last day or two. Had he received no letter
announcing his brother's escape from the French settlements and return
to Virginia? Oh no! No such letter had come, else Master Harry certainly
tell Gumbo. Quick, horses! Quick by Strand to Temple Bar! Here is the
house of Captivity and the Deliverer come to the rescue!

CHAPTER XLIX. Friends in Need

Quick, hackneycoach steeds, and bear George Warrington through Strand
and Fleet Street to his imprisoned brother's rescue! Any one who
remembers Hogarth's picture of a London hackneycoach and a London street
road at that period, may fancy how weary the quick time was, and how
long seemed the journey:--scarce any lights, save those carried by
link-boys; badly hung coaches; bad pavements; great holes in the road,
and vast quagmires of winter mud. That drive from Piccadilly to Fleet
Street seemed almost as long to our young man, as the journey from
Marlborough to London which he had performed in the morning.

He had written to Harry, announcing his arrival at Bristol. He had
previously written to his brother, giving the great news of his
existence and his return from captivity. There was war between England
and France at that time; the French privateers were for ever on the
look-out for British merchant-ships, and seized them often within sight
of port. The letter bearing the intelligence of George's restoration
must have been on board one of the many American ships of which the
French took possession. The letter telling of George's arrival in
England was never opened by poor Harry; it was lying at the latter's
apartments, which it reached on the third morning after Harry's
captivity, when the angry Mr. Ruff had refused to give up any single
item more of his lodger's property.

To these apartments George first went on his arrival in London,
and asked for his brother. Scared at the likeness between them, the
maid-servant who opened the door screamed, and ran back to her mistress.
The mistress not liking to tell the truth, or to own that poor Harry was
actually a prisoner at her husband's suit, said Mr. Warrington had left
his lodgings; she did not know where Mr. Warrington was. George knew
that Clarges Street was close to Bond Street. Often and often had he
looked over the London map. Aunt Bernstein would tell him where Harry
was. He might be with her at that very moment. George had read in
Harry's letters to Virginia about Aunt Bernstein's kindness to Harry.
Even Madam Es