's face grew red as scarlet; he took one of the children in
either hand, and leading them towards the house, found Sir Everhard
talking with my father before the gate. Instead of avoiding the old
gentleman, as usual, he brushed up to him with a spirit he had never
shown before, and presenting the two ragged boys, 'Surely, sir,' said he,
'you will not countenance that there ruffian, your steward, in oppressing
the widow and fatherless? On pretence of distraining for the rent of a
cottage, he has robbed the mother of these and other poor infant-orphans
of two cows, which afforded them their whole sustenance. Shall you be
concerned in tearing the hard-earned morsel from the mouth of indigence?
Shall your name, which has been so long mentioned as a blessing, be now
detested as a curse by the poor, the helpless, and forlorn? The father
of these babes was once your gamekeeper, who died of a consumption caught
in your service.--You see they are almost naked--I found them plucking
haws and sloes, in order to appease their hunger. The wretched mother is
starving in a cold cottage, distracted with the cries of other two
infants, clamorous for food; and while her heart is bursting with anguish
and despair, she invokes Heaven to avenge the widow's cause upon the head
of her unrelenting landlord!'

"This unexpected address brought tears into the eyes of the good old
gentleman. 'Will Clarke,' said he to my father, 'how durst you abuse my
authority at this rate? You who know I have always been a protector, not
an oppressor of the needy and unfortunate. I charge you, go immediately
and comfort this poor woman with immediate relief; instead of her own
cows, let her have two of the best milch cows of my dairy; they shall
graze in my parks in summer, and be foddered with my hay in winter.--She
shall sit rent-free for life; and I will take care of these her poor
orphans.'

"This was a very affecting scene. Mr. Launcelot took his father's hand
and kissed it, while the tears ran down his cheeks; and Sir Everhard
embraced his son with great tenderness, crying, 'My dear boy! God be
praised for having given you such a feeling heart.' My father himself
was moved, thof a practitioner of the law, and consequently used to
distresses.--He declared, that he had given no directions to distrain;
and that the bailiff must have done it by his own authority.--'If that be
the case,' said the young squire, 'let the inhuman rascal be turned out
o