The Fortunes of Nigel

Chapter 16

It was not long ere Nigel discovered Lord Dalgarno advancing towards

him in the company of another young man of quality of the Prince's

train; and as they directed their course towards the south-eastern

corner of the Park, he concluded they were about to go to Lord

Huntinglen's. They stopped, however, and turned up another path

leading to the north; and Lord Glenvarloch conceived that this change

of direction was owing to their having seen him, and their desire to

avoid him.

Nigel followed them without hesitation by a path which, winding around

a thicket of shrubs and trees, once more conducted him to the less

frequented part of the Park. He observed which side of the thicket was

taken by Lord Dalgarno and his companion, and he himself, walking

hastily round the other verge, was thus enabled to meet them face to

face.

"Good-morrow, my Lord Dalgarno," said Lord Glenvarloch, sternly.

"Ha! my friend Nigel," answered Lord Dalgarno, in his usual careless

and indifferent tone, "my friend Nigel, with business on his brow?--

but you must wait till we meet at Beaujeu's at noon--Sir Ewes

Haldimund and I are at present engaged in the Prince's service."

"If you were engaged in the king's, my lord," said Lord Glenvarloch,

"you must stand and answer me."

"Hey-day!" said Lord Dalgarno, with an air of great astonishment,

"what passion is this? Why, Nigel, this is King Cambyses' vein!--You

have frequented the theatres too much lately--Away with this folly,

man; go, dine upon soup and salad, drink succory-water to cool your

blood, go to bed at sun-down, and defy those foul fiends, Wrath and

Misconstruction."

"I have had misconstruction enough among you," said Glenvarloch, in

the same tone of determined displeasure, "and from you, my Lord

Dalgarno, in particular, and all under the mask of friendship."

"Here is a proper business!"--said Dalgarno, turning as if to appeal

to Sir Ewes Haldimund; "do you see this angry ruffler, Sir Ewes? A

month since, he dared not have looked one of yonder sheep in the face,

and now he is a prince of roisterers, a plucker of pigeons, a

controller of players and poets--and in gratitude for my having shown

him the way to the eminent character which he holds upon town, he

comes hither to quarrel with his best friend, if not his only one of

decent station."

"I renounce such hollow friendship, my lord," said Lord Glenvarloch;

"I disclaim the character which, even to my very face, you labour to

fix upon me, and ere we part I will call you to a reckoning for it."

"My lords both," interrupted Sir Ewes Haldimund, "let me remind you

that the Royal Park is no place to quarrel in."

"I will make my quarrel good," said Nigel, who did not know, or in his

passion might not have recollected, the privileges

of the place, "wherever I find my enemy."

"You shall find quarelling enough," replied Lord Dalgarno, calmly, "so

soon as you assign a sufficient cause for it. Sir Ewes Haldimund, who

knows the Court, will warrant you that I am not backward on such

occasions.--But of what is it that you now complain, after having

experienced nothing save kindness from me and my family?"

"Of your family I complain not," replied Lord Glenvarloch; "they have

done for me all they could, more, far more, than I could have

expected; but you, my lord, have suffered me, while you called me your

friend, to be traduced, where a word of your mouth would have placed

my character in its true colours--and hence the injurious message

which I just now received from the Prince of Wales. To permit the

misrepresentation of a friend, my lord, is to share in the slander."

"You have been misinformed, my Lord Glenvarloch," said Sir Ewes

Haldimund; "I have myself often heard Lord Dalgarno defend your

character, and regret that your exclusive attachment to the pleasures

of a London life prevented your paying your duty regularly to the King

and Prince."

"While he himself," said Lord Glenvarloch, "dissuaded me from

presenting myself at Court."

"I will cut this matter short," said Lord Dalgarno, with haughty

coldness. "You seem to have conceived, my lord, that you and I were

Pylades and Orestes--a second edition of Damon and Pythias--Theseus

and Pirithoiis at the least. You are mistaken, and have given the name

of friendship to what, on my part, was mere good-nature and compassion

for a raw and ignorant countryman, joined to the cumbersome charge

which my father gave me respecting you. Your character, my lord, is of

no one's drawing, but of your own making. I introduced you where, as

in all such places, there was good and indifferent company to be met

with--your habits, or taste, made you prefer the worse. Your holy

horror at the sight of dice and cards degenerated into the cautious

resolution to play only at those times, and with such persons, as

might ensure your rising a winner--no man can long do so, and continue

to be held a gentleman. Such is the reputation you have made for

yourself, and you have no right to be angry that I do not contradict

in society what yourself know to be true. Let us pass on, my lord; and

if you want further explanation, seek some other time and fitter

place."

