ck and
thin," to the identity of the prisoner with a horseman who had civilly
borne each of them company for an hour in their several homeward rides
from certain fairs, and had carried the pleasure of his society, they
very gravely asserted, considerably beyond a joke; so that the state of
the prisoner's affairs took a very sombre aspect, and the counsel--an
old hand--intrusted with his cause declared confidentially that there
was not a chance. But a yet more weighty accusation, because it came
from a much nobler quarter, awaited Clifford. In the robbers' cavern
were found several articles answering exactly to the description
of those valuables feloniously abstracted from the person of Lord
Mauleverer. That nobleman attended to inspect the articles, and to view
the prisoner. The former he found himself able to swear to, with a very
tranquillized conscience; the latter he beheld feverish, attenuated, and
in a moment of delirium, on the sick-bed to which his wound had brought
him. He was at no loss, however, to recognize in the imprisoned felon
the gay and conquering Clifford, whom he had once even honoured with his
envy. Although his former dim and vague suspicions of Clifford were
thus confirmed, the good-natured peer felt some slight compunction at
appearing as his prosecutor. This compunction, however, vanished the
moment he left the sick man's apartment; and after a little patriotic
conversation with the magistrates about the necessity of public duty,--a
theme which brought virtuous tears into the eyes of those respectable
functionaries,--he re-entered his carriage, returned to town, and after
a lively dinner tete-a-tete with an old chere amie, who, of all her
charms, had preserved only the attraction of conversation and the
capacity of relishing a salami, Mauleverer, the very evening of his
return, betook himself to the house of Sir William Brandon.

When he entered the hall, Barlow, the judge's favourite servant, met
him, with rather a confused and mysterious air, and arresting him as he
was sauntering into Brandon's library, informed him that Sir William was
particularly engaged, but would join his lordship in the drawing-room.
While Barlow was yet speaking, and Mauleverer was bending his right ear
(with which he heard the best) towards him, the library door opened, and
a man in a very coarse and ruffianly garb awkwardly bowed himself out.

"So this is the particular engagement," thought Mauleverer,--"a strange
S