the
letter which the Earl had given him to copy; but his eye chanced to
fall upon it as he passed, and saying aloud, "This man shall not see
how he has shaken me," he sat down, and copied it clearly and
accurately. He then left the house, went home, ordered his horse, and
made preparations for his journey. The sun was just touching the
horizon as he put his foot in the stirrup, and he rode forward at a
quick pace on the road towards Somersbury.
It was a beautiful clear evening, and many people were abroad; but
for the first six miles he saw nobody but strangers, all hurrying to
their several destinations for the night, travellers wending their
way into the great metropolis, and carts carrying to its devouring
maw the food for the next day. Between the sixth and seventh
milestone, however, where the moon was just seen raising her yellow
horn beside the village spire, he beheld a man mounted upon a
powerful horse, riding towards him, who by his military aspect, broad
shoulders, powerful frame, and erect seat upon his horse, he
recognised, while still at some distance, as Green.
"Ah Wilton, my boy," cried the Colonel, as he rode up, "I am glad to
see you.--You are not behind your time, but there is an impatience
upon me now that made me set off early. I am glad I did, for I have
not been on my horse's back for a fortnight; and there is something
in poor Barbary's motion that gives me back a part of my former
lightness of heart."
"I wish to Heaven that you could get it all back," replied Wilton.
"But I fear when it is lost it is not to be regained--I feel that it
is so, but too bitterly, at this moment."
"What you!" exclaimed the Colonel. "What is the matter, Wilton? What
have you done? for a man never loses his lightness of heart for ever,
but by his own act?"
"I think," said Wilton, "from what I have heard you say, that you can
feel for my situation, when I tell you, that, by the entanglements of
one I do not scruple to call a most accursed villain, I can neither go
on with honour in the course that is before me, nor retreat without
dishonour; and even if I could do either, there would still be
absolute and perpetual misery for me in life."
"Who is the villain?" demanded Green, abruptly.
"The Earl of Byerdale," replied Wilton.
"Ha, ha, ha!" shouted Green aloud. "He is a cursed villain; he always
was, and ever will be. But we will frustrate the Earl of Byerdale,
Wilton. I tell you, that, with my right hand on his collar, the Earl
of Byerdale is no mo