"No time can be better than the present," said Lord Glenvarloch, whose

resentment was now excited to the uttermost by the cold-blooded and

insulting manner, in which Dalgarno vindicated himself,--"no place

fitter than the place where we now stand. Those of my house have ever

avenged insult, at the moment, and on the spot, where it was offered,

were it at the foot of the throne.--Lord Dalgarno, you are a villain!

draw and defend yourself." At the same moment he unsheathed his

rapier.

"Are you mad?" said Lord Dalgarno, stepping back; "we are in the

precincts of the Court."

"The better," answered Lord Glenvarloch; "I will cleanse them from a

calumniator and a coward." He then pressed on Lord Dalgarno, and

struck him with the flat of the sword.

The fray had now attracted attention, and the cry went round, "Keep

the peace--keep the peace--swords drawn in the Park!--What, ho!

guards!--keepers--yeomen--rangers!" and a number of people came

rushing to the spot from all sides.

Lord Dalgarno, who had half drawn his sword on receiving the blow,

returned it to his scabbard when he observed the crowd thicken, and,

taking Sir Ewes Haldimund by the arm, walked hastily away, only saying

to Lord Glenvarloch as they left him, "You shall dearly abye this

insult--we will meet again."

A decent-looking elderly man, who observed that Lord Glenvarloch

remained on the spot, taking compassion on his youthful appearance,

said to him, "Are you aware that this is a Star-Chamber business,

young gentleman, and that it may cost you your right hand?--Shift for

yourself before the keepers or constables come up--Get into

Whitefriars or somewhere, for sanctuary and concealment, till you can

make friends or quit the city."

The advice was not to be neglected. Lord Glenvarloch made hastily

towards the issue from the Park by Saint James's Palace, then Saint

James's Hospital. The hubbub increased behind him; and several peace-

officers of the Royal Household came up to apprehend the delinquent.

Fortunately for Nigel, a popular edition of the cause of the affray

had gone abroad. It was said that one of the Duke of Buckingham's

companions had insulted a stranger gentleman from the country, and

that the stranger had cudgelled him soundly. A favourite, or the

companion of a favourite, is always odious to John Bull, who has,

besides, a partiality to those disputants who proceed, as lawyers term

it, _par wye du fait_, and both prejudices were in Nigel's favour. The

officers, therefore, who came to apprehend him, could learn from the

spectators no particulars of his appearance, or information concerning

the road he had taken; so that, for the moment, he escaped being

arrested.

What Lord Glenvarloch heard among the crowd as he passed along, was

sufficient to satisfy him, that in his impatient passion he had placed

himself in a predicament of considerable danger.

He was no stranger to the severe and arbitrary proceedings of the

Court of Star-Chamber, especially in cases of breach of privilege,

which made it the terror of all men; and it was no farther back than

the Queen's time that the punishment of mutilation had been actually

awarded and executed, for some offence of the same kind which he had

just committed. He had also the comfortable reflection, that, by his

violent quarrel with Lord Dalgarno, he must now forfeit the friendship

and good offices of that nobleman's father and sister, almost the only

persons of consideration in whom he could claim any interest; while

all the evil reports which had been put in circulation concerning his

character, were certain to weigh heavily against him, in a case where

much must necessarily depend on the reputation of the accused. To a

youthful imagination, the idea of such a punishment as mutilation

seems more ghastly than death itself; and every word which he

overheard among the groups which he met, mingled with, or overtook and

passed, announced this as the penalty of his offence. He dreaded to

increase his pace for fear of attracting suspicion, and more than once

saw the ranger's officers so near him, that his wrist tingled as if

already under the blade of the dismembering knife. At length he got

out of the Park, and had a little more leisure to consider what he was

next to do.

