"Oh, mercy! mercy!—for God's sake have mercy on him! On us!"—exclaimed Mrs. Aubrey and Kate.
"Oh, good men! kind men!—have mercy!" cried Kate, desperately—"What are you going to do with him?"
"No harm, miss, you may depend on 't—only he must go with us, seeing we 're obligated to take him."
"For Heaven's sake, don't—don't, for mercy's sake!"—cried Kate, turning her agonized face towards the man—her hair partially dishevelled, and her arms still clasping her brother with frantic energy. Mrs. Aubrey had swooned, and lay insensible in her husband's arms, supported by his knee; while Fanny, herself half-distracted, was striving to restore her by rubbing her cold hands.
"Lord, ladies! don't—don't take on in this here way—you're only a-hurting of yourselves, and you don't do the gentleman any good, you know—'cause, in course, he's all the sorrier for going," said the second man, who had by this time entered the room, and stood looking on concernedly. But Miss Aubrey repeated her inquiries with wild and frantic impetuosity, for some time not aware that Mrs. Aubrey lay insensible beside her.
"Jemmy—run and fetch the lady a sup of water from the kitchen—she's gone into a dead faint—run, my man!" said the officer to his follower, who immediately obeyed him, and presently returned with a glass of water; by which time, both Kate, and her brother, and Fanny, were endeavoring, with great agitation, to restore Mrs. Aubrey, whose prolonged swoon greatly alarmed them, and in whose sufferings, the sense of their own seemed for a while absorbed. The two men stood by, grasping their huge walking-sticks, and their hats, in silence. At length Mrs. Aubrey showed symptoms of recovery—uttering a long deep sigh.
"I say—master," at length whispered the follower, "I'll tell you what it is—this here seems a bad business, don't it?"
"Jemmy, Jemmy!" replied his master, sternly, "You a'n't got half the pluck of a bum!—There's nothing in all this when one's used to it, as I am."
"P'r'aps the gemman don't rightly owe the money, after all."
"Don't he? And they've sworn he does?—Come, come, Jem, no chaffing! The sooner (I'm thinking) we have him off from all this here blubbering, the better."