"You are in error, sir, under favour."

"Indeed!--then to whom am I indebted for this visit; for I suppose you

came not on your own account?"

"Ah, Sir Willmott!--you are always wise, Sir Willmott; truly it would be

ill coming on my own account, seeing that I had no business of my own to

bring me, therefore why should I come? and even if I had, Dapple

Dumpling travels so slowly."

"This trifling is impertinent," exclaimed the knight angrily: "to your

business."

"I hope it wo'n't end in smoke, as it begins in fire," replied Robin,

slily presenting a roll of the tobacco vulgarly called pig-tail.

"Mis-shapen wretch!" retorted Burrell in a towering passion, flinging

the roll directly in his face, "how dare you to trifle thus with your

superiors? art drunk, or mad?"

"Neither, an please ye, Sir Willmott," replied Robin, replacing the

tobacco in his bosom; "only since you wo'n't look into the pig-tail,

perhaps you will tell me what I am to say to Hugh Dalton."

"Hugh Dalton! There, give it me; why did you not tell me you came from

the Buccaneer? Robin, you are a million times worse than a fool! There,

sit, good Robin--But, no, light me yon lamp; the fire burns dimly. A

murrain on't, I can't see! There, that will do."

While Burrell read Dalton's communication, thus whimsically but

carefully conveyed, Robin had ample time to moralise on and observe all

around him.

"That table," thought the Ranger, "is just a type of the times. The

Bible, it can hardly be seen for the heap of foolish expositions, and

preachments, in the shape of pamphlets, that crowd upon it. O, Lord! O,

Lord! take from the Puritans their vain opinions, wild imaginations,

false valuations, and the like, which they hang over the book that

Barbara says has so much good in it (just as the Catholics at San

Eustatia trick out the Saviour's figure), and what poor shrunken minds

they'd have! Then the bottle and glass: that, I'm afraid, typifies the

Cavalier; the poor Cavalier! who clings so firmly to the worn, and lets

go the stronger, rope. But mark how the filthy liquor stands beside the

pure book!--even so are the just and the unjust mingled. Ah! he has been

praying with the Lords' Commissioners; then drinking, and so forth, the

instant their backs were turned! Yet, God hath made the double-faced

villain of good proportions, so that a woman can look on him with love,

though his heart--augh!--I wouldn't have his heart for his lands, no,

nor for his fine person either. Barbara can't abide him; she always says

he has a black look--and so he has. But hark! there's knocking at the

gate, and loud knocking too--Sir Willmott, as the servants can't hear,

so can't answer, shall I go down?"




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