me to him a most welcome aid. "Yes,
if it hadn't been for this good fellow here," said Strong,--"for a good
fellow you are, Altamont, my boy, and hang me if I don't stand by you as
long as I live,--I think, Pendennis, it would have been all up with Ned
Strong. I was the fifth week of my being kept a prisoner, for I couldn't
be always risking my neck across that water-pipe, and taking my walks
abroad through poor old Cos's window, and my spirit was quite broken,
sir--dammy, quite beat, and I was thinking of putting an end to myself,
and should have done it in another week, when who should drop down from
heaven but Altamont!"

"Heaven ain't exactly the place, Ned," said Altamont. "I came from
Baden-Baden," said he, "and I'd had a deuced lucky month there, that's
all."

"Well, sir, he took up Marks's bill, and he paid the other fellows
that were upon me, like a man, sir, that he did," said Strong,
enthusiastically.

"And I shall be very happy to stand a bottle of claret for this company,
and as many more as the company chooses," said Mr. Altamont, with a
blush. "Hallo! waiter, bring us a magnum of the right sort, do you hear?
And we'll drink our healths all round, sir--and may every good fellow
like Strong find another good fellow to stand by him at a pinch. That's
my sentiment, Mr. Pendennis, though I don't like your name."

"No! And why?" asked Arthur.

Strong pressed the Colonel's foot under the table here; and Altamont,
rather excited, filled up another bumper, nodded to Pen, drank off his
wine, and said, "He was a gentleman, and that was sufficient, and they
were all gentlemen."

The meeting between these "all gentlemen" took place at Richmond,
whither Pendennis had gone to dinner, and where he found the Chevalier
and his friend at table in the coffee-room. Both of the latter were
exceedingly hilarious, talkative, and excited by wine; and Strong, who
was an admirable story-teller, told the story of his own siege, and
adventures, and escapes with great liveliness and humour, and described
the talk of the sheriff's officers at his door, the pretty little
signals of Fanny, the grotesque exclamations of Costigan when the
Chevalier burst in at his window, and his final rescue by Altamont, in a
most graphic manner, and so as greatly to interest his hearers.

"As for me, it's nothing," Altamont said. "When a ship's paid off, a
chap spends his money, you know. And it's the fellers at the black and
red at Baden-Baden