ish you to give a little warning to
your acquaintance, the Duke of Gaveston, regarding this very Sir John
Fenwick and his character."
"Nay," said Wilton, "nay--that I can hardly do. My acquaintance with
the Duke himself is extremely small. The Duke is a man of the world
sufficiently old to judge for himself, and with sufficient experience
to know the character of Sir John Fenwick without my explaining it to
him."
"The Duke," replied the other, "is a grown baby, with right wishes
and good intentions, as well as kind feelings; but a coral and bells
would lure him almost anywhere, and he has got into the hands of one
who will not fail to lead him into mischief. I thought you knew him
well; but nevertheless, well or ill, you must give him the warning."
"I beg your pardon," replied Wilton, drawing himself up coldly: "but
in one or two points you have been mistaken. My knowledge of the
Duke is confined to one interview. I shall most probably never
exchange another word with him in my life; and even if I were to do
so, I should not think of assailing, to a mere common acquaintance,
the character of a gentleman whom I may not like or trust myself, but
who seems to be the intimate friend of the very person in whose good
opinion you wish me to ruin him."
"Pshaw!" replied the stranger--"you will see the Duke again this very
night, or I am much mistaken. As to Sir John Fenwick, I am a great
deal more intimately his friend than the Duke is, and I may wish to
keep him from rash acts, which he has neither courage nor skill to
carry through, and will not dare to undertake, if he be not supported
by others. I am, in fact, doing Sir John himself a friendly act, for
I know his purposes, which are both rash and wrong; and if I cannot
stop them by fair means, I must stop them by others."
"In that," replied Wilton, "you must act as you think fit. I know
nothing of Sir John Fenwick from my own personal observation; and
therefore will not be made a tool of, to injure his reputation with
others."
"Well, well," replied his companion--"in those circumstances you are
right; and, as they say in that beggarly assemblage of pettifogging
rogues and traitors called the House of Commons, I must shape my
motion in another way. The manner in which I will beg you to deal
with the Duke, is this. Find an opportunity, before this night be
over, of entreating him earnestly not to go to-morrow to the meeting
at the Old King's Head, in Leadenhall-street. This is clear and
specific, and at t