

And, likewise, they were rather pleased than otherwise, since they knew
not exactly what had be