and now relieved as he beholds him
after a pause of deliberation wind into the wrong,--even so, O pleasant
reader! doth the sage novelist conduct thee through the labyrinth of
his tale, amusing himself with thy self-deceits, and spinning forth,
in prolix pleasure, the quiet yarn of his entertainment from the
involutions which occasion thy fretting eagerness and perplexity. But as
when, thanks to the host's good-nature or fatigue, the mystery is once
unravelled, and the guest permitted to penetrate even into the concealed
end of the leafy maze, the honest cit, satisfied with the pleasant pains
he has already bestowed upon his visitor, puts him not to the labour of
retracing the steps he hath so erratically trod, but leads him in three
strides, and through a simpler path, at once to the mouth of the maze,
and dismisseth him elsewhere for entertainment; even so will the prudent
narrator, when the intricacies of his plot are once unfolded, occasion
no stale and profitless delays to his wearied reader, but conduct him,
with as much brevity as convenient, without the labyrinth which has
ceased to retain the interest of a secret.

We shall therefore, in pursuance of the tit's policy, relate as rapidly
as possible that part of our narrative which yet remains untold. On
Brandon's person was found the paper which had contained so fatal an
intelligence of his son; and when brought to Lord Mauleverer, the words
struck that person (who knew Brandon had been in search of his lost
son, whom we have seen that he had been taught however to suppose
illegitimate, though it is probable that many doubts whether he had
not been deceived must have occurred to his natural sagacity) as
sufficiently important to be worth an inquiry after the writer. Dummie
was easily found, for he had not yet turned his back on the town when
the news of the judge's sudden death was brought back to it; and
taking advantage of that circumstance, the friendly Dunnaker remained
altogether in the town (albeit his long companion deserted it as hastily
as might be), and whiled the time by presenting himself at the jail,
and after some ineffectual efforts winning his way to Clifford. Easily
tracked by the name he had given to the governor of the jail, he was
conducted the same day to Lord Mauleverer; and his narrative, confused
as it was, and proceeding even from so suspicious a quarter, thrilled
those digestive organs, which in Mauleverer stood proxy for a heart,
with