“The devil! the devil!” he cried, in tremulous accents. “I saw the devil talking with him.”
Thus speaking, he wrenched his wrist from the dame’s grasp, and, pushing past her, dashed through the hall-door. The dame, though her heart was not quite itself, maintained her ground, and, again glancing at Sir Walter, waited an explanation of this singular incident.
She was not kept in uncertainty long. Sir Walter, aroused by Zedekiah’s exclamation, which revealed to him the spring and motive of that person’s conduct, speedily recovered himself; and though, with all his vexation, he could hardly repress a hearty laugh, proceeded to inform her how he came to be placed in a plight so deplorable.
He soon made the dame sensible, by his comprehensive explanation, that the simple Zedekiah was entirely mistaken, and that the report of his having been in correspondence with Satan was utterly unfounded. Satisfied of this, the dame supplied him with a napkin, in order that he might remove the water from his face and hair. She then hastened, at his request, to explain what had happened to her two domestics, as Sir Walter feared that they might otherwise alarm the neighbourhood, and so put them to great inconvenience.
During her absence, Sir Walter endeavoured, as far as circumstances would permit, to restore his disordered toilet. He accomplished his purpose with ease; for his ruff, or frill, which, according to the fashion of the day, he wore high, was but very slightly wet; and this was the only part of his dress that the water could damage. By the time that he had perfectly effaced all vestige of the water, the dame rejoined him; and the most polished courtier of an age which, by the testimony of both “tale and history,” abounded in polished courtiers, entered on a tête-à-tête with a Puritan matron.
Though far in advance of the prejudices and confined feelings of his era, Sir Walter was not, on the whole, over pleased with this situation. He was, however, of that felicitous disposition, that he made himself at his ease in whatever society he might happen to be mingled with; and at a time when, as now, he was on the brink of enterprises that involved the most gigantic interests, and were attended by the greatest risks, which no care or foresight could avoid, would bend his mind to the most trifling points of etiquette, and the least significant details of social harmony. Still, he hailed the return of Shedlock, after an interval of about an hour, with some degree of pleasure, and felt that the accession to the company relieved him of an irksome task.
Shedlock was accompanied by the lawyer, Master Hardscrew, whom he had, conformably to his expectations, found at home, and easily induced to return with him to the Hall.
The arrival of these individuals afforded Dame Shedlock an excuse to retire, which, on a signal from her husband, she did forthwith. They were, as they desired, thus left to themselves, and, free from all obstruction, they entered on the business that had brought them together. The particulars of this being already settled, and only the written agreement, in which those particulars were to be embodied, remaining to be done, they shortly brought it to a close.
Whatever might be its charms, Bethlehem Hall was not the sort of place, when the choice rested with himself, that Sir Walter Raleigh would find delight in; and therefore, after he had come to a settlement with Shedlock, he lost no time in taking his departure. But he did not carry away with him what had been the chief object of his repairing thither. Shedlock, though immensely wealthy, kept but little money in his house, the greater part of his rents being vested in a mercantile concern, at Exeter, in which he occupied the position of sleeping partner. It was arranged, therefore, on the agreement being signed, that the advance to be made by Shedlock should be paid over to Sir Walter the next morning, at the countinghouse of the aforesaid concern; and, with this appointment, the contracting parties separated.