第15章 ST.IVES GETS A BUNDLE OF BANK NOTES(3)

'To do you plain justice, I do not think you one,' said he.

'Suppose yourself, then, set free and at the bottom of the rock,'

he continued, 'although I may not be able to do much, I believe I can do something to help you on your road.In the first place I would carry this, whether in an inside pocket or my shoe.' And he passed me a bundle of bank notes.

'No harm in that,' said I, at once concealing them.

'In the second place,' he resumed, 'it is a great way from here to where your uncle lives - Amersham Place, not far from Dunstable;

you have a great part of Britain to get through; and for the first stages, I must leave you to your own luck and ingenuity.I have no acquaintance here in Scotland, or at least' (with a grimace) 'no dishonest ones.But further to the south, about Wakefield, I am told there is a gentleman called Burchell Fenn, who is not so particular as some others, and might be willing to give you a cast forward.In fact, sir, I believe it's the man's trade: a piece of knowledge that burns my mouth.But that is what you get by meddling with rogues; and perhaps the biggest rogue now extant, M.

de Saint-Yves, is your cousin, M.Alain.'

'If this be a man of my cousin's,' I observed, 'I am perhaps better to keep clear of him?'

'It was through some paper of your cousin's that we came across his trail,' replied the lawyer.'But I am inclined to think, so far as anything is safe in such a nasty business, you might apply to the man Fenn.You might even, I think, use the Viscount's name; and the little trick of family resemblance might come in.How, for instance, if you were to call yourself his brother?'

'It might be done,' said I.'But look here a moment? You propose to me a very difficult game: I have apparently a devil of an opponent in my cousin; and, being a prisoner of war, I can scarcely be said to hold good cards.For what stakes, then, am I playing?'

'They are very large,' said he.'Your great-uncle is immensely rich - immensely rich.He was wise in time; he smelt the revolution long before; sold all that he could, and had all that was movable transported to England through my firm.There are considerable estates in England; Amersham Place itself is very fine; and he has much money, wisely invested.He lives, indeed, like a prince.And of what use is it to him? He has lost all that was worth living for - his family, his country; he has seen his king and queen murdered; he has seen all these miseries and infamies,' pursued the lawyer, with a rising inflection and a heightening colour; and then broke suddenly off, - 'In short, sir, he has seen all the advantages of that government for which his nephew carries arms, and he has the misfortune not to like them.'

'You speak with a bitterness that I suppose I must excuse,' said I;

'yet which of us has the more reason to be bitter? This man, my uncle, M.de Keroual, fled.My parents, who were less wise perhaps, remained.In the beginning, they were even republicans;

to the end they could not be persuaded to despair of the people.

It was a glorious folly, for which, as a son, I reverence them.

First one and then the other perished.If I have any mark of a gentleman, all who taught me died upon the scaffold, and my last school of manners was the prison of the Abbaye.Do you think you can teach bitterness to a man with a history like mine?'

'I have no wish to try,' said he.'And yet there is one point I cannot understand: I cannot understand that one of your blood and experience should serve the Corsican.I cannot understand it: it seems as though everything generous in you must rise against that -

domination.'

'And perhaps,' I retorted, 'had your childhood passed among wolves, you would have been overjoyed yourself to see the Corsican Shepherd.'

'Well, well,' replied Mr.Romaine, 'it may be.There are things that do not bear discussion.'

And with a wave of his hand he disappeared abruptly down a flight of steps and under the shadow of a ponderous arch.