«Enough, my lord-I mean my worshipful master-soon, I trust, to be my worshipful knightly master. You have given me my lesson and my license; -I will execute the one, and not abuse the other. I will be in the saddle by day-break. » « Do so, and deserve favour.-Stay-ere thou goest, fill me a cup of wine-not out of that flask, sirrah, as Lambourne was pouring out from that which Alasco had left half finished, « fetch me a fresh one. » Lambourne obeyed, and Varney, after rinsing his mouth with the liquor, drank a full cup, and said, as he took up a lamp to retreat to his sleeping apartment, « It is strange-I am as little the slave of fancy as any one, yet I never speak for a few minutes with this fellow Alasco, but my mouth and lungs feel as if soiled with the fumes of calcined arsenic-pah! » So saying, he left the apartment. Lambourne lingered, to drink a cup of the freshly opened flask. «It is from Saint-John's-Berg, » he said, as he paused on the draught to enjoy its flavour, And has the true relish of the violet. But I must forbear it now, that I may one day drink it at my own pleasure. » And he quaffed a goblet of water to quench the fumes of the Rhenish wine, retired slowly towards the door, made a pause, and then, finding the temptation irresistible, walked hastily back, and took another long pull at the wine flask, without the formality of a cup. " Were it not for this accursed custom, he ע said, «< I might climb as high as Varney himself. But who can climb when the room turns round with him like a parish-top? I would the distance were greater, or the road rougher, betwixt my hand and mouth!-But I will drink nothing tomorrow, save water—nothing save fair water.»> END OF VOLUME FIRST. |