'Just where we were this morning, I think,' said Mareschal, still laughing.
'Pardon me, and a truce to your ill-timed mirth, Mr. Mareschal; this morning we were not committed publicly, as we now stand committed by your own mad act, when you had a letter in your pocket apprizing you that our undertaking was desperate.'
'Ay, ay, I expected you would say so. But, in the first place, my friend Nihil Nameless and his letter may be all a flam; and, moreover, I would have you know that I am tired of a party that does nothing but form bold resolutions overnight, and sleep them away with their wine before morning. The government are now unprovided of men and ammunition; in a few weeks they will have enough of both: the country is now in a flame against them; in a few weeks, betwixt the effects of self-interest, of fear, and of lukewarm indifference, which are already so visible, this first fervour will be as cold as Christmas. So, as I was determined to go the vole, I have taken care you shall dip as deep as I; it signifies nothing plunging. You are fairly in the bog, and must struggle through.'
'You are mistaken with respect to one of us, Mr. Mareschal,' said Sir Frederick Langley; and, applying himself to the bell, he desired the person who entered to order his servants and horses instantly.
'You must not leave us, Sir Frederick,' said Ellieslaw; 'if we have our musters to go over.'
'I will go to-night, Mr. Vere,' said Sir Frederick, 'and write you my intentions in this matter when I am at home.'
'Ay,' said Mareschal, 'and send them by a troop of horse from Carlisle to make us prisoners? Look ye, Sir Frederick, I for one will neither be deserted nor betrayed; and if you leave Ellieslaw Castle to-night, it shall be by passing over my dead body.'
'For shame! Mareschal,' said Mr. Vere, 'how can you so hastily misinterpret our friend's intentions? I am sure Sir Frederick can only be jesting with us; for, were he not too honourable to dream of deserting the cause, he cannot but remember the full proofs we have of his accession to it, and his eager activity in advancing it. He cannot but be conscious, besides, that the first information will be readily received by government, and that if the question be, which can first lodge intelligence of the affair, we can easily save a few hours on him.'
'You should say you, and not we, when you talk of priorities in such a race of treachery; for my part, I won't enter my horse for such a plate,' said Mareschal; and added betwixit his teeth, 'A pretty pair of fellows to trust a man's neck with!'
'I am not to be intimidated from doing what I think proper,' said Sir Frederick Langley; 'and my first step shall be to leave Ellieslaw. I have no reason to keep faith with one' (looking at Vere) 'who has kept none with me.'
'In what respect,' said Ellieslaw, silencing, with a motion of his hand, his impetuous kinsman—'how have I disappointed you, Sir Frederick?'
'In the nearest and most tender point—you have trifled with me concerning our proposed alliance, which you well knew was the gage of our political undertaking. This carrying off and this bringing back of Miss Vere,—the cold reception I have met with from her, and the excuses with which you cover it, I believe to be mere evasions, that you may yourself retain possession of the estates which are hers by right, and make me, in the meanwhile, a tool in your desperate enterprise, by holding out hopes and expectations which you are resolved never to realize.'
'Sir Frederick, I protest, by all that is sacred—'
'I will listen to no protestations; I have been cheated with them too long,' answered Sir Frederick.
'If you leave us,' said Ellieslaw, 'you cannot but know both your ruin and ours is certain; all depends on our adhering together.'
'Leave me to take care of myself,' returned the knight; 'but were what you say true, I would rather perish than be fooled any farther.'
'Can nothing—no surety convince you of my sincerity?' said Ellieslaw, anxiously; 'this morning I should have repelled your unjust suspicions as an insult; but situated as we now are—'
'You feel yourself compelled to be sincere?' retorted Sir Frederick. 'If you would have me think so, there is but one way to convince me of it—let your daughter bestow her hand on me this evening.'
'So soon?—impossible,' answered Vere; 'think of her late alarm—of our present undertaking.'
'I will listen to nothing but to her consent, plighted at the altar. You have a chapel in the castle—Doctor Hobbler is present among the company-this proof of your good faith to-night, and we are again joined in heart and hand. If you refuse me when it is so much for your advantage to consent, how shall I trust you to-morrow, when I shall stand committed in your undertaking, and unable to retract?'
'And I am to understand, that, if you can be made my son-in-law to-night, our friendship is renewed?' said Ellieslaw.
'Most infallibly, and most inviolably,' replied Sir Frederick.
'Then,' said Vere, 'though what you ask is premature, indelicate, and unjust towards my character, yet, Sir Frederick, give me your hand—my daughter shall be your wife.'
'This night?'
'This very night,' replied Ellieslaw, 'before the clock strikes twelve.'
'With her own consent, I trust,' said Mareschal; 'for I promise you both, gentlemen, I will not stand tamely by, and see any violence put on the will of my pretty kinswoman.'
'Another pest in this hot-headed fellow,' muttered Ellieslaw; and then aloud, 'With her own consent? For what do you take me, Mareschal, that you should suppose your interference necessary to protect my daughter against her father? Depend upon it, she has no repugnance to Sir Frederick Langley.'
'Or rather to be called Lady Langley? faith, like enough—there are many women might be of her mind; and I beg your pardon, but these sudden demands and concessions alarmed me a little on her account.'
'It is only the suddenness of the proposal that embarrasses me,' said Ellieslaw; 'but perhaps if she is found intractable, Sir Frederick will consider—'
'I will consider nothing, Mr. Vere—your daughter's hand to-night, or I depart, were it at midnight—there is my ultimatum.'
'I embrace it,' said Ellieslaw; 'and I will leave you to talk upon our military preparations, while I go to prepare my daughter for so sudden a change of condition.'
So saying, he left the company.
CHAPTER XIV.
Mr. Vere, whom long practice of dissimulation had enabled to model his very gait and footsteps to aid the purposes of deception, walked along the stone passage, and up the first flight of steps towards Miss Vere's apartment, with the alert, firm, and steady pace of one who is bound, indeed, upon important business, but who entertains no doubt he can terminate his affairs satisfactorily. But when out of hearing of the gentlemen whom he had left, his step became so slow and irresolute, as to correspond with his doubts and his fears. At length he paused in an antechamber to collect his ideas, and form his plan of argument, before approaching his daughter.
'In what more hopeless and inextricable dilemma was ever an unfortunate man involved!' Such was the tenor of his reflections.—'If we now fall to pieces by disunion, there can be little doubt that the government will take my life as the prime agitator of the insurrection. Or, grant I could stoop to save myself by a hasty submission,
