easing with each
tone in its height and depth, filled, as with something palpable
and perceptible, the shaking walls. The listeners,--a various and
unconnected group, bound by no tie of faith or of party, many attracted
by curiosity, many by the hope of ridicule, some abhorring the tenets
expressed, and nearly all disapproving their principles or doubting
their wisdom,--the listeners, certainly not a group previously formed
or moulded into enthusiasm, became rapt and earnest; their very breath
forsook them.

Linden had never before that night heard a public speaker; but he was
of a thoughtful and rather calculating mind, and his early habits of
decision, and the premature cultivation of his intellect, rendered
him little susceptible, in general, to the impressions of the vulgar:
nevertheless, in spite of himself, he was hurried away by the stream,
and found that the force and rapidity of the speaker did not allow him
even time for the dissent and disapprobation which his republican maxims
and fiery denunciations perpetually excited in a mind aristocratic both
by creed and education. At length after a peroration of impetuous and
magnificent invective, the orator ceased.

In the midst of the applause that followed, Clarence left the assembly;
he could not endure the thought that any duller or more commonplace
speaker should fritter away the spell which yet bound and engrossed his
spirit.

CHAPTER XVIII.

At the bottom of the staircase was a small door, which gave
way before Nigel, as he precipitated himself upon the scene
of action, a cocked pistol in one hand, etc.--Fortunes of
Nigel.

The night, though not utterly dark, was rendered capricious and dim by
alternate wind and rain; and Clarence was delayed in his return homeward
by seeking occasional shelter from the rapid and heavy showers which
hurried by. It was during one of the temporary cessations of the rain
that he reached Copperas Bower; and, while he was searching in his
pockets for the key which was to admit him, he observed two men
loitering about his neighbour's house. The light was not sufficient
to give him more than a scattered and imperfect view of their motions.
Somewhat alarmed, he stood for several moments at the door, watching
them as well as he was able; nor did he enter the house till the
loiterers had left their suspicious position, and, walking onwards, were
hid entirely from him by the distance and darkness.

"It