t.'

'Say rather, let his righteous judgments fall upon that base man and his
infamous house,' said the mariner sternly. 'You need tell me no more. I
can picture my sweet child, pining, grieving over the lost character of
him she loved--two families of victims. But shall not vengeance take its
course? It shall--terrible and full. But a short space of time shall
elapse ere he shall be stripped of rank and title, and then--'

'Walter, you rave.'

'I speak in earnest. I never threaten in vain. But I must act now. I
must find Hunter. How to do that--'

'I will take you to him,' said the boy, 'to-morrow evening.'

'Good. I must have some talk with you, but now I must rest. To-morrow
night I shall have none.'

So saying, the burly seaman, preceded by the landlady, retired to his
chamber. The house was soon in quiet, but the boy sat long by the
decaying embers of the fire, musing over the words "he shall be stripped
of his rank and titles"--then took from his vest a small gold locket. It
contained a lock of hair--two persons' hair entwined together, dark and
fair--but it bore the impress of a coronet, and the proud motto, "Nulli
Secundi."

CHAPTER III.

THE AGENT.

Great was the concourse that thronged the room to which we first
introduced our reader, on the morning after the events we have
detailed--the weather-beaten mariner was there to state his charge--the
parish clerk with more than usual importance was ready to act as
secretary--the lawyer, the curate, all prepared to play their part in
the approaching drama of real life. The Earl in his magisterial
seat--bitter mockery of justice--prepared to sit in judgment on a wretch
not half so guilty as himself. But he belonged to a privileged
class--the other was one of the "lower orders."

The entrance of Mr. Simpkins the constable, with rueful countenance and
faltering voice, with the intelligence that the prisoner had escaped,
created a great sensation. No one was more indignant than the
Earl--though how far this was real may be judged when we inform the
reader that Lambert had held a long conversation with the prisoner,
Simpkins and his two assistants being first treated to a powerful opiate
in a mug of ale. This conversation had resulted in Curly Tom's
departing--a pensioned tool, a hired slave, to do the will, even to
murder, of his titled employer--he had no choice save the gallows. The
constable was severely reprimanded, a reward offered for the
appr