Whitefriars, adjacent to the Temple, then well known by the cant name

of Alsatia, had at this time, and for nearly a century afterwards, the

privilege of a sanctuary, unless against the writ of the Lord Chief

Justice, or of the Lords of the Privy-Council. Indeed, as the place

abounded with desperadoes of every description,--bankrupt citizens,

ruined gamesters, irreclaimable prodigals, desperate duellists,

bravoes, homicides, and debauched profligates of every description,

all leagued together to maintain the immunities of their asylum,--it

was both difficult and unsafe for the officers of the law to execute

warrants emanating even from the highest authority, amongst men whose

safety was inconsistent with warrants or authority of any kind. This

Lord Glenvarloch well knew; and odious as the place of refuge was, it

seemed the only one where, for a space at least, he might be concealed

and secure from the immediate grasp of the law, until he should have

leisure to provide better for his safety, or to get this unpleasant

matter in some shape accommodated.

Meanwhile, as Nigel walked hastily forward towards the place of

sanctuary, he bitterly blamed himself for suffering Lord Dalgarno to

lead him into the haunts of dissipation; and no less accused his

intemperate heat of passion, which now had driven him for refuge into

the purlieus of profane and avowed vice and debauchery.

"Dalgarno spoke but too truly in that," were his bitter reflections;

"I have made myself an evil reputation by acting on his insidious

counsels, and neglecting the wholesome admonitions which ought to have

claimed implicit obedience from me, and which recommended abstinence

even from the slightest approach of evil. But if I escape from the

perilous labyrinth in which folly and inexperience, as well as violent

passions, have involved me, I will find some noble way of redeeming

the lustre of a name which was never sullied until I bore it."

As Lord Glenvarloch formed these prudent resolutions, he entered the

Temple Walks, whence a gate at that time opened into Whitefriars, by

which, as by the more private passage, he proposed to betake himself

to the sanctuary. As he approached the entrance to that den of infamy,

from which his mind recoiled even while in the act of taking shelter

there, his pace slackened, while the steep and broken stairs reminded

him of the _facilis_ descensus Averni, and rendered him doubtful

whether it were not better to brave the worst which could befall him

in the public haunts of honourable men, than to evade punishment by

secluding himself in those of avowed vice and profligacy.

As Nigel hesitated, a young gentleman of the Temple advanced towards

him, whom he had often seen, and sometimes conversed with, at the

ordinary, where he was a frequent and welcome guest, being a wild

young gallant, indifferently well provided with money, who spent at

the theatres and other gay places of public resort, the time which his

father supposed he was employing in the study of the law. But Reginald

Lowestoffe, such was the young Templar's name, was of opinion that

little law was necessary to enable him to spend the revenues of the

paternal acres which were to devolve upon him at his father's demose,

and therefore gave himself no trouble to acquire more of that science

than might be imbibed along with the learned air of the region in

which he had his chambers. In other respects, he was one of the wits

of the place, read Ovid and Martial, aimed at quick repartee and pun,

(often very far fetched,) danced, fenced, played at tennis, and

performed sundry tunes on the fiddle and French horn, to the great

annoyance of old Counsellor Barratter, who lived in the chambers

immediately below him. Such was Reginald Lowes-toffe, shrewd, alert,

and well-acquainted with the town through all its recesses, but in a

sort of disrespectable way. This gallant, now approaching the Lord

Glenvarloch, saluted him by name and title, and asked if his lordship

designed for the Chevalier's this day, observing it was near noon, and

the woodcock would be on the board before they could reach the

ordinary.

"I do not go there to-day," answered Lord Glenvarloch. "Which way,

then, my lord?" said the young Templar, who was perhaps not undesirous

to parade a part at least of the street in company with a lord, though

but a Scottish one.

"I--I--" said Nigel, desiring to avail himself of this young man's

local knowledge, yet unwilling and ashamed to acknowledge his

intention to take refuge in so disreputable a quarter, or to describe

the situation in which he stood--"I have some curiosity to see

Whitefriars."

"What! your lordship is for a frolic into Alsatia?" said Lowestoffe-"-

Have with you, my lord--you cannot have a better guide to the infernal

regions than myself. I promise you there are bona-robas to be found

there--good wine too, ay, and good fellows to drink it with, though

somewhat suffering under the frowns of Fortune. But your lordship will

pardon me--you are the last of our acquaintance to whom I would have

proposed such a voyage of discovery."

