ell you, I will have nothing to do with it.
To bring in foreigners is bad enough, when we are quite strong enough
to do it without: but I will take no man's blood but in fair fight."
"Well!" exclaimed the other, in the same loud and vehement
manner--"you know, sir, I could hang you if I liked!"
At that moment the door was evidently opened, and the landlord's
voice, exclaiming, "Hush! hush!" was heard; but he could not stop the
reply, which was,--
"I know that! But I could hang you, too; so that we are each pretty
safe. This is that villain Charnock's doing. Tell him I will blow
his brains out the first time I meet him, for spoiling, by his
bloody-minded villany, one of the most hopeful plans--"
But the landlord's "Hush! hush!" was again repeated, and the voices
were thenceforth moderated, though the discussion seemed still to
endure some time.
Wilton's curiosity was now more excited than ever; and when the
landlord brought him a foaming jug of ale, together with a long
Venice glass having a wavy pearl-coloured line up the stalk, he asked
the simple question, "Is Mr. Green here?"
On this the landlord put down his head, saying, in a low voice, "The
Colonel will be with you directly: he expects you, sir."
"The Colonel!" thought Brown--"this is a new dignity. However, with
his state and station I have little to do, if I could but discover my
own."
At the end of about five minutes the conversation in the other room
ceased, and in a moment or two more the door was opened, and Green
made his appearance. We have so accurately described him before that
we should not pause upon his appearance now, had there not been a
great change in his dress, which had such an effect as to render it
scarcely possible to recognise him.
Now, instead of a military-looking suit of green, he had on a
long-waisted broad-cut coat of black, with jet buttons; a
light-coloured periwig filled full of powder; black breeches and silk
stockings, and a light black-hilted sword. In fact, he bore much more
the appearance of a French lawyer of that day than anything else. The
features, indeed, were there; but it was wonderful what the
highly-powdered wig had done to soften the strong-marked lines of his
face, and to blanch the weather-beaten appearance of his complexion.
The suit of black, too, made him look thinner and even taller than he
really was; and on his first entrance into the room, Wilton certainly
did not know him.
"You have come before your time," he said, "though perhaps i