‘God knows,’ said Redgauntlet, in much agitation, ‘I acted for the best when I pressed your Majesty to come hither—I never thought that your Majesty, at such a crisis, would have scrupled, when a kingdom was in view, to sacrifice an attachment, which’—
‘Peace, sir!’ said Charles; ‘it is not for you to estimate my feelings upon such a subject.’
Redgauntlet coloured high, and bowed profoundly. ‘At least,’ he resumed, ‘I hoped that some middle way might be found, and it shall—and must.—Come with me, nephew. We will to these gentlemen, and I am confident I will bring back heart-stirring tidings.’
‘I will do much to comply with them, Redgauntlet. I am loath, having again set my foot on British land, to quit it without a blow for my right. But this which they demand of me is a degradation, and compliance is impossible.’
Redgauntlet, followed by his nephew, the unwilling spectator of this extraordinary scene, left once more the apartment of the adventurous Wanderer, and was met on the top of the stairs by Joe Crackenthorp. ‘Where are the other gentlemen?’ he said.
‘Yonder, in the west barrack,’ answered Joe; ‘but Master Ingoldsby,’—that was the name by which Redgauntlet was most generally known in Cumberland,—‘I wish to say to you that I must put yonder folk together in one room.’
‘What folk?’ said Redgauntlet, impatiently.
‘Why, them prisoner stranger folk, as you bid Cristal Nixon look after. Lord love you! this is a large house enow, but we cannot have separate lock-ups for folk, as they have in Newgate or in Bedlam. Yonder’s a mad beggar, that is to be a great man when he wins a lawsuit, Lord help him!—Yonder’s a Quaker and a lawyer charged with a riot; and, ecod, I must make one key and one lock keep them, for we are chokeful, and you have sent off old Nixon that could have given one some help in this confusion. Besides, they take up every one a room, and call for naughts on earth,—excepting the old man, who calls lustily enough,—but he has not a penny to pay shot.’
‘Do as thou wilt with them,’ said Redgauntlet, who had listened impatiently to his statement; ‘so thou dost but keep them from getting out and making some alarm in the country, I care not.’
‘A Quaker and a lawyer!’ said Darsie. ‘This must be Fairford and Geddes.—Uncle, I must request of you’—