"I am obliged to you, Master Lowestoffe, for the good opinion you have

expressed in the observation," said Lord Glenvarloch; "but my present

circumstances may render even a residence of a day or two in the

sanctuary a matter of necessity."

"Indeed!" said Lowestoffe, in a tone of great surprise; "I thought

your lordship had always taken care not to risk any considerable

stake--I beg pardon, but if the bones have proved perfidious, I know

just so much law as that a peer's person is sacred from arrest; and

for mere impecuniosity, my lord, better shift can be made elsewhere

than in Whitefriars, where all are devouring each other for very

poverty."

"My misfortune has no connexion with want of money," said Nigel.

"Why, then, I suppose," said Lowestoffe, "you have been tilting, my

lord, and have pinked your man; in which case, and with a purse

reasonably furnished, you may lie perdu in Whitefriars for a

twelvemonth--Marry, but you must be entered and received as a member

of their worshipful society, my lord, and a frank burgher of Alsatia--

so far you must condescend; there will be neither peace nor safety for

you else."

"My fault is not in a degree so deadly, Master Lowestoffe," answered

Lord Glenvarloch, "as you seem to conjecture--I have stricken a

gentleman in the Park, that is all."

"By my hand, my lord, and you had better have struck your sword

through him at Barns Elms," said the Templar. "Strike within the verge

of the Court! You will find that a weighty dependence upon your hands,

especially if your party be of rank and have favour."

"I will be plain with you, Master Lowestoffe," said Nigel, "since I

have gone thus far. The person I struck was Lord Dalgarno, whom you

have seen at Beaujeu's."

"A follower and favourite of the Duke of Buckingham!--It is a most

unhappy chance, my lord; but my heart was formed in England, and

cannot bear to see a young nobleman borne down, as you are like to be.

We converse here greatly too open for your circumstances. The Templars

would suffer no bailiff to execute a writ, and no gentleman to be

arrested for a duel, within their precincts; but in such a matter

between Lord Dalgarno and your lordship, there might be a party on

either side. You must away with me instantly to my poor chambers here,

hard by, and undergo some little change of dress, ere you take

sanctuary; for else you will have the whole rascal rout of the Friars

about you, like crows upon a falcon that strays into their rookery. We

must have you arrayed something more like the natives of Alsatia, or

there will be no life there for you."

While Lowestoffe spoke, he pulled Lord Glenvarloch along with him into

his chambers, where he had a handsome library, filled with all the

poems and play-books which were then in fashion. The Templar then

dispatched a boy, who waited upon him, to procure a dish or two from

the next cook's shop; "and this," he said, "must be your lordship's

dinner, with a glass of old sack, of which my grandmother (the heavens

requite her!) sent me a dozen bottles, with charge to use the liquor

only with clarified whey, when I felt my breast ache with over study.

Marry, we will drink the good lady's health in it, if it is your

lordship's pleasure, and you shall see how we poor students eke out

our mutton-commons in the hall."

The outward door of the chambers was barred so soon as the boy had re-

entered with the food; the boy was ordered to keep close watch, and

admit no one; and Lowestoffe, by example and precept, pressed his

noble guest to partake of his hospitality. His frank and forward

manners, though much differing from the courtly ease of Lord Dalgarno,

were calculated to make a favourable impression; and Lord Glenvarloch,

though his experience of Dalgarno's perfidy had taught him to be

cautious of reposing faith in friendly professions, could not avoid

testifying his gratitude to the young Templar, who seemed so anxious

for his safety and accommodation.

"You may spare your gratitude any great sense of obligation, my lord,"

said the Templar. "No doubt I am willing to be of use to any gentleman

that has cause to sing _Fortune my foe_, and particularly proud to

serve your lordship's turn; but I have also an old grudge, to speak

Heaven's truth, at your opposite, Lord Dalgarno."

"May I ask on what account, Master Lowestoffe?" said Lord Glenvarloch.

