This eBook was produced by Bryan Sherman
and David Widger
PAUL CLIFFORD, Volume 5.
By Edward Bulwer-Lytton
Outlaw. Stand, sir, and throw us that you have about you!
Val. Ruffians, forego that rude, uncivil touch!
The Two Gentlemen of Verona.
On leaving the scene in which he had been so unwelcome a guest, Cliffordhastened to the little inn where he had left his horse. He mounted andreturned to Bath. His thoughts were absent, and he unconsciouslysuffered the horse to direct its course whither it pleased. This wasnaturally towards the nearest halting-place which the animal remembered;and this halting-place was at that illustrious tavern, in the suburbs ofthe town, in which we have before commemorated Clifford's re-election tothe dignity of chief. It was a house of long-established reputation; andhere news of any of the absent confederates was always to be obtained.This circumstance, added to the excellence of its drink, its ease, andthe electric chain of early habits, rendered it a favourite haunt, evendespite their present gay and modish pursuits, with Tomlinson and Pepper;and here, when Clifford sought the pair at unseasonable hours, was he forthe most part sure to find them. As his meditations were interrupted bythe sudden stopping of his horse beneath the well-known sign, Clifford,muttering an angry malediction on the animal, spurred it onward in thedirection of his own home. He had already reached the end of the street,when his resolution seemed to change, and muttering to himself, "Ay, Imight as well arrange this very night for our departure!" he turned hishorse's head backward, and was once more at the tavern door. He threwthe bridle over an iron railing, and knocking with a peculiar sound atthe door, was soon admitted.
Are ——— and ———- here?" asked he of the old woman, as he entered,mentioning the cant words by which, among friends, Tomlinson and Pepperwere usually known.
"They are both gone on the sharps to-night," replied the old lady,lifting her unsnuffed candle to the face of the speaker with anintelligent look; Oliver (the moon) is sleepy, and the lads will takeadvantage of his nap."
"Do you mean," answered Clifford, replying in the same key, which we takethe liberty to paraphrase, "that they are out on any actual expedition?"
"To be sure," rejoined the dame. "They who lag late on the road may wantmoney for supper!"
"Ha! which road?"
"You are a pretty fellow for captain!" rejoined the dame, with a good-natured sarcasm in her tone. "Why, Captain Gloak, poor fellow! knewevery turn of his men to a hair, and never needed to ask what they wereabout. Ah, he was a fellow! none of your girl-faced mudgers, who makelove to ladies, forsooth,—a pretty woman need not look far for a kisswhen he was in the room, I warrant, however coarse her duds might be; andlauk! but the captain was a sensible man, and liked a cow as well as acalf."
"So, so! on the road, are they?" cried Clifford, musingly, and withoutheeding the insinuated attack on his decorum. "But answer me, what isthe plan? Be quick!"
"Why," replied the dame, "there's some swell cove of a lord gives a blow-out to-day; and the lads, dear souls! think to play the queer on somestraggler."
Without uttering a word, Clifford darted from the house, and wasremounted before the old lady had time to recover her surprise.
"If you want to see