CHAPTER XLVIII.
LORD ELLINGHAM AND TOM RAIN.
The interview between Lady Hatfield and the Earl of Ellingham had lasted a considerable time; and it was close upon three o'clock in the afternoon when his lordship reached Horsemonger Lane Gaol.
He communicated to the governor his desire to see Thomas Rainford; and although visitors were usually compelled to speak to prisoners through an iron grating, yet the rank of the nobleman and the fact of his being in the commission of the peace for another county (Middlesex), procured him immediate access to the highwayman's cell.
Rainford was sitting in a pensive attitude at a table on which his dinner remained untouched. We have before said—and we now repeat—that he cared but little for the peril of his own predicament: there were, however, ties which bound him to the existence that was now in jeopardy, and to the freedom that was lost.
He started from his seat with unfeigned surprise, when the Earl of Ellingham entered the cell.
"You are astonished to see me here, Mr. Rainford?" said the nobleman, in a mild and mournful tone.
"It is a visit, my lord," was the answer, "that I certainly did not expect."
"And yet—if the statement you made to Lady Hatfield be true—I am but performing a duty——"
"Ah! then she has told you that!" exclaimed the prisoner.
"She has told me that you claim a near—a very near relationship to me," rejoined the nobleman, his voice trembling with emotion—for the reader has seen enough of him to be aware that he possessed a generous heart.