never hear
of me; I care only for one thing, and that I will have. Mind yourself;
lest, when the roof falls, you, too, should be crushed under the ruins."

* * * * *

As I came out of his house, all hope of intervention quite destroyed, I
was aware of a stir on the harbour-side, and, raising my eyes, there
was a great ship newly come to anchor. It seems strange I could have
looked upon her with so much indifference, for she brought death to the
brothers of Durrisdeer. After all the desperate episodes of this
contention, the insults, the opposing interests, the fraternal duel in
the shrubbery, it was reserved for some poor devil in Grub Street,
scribbling for his dinner, and not caring what he scribbled, to cast a
spell across four thousand miles of the salt sea, and send forth both
these brothers into savage and wintry deserts, there to die. But such a
thought was distant from my mind; and while all the provincials were
fluttered about me by the unusual animation of their port, I passed
throughout their midst on my return homeward, quite absorbed in the
recollection of my visit and the Master's speech.

The same night there was brought to us from the ship a little packet of
pamphlets. The next day my lord was under engagement to go with the
Governor upon some party of pleasure; the time was nearly due, and I
left him for a moment alone in his room and skimming through the
pamphlets. When I returned, his head had fallen upon the table, his arms
lying abroad amongst the crumpled papers.

"My lord, my lord!" I cried as I ran forward, for I supposed he was in
some fit.

He sprang up like a figure upon wires, his countenance deformed with
fury, so that in a strange place I should scarce have known him. His
hand at the same time flew above his head, as though to strike me down.
"Leave me alone!" he screeched, and I fled, as fast as my shaking legs
would bear me, for my lady. She, too, lost no time; but when we
returned, he had the door locked within, and only cried to us from the
other side to leave him be. We looked in each other's faces, very
white--each supposing the blow had come at last.

"I will write to the Governor to excuse him," says she. "We must keep
our strong friends." But when she took up the pen it flew out of her
fingers. "I cannot write," said she. "Can you?"

"I will make a shift, my lady," said I.

She looked over me as I wrote. "That will do," she said, when I had