The letter broke off here, and was continued lower down the page in a more hurried hand, thus:—
“In their ardor to suppress the insurrection here, some one has denounced me; and my pistols and my packet of lead, and my bullet-mould, have so far confirmed suspicion against me, that I am to go forthwith before a magistrate. It is so far provoking that my name will probably figure in the newspapers, and I have no fancy to furnish a laugh to the town on such grounds. The chief of the party (there are three of them, and evidently came prepared to expect resistance) is very polite, and permits me to add these few lines to explain my abrupt conclusion. Tell Lucy I shall keep back my letter to her, and finish it to-morrow. I do not know well whether to laugh or be angry at this incident. If a mere mistake, it is of course absurd, but the warrant seems correct in every respect. The officer assures me that any respectable bail will be at once accepted by the magistrate; and I have not the courage to tell him that I do not possess a single friend or acquaintance in this city whom I could ask to be my surety.
“After all, I take it, the best way is to laugh at the incident. It was only last night, as I walked home here in the dark, I was thinking I had grown too old for adventures, and here comes one—at least it may prove so—to contradict me.
“The car to convey me to town has arrived; and with loves to dear Lu and yourself, I am, as ever, yours,
“Bk. Fossbrooke.
“It is a great relief to me—it will be also to you—to learn that the magistrate can, if he please, examine me in private.”
CHAPTER X. THE CHIEF AND HIS FRIEND
A few days after the conversation just related in the chapter before the last, while the Chief Baron was undergoing the somewhat protracted process of a morning toilet,—for it needed a nice hand and a critical eye to give the curls of that wig their fitting wave, and not to “charge” those shrunken cheeks with any redundant color,—Mr. Haire was announced.
“Say I shall be down immediately,—I am in my bath,” said the Chief, who had hitherto admitted his old friend at all times and seasons.