``Stay you here,'' said Diana. ``I know the house, and I will call a servant; your sudden appearance might startle the old gentleman even to choking;'' and she escaped from me, leaving me uncertain whether I ought to advance or retreat. It was impossible for me not to hear some part of what passed within the dinner apartment, and particularly several apologies for declining to sing, expressed in a dejected croaking voice, the tones of which, I conceived, were not entirely new to me.
``Not sing, sir? by our Lady! but you must---What! you have cracked my silver-mounted cocoa-nut of sack, and tell me that you cannot sing!---Sir, sack will make a cat sing, and speak too; so up with a merry stave, or trundle yourself out of my doors!---Do you think you are to take up all my valuable time with your d-d declarations, and then tell me you cannot sing?''
``Your worship is perfectly in rule,'' said another voice, which, from its pert conceited accent, might be that of the cleric, ``and the party must be conformable; he hath canet written on his face in court hand.''
``Up with it then,'' said the Justice, ``or by St. Christopher, you shall crack the cocoa-nut full of salt-and-water, according to the statute for such effect made and provided.''
Thus exhorted and threatened, my quondam fellow-traveller, for I could no longer doubt that he was the recusant in question, uplifted, with a voice similar to that of a criminal singing his last psalm on the scaffold, a most doleful stave to the following effect:---
``Good people all, I pray give ear, A woeful story you shall hear, 'Tis of a robber as stout as ever Bade a true man stand and deliver. With his foodle doo fa loodle loo.
``This knave, most worthy of a cord, Being armed with pistol and with sword, 'Twixt Kensington and Brentford then Did boldly stop six honest men. With his foodle doo, etc.
``These honest men did at Brentford dine, Having drank each man his pint of wine, When this bold thief, with many curses, Did say, You dogs, your lives or purses. With his foodle doo,'' etc.
I question if the honest men, whose misfortune is commemorated in this pathetic ditty, were more startled at the appearance of the bold thief than the songster was at mine; for, tired of waiting for some one to announce me, and finding my situation as a listener rather awkward, I presented myself to the company just as my friend Mr. Morris, for such, it seems, was his name, was uplifting the fifth stave of his doleful ballad. The high tone with which the tune started died away in a quaver of consternation on finding himself so near one whose character he supposed to be little less suspicious than that of the hero of his madrigal, and he remained silent, with a mouth gaping as if I had brought the Gorgon's head in my hand.
The Justice, whose eyes had closed under the influence of the somniferous lullaby of the song, started up in his chair as it suddenly ceased, and stared with wonder at the unexpected addition which the company had received while his organs of sight were in abeyance. The clerk, as I conjectured him to be from his appearance, was also commoved; for, sitting opposite to Mr. Morris, that honest gentleman's terror communicated itself to him, though he wotted not why.
I broke the silence of surprise occasioned by my abrupt entrance.---``My name, Mr. Inglewood, is Francis Osbaldistone; I understand that some scoundrel has brought a complaint before you, charging me with being concerned in a loss which he says he has sustained.''
``Sir,'' said the Justice, somewhat peevishly, ``these are matters I never enter upon after dinner;---there is a time for everything, and a justice of peace must eat as well as other folks.''
The goodly person of Mr. Inglewood, by the way, seemed by no means to have suffered by any fasts, whether in the service of the law or of religion.
``I beg pardon for an ill-timed visit, sir; but as my reputation is concerned, and as the dinner appears to be concluded''-------
``It is not concluded, sir,'' replied the magistrate; ``man requires digestion as well as food, and I protest I cannot have benefit from my victuals unless I am allowed two hours of quiet leisure, intermixed with harmless mirth, and a moderate circulation of the bottle.''
``If your honour will forgive me,'' said Mr. Jobson, who had produced and arranged his writing implements in the brief space that our conversation afforded; ``as this is a case of felony, and the gentleman seems something impatient, the charge is contra pacem domini regis''------
``D---n dominie regis!'' said the impatient Justice---``I hope it's no treason to say so; but it's enough to made one mad to be worried in this way. Have I a moment of my life quiet for warrants, orders, directions, acts, bails, bonds, and recognisances? ---I pronounce to you, Mr. Jobson, that I shall send you and the justiceship to the devil one of these days.''
``Your honour will consider the dignity of the office one of the quorum and custos rotulorum, an office of which Sir Edward Coke wisely saith, The whole Christian world hath not the like of it, so it be duly executed.''
``Well,'' said the Justice, partly reconciled by this eulogium on the dignity of his situation, and gulping down the rest of his dissatisfaction in a huge bumper of claret, ``let us to this gear then, and get rid of it as fast as we can.---Here you, sir--- you, Morris---you, knight of the sorrowful countenance---is this Mr. Francis Osbaldistone the gentleman whom you charge with being art and part of felony?''
``I, sir?'' replied Morris, whose scattered wits had hardly yet reassembled themselves; ``I charge nothing---I say nothing against the gentleman,''
``Then we dismiss your complaint, sir, that's all, and a good riddance---Push about the bottle---Mr. Osbaldistone, help yourself.''
Jobson, however, was determined that Morris should not back out of the scrape so easily. ``What do you mean, Mr. Morris?---Here is your own declaration---the ink scarce dried--- and you would retract it in this scandalous manner!''
``How do I know,'' whispered the other in a tremulous tone, ``how many rogues are in the house to back him? I have read of such things in Johnson's Lives of the Highwaymen. I protest the door opens''------
And it did open, and Diana Vernon entered---``You keep fine order here, Justice---not a servant to be seen or heard of.''
``Ah!'' said the Justice, starting up with an alacrity which showed that he was not so engrossed by his devotions to Themis or Comus, as to forget what was due to beauty---``Ah, ha! Die Vernon, the heath-bell of Cheviot, and the blossom of the Border, come to see how the old bachelor keeps house? Art welcome, girl, as flowers in May.''
``A fine, open, hospitable house you do keep, Justice, that must be allowed---not a soul to answer a visitor.''
``Ah, the knaves! they reckoned themselves secure of me for a couple of hours---But why did you not come earlier?--- Your cousin Rashleigh dined here, and ran away like a poltroon after the first bottle was out---But you have not dined---we'll have something nice and ladylike---sweet and pretty like yourself, tossed up in a trice.''
``I may eat a crust in the ante-room before I set out,'' answered Miss Vernon---``I have had a long ride this morning; but I can't stay long, Justice---I came with my cousin, Frank Osbaldistone, there, and I must show him the way back again to the Hall, or he'll lose himself in the wolds.''
``Whew! sits the wind in that quarter?'' inquired the Justice---
``She showed him the way, she showed him the way, She showed him the way to woo.
What! no luck for old fellows, then, my sweet bud of the wilderness?''