"O, my lord," replied the Templar, "it was for a hap that chanced

after you left the ordinary, one evening about three weeks since--at

least I think you were not by, as your lordship always left us before

deep play began--I mean no offence, but such was your lordship's

custom--when there were words between Lord Dalgarno and me concerning

a certain game at gleek, and a certain mournival of aces held by his

lordship, which went for eight--tib, which went for fifteen--twenty-

three in all. Now I held king and queen, being three--a natural

towser, making fifteen--and tiddy, nineteen. We vied the ruff, and

revied, as your lordship may suppose, till the stake was equal to half

my yearly exhibition, fifty as fair yellow canary birds as e'er

chirped in the bottom of a green silk purse. Well, my lord, I gained

the cards, and lo you! it pleases his lordship to say that we played

without tiddy; and as the rest stood by and backed him, and especially

the sharking Frenchman, why, I was obliged to lose more than I shall

gain all the season.--So judge if I have not a crow to pluck with his

lordship. Was it ever heard there was a game at gleek at the ordinary

before, without counting tiddy?--marry quep upon his lordship!--Every

man who comes there with his purse in his hand, is as free to make new

laws as he, I hope, since touch pot touch penny makes every man

equal."

As Master Lowestoffe ran over this jargon of the gaming-table, Lord

Glenvarloch was both ashamed and mortified, and felt a severe pang of

aristocratic pride, when he concluded in the sweeping clause that the

dice, like the grave, levelled those distinguishing points of society,

to which Nigel's early prejudices clung perhaps but too fondly. It was

impossible, however, to object any thing to the learned reasoning of

the young Templar, and therefore Nigel was contented to turn the

conversation, by making some inquiries respecting the present state of

White-friars. There also his host was at home.

"You know, my lord," said Master Lowestoffe, "that we Templars are a

power and a dominion within ourselves, and I am proud to say that I

hold some rank in our republic--was treasurer to the Lord of Misrule

last year, and am at this present moment in nomination for that

dignity myself. In such circumstances, we are under the necessity of

maintaining an amicable intercourse with our neighbours of Alsatia,

even as the Christian States find themselves often, in mere policy,

obliged to make alliance with the Grand Turk, or the Barbary States."

"I should have imagined you gentlemen of the Temple more independent

of your neighbours," said Lord Glenvarloch.

"You do us something too much honour, my lord," said the Templar; "the

Alsatians and we have some common enemies, and we have, under the

rose, some common friends. We are in the use of blocking all bailiffs

out of our bounds, and we are powerfully aided by our neighbours, who

tolerate not a rag belonging to them within theirs. Moreover the

Alsatians have--I beg you to understand me--the power of protecting or

distressing our friends, male or female, who may be obliged to seek

sanctuary within their bounds. In short, the two communities serve

each other, though the league is between states of unequal quality,

and I may myself say, that I have treated of sundry weighty affairs,

and have been a negotiator well approved on both sides.--But hark--

hark--what is that?"

The sound by which Master Lowestoffe was interrupted, was that of a

distant horn, winded loud and keenly, and followed by a faint and

remote huzza.

"There is something doing," said Lowestoffe, "in the Whitefriars at

this moment. That is the signal when their privileges are invaded by

tipstaff or bailiff; and at the blast of the horn they all swarm out

to the rescue, as bees when their hive is disturbed.--Jump, Jim," he

said, calling out to the attendant, "and see what they are doing in

Alsatia.--That bastard of a boy," he continued, as the lad, accustomed

to the precipitate haste of his master, tumbled rather than ran out of

the apartment, and so down stairs, "is worth gold in this quarter--he

serves six masters--four of them in distinct Numbers, and you would

think him present like a fairy at the mere wish of him that for the

time most needs his attendance. No scout in Oxford, no gip in

Cambridge, ever matched him in speed and intelligence. He knows the

step of a dun from that of a client, when it reaches the very bottom

of the staircase; can tell the trip of a pretty wench from the step of

a bencher, when at the upper end of the court; and is, take him all in

all--But I see your lordship is anxious--May I press another cup of my

kind grandmother's cordial, or will you allow me to show you my

wardrobe, and act as your valet or groom of the chamber?"

Lord Glenvarloch hesitated not to acknowledge that he was painfully

sensible of his present situation, and anxious to do what must needs

be done for his extrication.

The good-natured and thoughtless young Templar readily acquiesced, and

led the way into his little bedroom, where, from bandboxes,

portmanteaus, mail-trunks, not forgetting an old walnut-tree wardrobe,

he began to select the articles which he thought best suited

effectually to disguise his guest in venturing into the lawless and

turbulent society of Alsatia.