CHAPTER VIII. THE ADVENTURER. He turned his charger as he spake, He gave his bridle-reins a shake, Said, "Adieu for evermore, My love, And "Adieu for evermore!"-Rokeby. We must now leave our fair travellers for a short space of time, uncomfortable as is their situation, until we throw some further light on the conversation just related. About two months previous to the time at which my story commenced, a celebrated theatrical corps, attracted all the gentry within a circle of fifty miles to the city of As Rosemount was within this limit, it is not to be supposed that Mrs. Belcour and her lovely daughters would be on the list of absentees at this general convocation of southern fashionables. The arrival of so much taste, wealth, and beauty, did not fail to create a correspondent sensation in the gay city of ; and the boarding-house which had the distinguished honour to accommodate the ladies of Rosemount, was crowded with company as soon as it was known they were in town. "Short greeting serves," says Sir Walter, "in time of strife." The same may be said, mutatis mutandis, on the present occasion. There were questions to be asked, and news to be told; and all was a scene of delightful bustle, and loquacity, and nonsense, when Mr. Courtal, a young gentleman of sixty, was announced to wait on the Miss Belcours. Mr. Courtal was one of those who, “For forty years had shined, An humble servant to all womankind;" and was, nevertheless, yet lord of himself, uncumbered with a wife.' "Oh, now we shall hear all about him," said several voices at once. "Mr. Courtal, you can tell us all and about this elegant young Englishman-he brought letters to you?” Mr. Courtal bowed profoundly to Mrs. Belcour, and then to her daughters; then to the right-then to the left-and then (as my old schoolmaster used to instruct me) in toto, to the company. "Most happy to see Mrs. Belcour and her lovely daughters. He had feared that at this genial season, when Spring, veiled in a cloud of shadowing roses, on the plain descends,' it had been impossible to seduce them from Rosemount, that bower of bliss; but what, ladies, is season and scene to you, whose presence sheds a universal joy?" Having made this little flourish, Mr. Courtal turned to the inquirers "To me? no, 'pon honour, he brought no letters of recommendation that I hear of, except what are written on his surprisingly handsome face and very interesting countenance; and those are addressed to other guess persons than to a wary, old-old, did I say? (a fico for the phrase) to a wary lawyer, ladies, who is not quite so young as he once was." "But you know," said a lady, "that he comes from Northumberland; and that his name is Percy—you must acknowledge that, Mr. Courtal." "I am advised that he comes from Northumberland, and that his name is Percy; but on the subject of his claim to the Lordship of Alnwick Castle, this deponent saith Nil novil in causa: a phrase which the ladies may translate as best suits their pleasure." "But you come from Northumberland yourself," said a very young lady, half crying; " and I am sure, if you were not so ill-natured, you would tell us that he was of the Percy family, and heir to the title." "Oh the old Lord is dead, and I am positive this is the Earl of Northumberland himself," said another lady. "Gramercy!" said Mr. Courtal, "that is coming to the point at once; truly, I perceive that if this stout Earl, if Earl he needs must be, has a mind "His pleasure in the southern states Three summer months to take," there will be found those who will be aiding and abetting him in the adventure." "The Earl," said an old lady, in accent of high disdain at the ignorance of the speaker. "The Lords of Northumberland, permit me to tell you, sir, are Dukes." "Oh, rare republicans!" said Mr. Courtal; "the ink is scarce dry, and the blood is scarce cold, which was shed in the cause of liberty and equality, and here we are sighing for scarfs and garters, as if it had not been finally settled among us that all but worth was leather or prunella.'" "But, Mr. Courtal," said Maria Belcour, you must allow me to say, (mind, sir, I have not yet seen the letters of recommendation of which you are pleased to speak so favourably,) that the wight who has the hardihood to enter the lists, just at this moment, against the theatre, (ay, and to carry off the palm of victory too, if we are to judge by what has just passed,) must have a spirit as chivalrous as that of his famed ancestor, who determined to kill a buck on the plantation of his neighbour Douglas, though it should cost him his life,-what think you, Col. Longacre?" "More shame for him," said Col. Longacre, an old gentleman of large landed estates, whose wife had dragged him most unwillingly to on the present occasion, to see the plays and show her daughter, who, being an only child, he lived in the continual fear of seeing snatched up by a fortune-hunter. "More shame for him; if that Mr. Ancestor, or whatever you call him, went for to kill a buck on Mr. Douglas's land, without saying,' with your leave,' or 'by your leave,'-I think it was a very unhandsome thing." "Spoken like the lord of a manor !" said Mr. Courtal; "and Mr. Douglas was much of your mind touching that same thing, whereby came some bloody noses, and cracked crowns, let alone more serious consequences. But Colonel, this his present Grace of Northumberland, of whom we are now speaking, is likely, from what I can gather from this fair company, to be a striker of something dearer than deer, if I may use a miserable pun, which, however, Shakspeare did not disdain to use before me.' "Body o' me! lawyer Courtal, but you are a wise. man," said the Colonel; " and I can take your hint, though you wrap it up in such an oddish manner.” "But, Col. Longacre," said Mrs. Belcour, smiling, "would you not like to see Miss Betsey a Dutchess ?" "Marrow bones!" returned the Colonel, "what good would being a dutchess do? No, show me his name on the assessors' books, Madam Belcour, that is the place I look for a man's name who is to marry my daughter." "Poor Mr. Percy, in that case," said a gentleman, "has small chance of obtaining the hand of the fair Miss Elizabeth; for, notwithstanding his pretensions to nobility, I rather suppose he will be found to be "Lord of his presence, but no land beside." "And that presence," said Miss Belcour, "must be very imposing, to have excited the sensation and attention it has done." "La! you there now," said Mr. Courtal, "when a ducal coronet is the stake, even the Belcour disdains not to take a hand." "True, Mr. Courtal," said the young lady, laughing; "but I must first ascertain that there is a ducal coronet to be played for.-Apropos-you come from the island which grows Lords and Ladies, and ought ⚫ to know something. Has he any of the marks ;-what say you ?" "Fair questioner," said Mr. Courtal, "I was too young when I left faderland to remember what a Lord was made of, admitting I ever saw one. But what do you take me for, ladies; do you think I would afford this handsome young springall such an open sesame to your good graces as to admit his claims to dukedoms and what not, when I can scarce get a kind look as it is ?" "And has the man," said Mrs. Belcour, "really the impudence to make such pretensions ?" |