ngoldsby,'--that was the name by which Redgauntlet was most generally
known in Cumberland,--'I wish to say to you that I must put yonder folk
together in one room.'

'What folk?' said Redgauntlet, impatiently.

'Why, them prisoner stranger folk, as you bid Cristal Nixon look after.
Lord love you! this is a large house enow, but we cannot have separate
lock-ups for folk, as they have in Newgate or in Bedlam. Yonder's a
mad beggar, that is to be a great man when he wins a lawsuit, Lord help
him!--Yonder's a Quaker and a lawyer charged with a riot; and, ecod, I
must make one key and one lock keep them, for we are chokeful, and you
have sent off old Nixon that could have given one some help in this
confusion. Besides, they take up every one a room, and call for naughts
on earth,--excepting the old man, who calls lustily enough,--but he has
not a penny to pay shot.'

'Do as thou wilt with them,' said Redgauntlet, who had listened
impatiently to his statement; 'so thou dost but keep them from getting
out and making some alarm in the country, I care not.'

'A Quaker and a lawyer!' said Darsie. 'This must be Fairford and
Geddes.--Uncle, I must request of you'--

'Nay, nephew,' interrupted Redgauntlet, 'this is no time for asking
questions. You shall yourself decide upon their fate in the course of an
hour--no harm whatever is designed them.'

So saying, he hurried towards the place where the Jacobite gentlemen
were holding their council, and Darsie followed him, in the hope that
the obstacle which had arisen to the prosecution of their desperate
adventure would prove insurmountable and spare him the necessity of a
dangerous and violent rupture with his uncle. The discussions among
them were very eager; the more daring part of the conspirators, who had
little but life to lose, being desirous to proceed at all hazards;
while the others, whom a sense of honour and a hesitation to disavow
long-cherished principles had brought forward, were perhaps not ill
satisfied to have a fair apology for declining an adventure, into which
they had entered with more of reluctance than zeal.

Meanwhile Joe Crackenthorp, availing himself of the hasty permission
attained from Redgauntlet, proceeded to assemble in one apartment
those whose safe custody had been thought necessary; and, without much
considering the propriety of the matter, he selected for the common
place of confinement, the room which Lilias had, since her brother's
departure