Give us good voyage, gentle stream—we not   Thy sober ear with sounds of revelry;
  Wake not the echoes of thy banks
  With voice of and horn—we do but seek
  On the broad pathway of thy
  To in silent safety.
                             The Double Bridal.
Grey, or rather yellow light, was beginning to twinkle through the fogs of Whitefriars, when a low tap at the door of the unhappy announced to Lord Glenvarloch the summons of the boatman. He found at the door the man whom he had seen the night before, with a companion.
 
“Come, come, master, let us get afloat,” said one of them, in a rough impressive whisper, “time and tide wait for no man.”
 
“They shall not wait for me,” said Lord Glenvarloch; “but I have some things to carry with me.”
 
“Ay, ay—no man will take a pair of now, , unless he means to load the wherry like a six-horse . When they don't want to shift the whole kitt, they take a sculler, and be d—d to them. Come, come, where be your rattle-traps?”
 
One of the men was soon loaded, in his own estimation at least, with Lord Glenvarloch's mail and its accompaniments, with which burden he began to towards the Temple Stairs. His comrade, who seemed the principal, began to handle the trunk which contained the miser's treasure, but pitched it down again in an instant, declaring, with a great oath, that it was as reasonable to expect a man to carry Paul's on his back. The daughter of Trapbois, who had by this time joined them, up in a long dark and , exclaimed to Lord Glenvarloch—“Let them leave it if they will, let them leave it all; let us but escape from this horrible place.”
 
We have mentioned elsewhere, that Nigel was a very young man, and, by a strong feeling of and indignation, he showed his bodily strength singularly on this occasion, by seizing on the strong-box, and, by means of the rope he had cast around it, throwing it on his shoulders, and marching forward under a weight, which would have sunk to the earth three young gallants, at the least, of our day. The waterman followed him in , calling out, “Why, master, master, you might as well gie me t'other end on't!” and anon offered his assistance to support it in some degree behind, which after the first minute or two Nigel was fain to accept. His strength was almost when he reached the wherry, which was lying at the Temple Stairs according to appointment; and, when he pitched the trunk into it, the weight sank the bow of the boat so low in the water as well-nigh to overset it.
 
“We shall have as hard a fare of it,” said the waterman to his companion, “as if we were ferrying over an honest bankrupt with all his goods—Ho, ho! good woman, what, are you stepping in for?—our gunwale lies deep enough in the water without live to boot.”
 
“This person comes with me,” said Lord Glenvarloch; “she is for the present under my protection.”
 
“Come, come, master,” rejoined the fellow, “that is out of my commission. You must not double my freight on me—she may go by land—and, as for protection, her face will protect her from Berwick to the Land's End.”
 
“You will not except at my doubling the loading, if I double the fare?” said Nigel, on no account to the protection of this unhappy woman, for which he had already devised some sort of plan, likely now to be baffled by the characteristic rudeness of the Thames watermen.
 
“Ay, by G——, but I will except, though,” said the fellow with the green plush jacket: “I will my wherry neither for love nor money—I love my boat as well as my wife, and a thought better.”
 
“, nay, comrade,” said his mate, “that is speaking no true water language. For double fare we are bound to row a witch in her eggshell if she bid us; and so pull away, Jack, and let us have no more .”
 
They got into the stream-way accordingly, and, although heavily , began to move down the river with reasonable speed.
 
The which passed, overtook, or crossed them, in their course, failed not to them with their raillery, which was then called water-wit; for which the extreme plainness of Mistress Martha's features, contrasted with the youth, handsome figure, and good looks of Nigel, furnished the principal topics; while the circumstance of the boat being somewhat , did not escape their notice. They were hailed successively, as a grocer's wife upon a party of pleasure with her apprentice—as an old woman carrying her grandson to school—and as a young Irishman, conveying an ancient to Dr. Rigmarole's, at Redriffe, who beggars for a tester and a dram of Geneva. All this abuse was retorted in a similar strain of humour by Greenjacket and his companion, who maintained the war of wit with the same with which they were .
 
Meanwhile, Lord Glenvarloch asked his companion if she had thought on any place where she could remain in safety with her property. She confessed, in more detail than , that her father's character had left her no friends; and that, from the time he had betaken himself to Whitefriars, to escape certain legal consequences of his eager pursuit of gain, she had lived a life of total ; not associating with the society which the place afforded, and, by her residence there, as well as her father's , effectually cut off from all other company. What she now wished, was, in the first place, to obtain the shelter of a decent , and the of honest people, however low in life, until she should obtain legal advice as to the mode of obtaining justice on her father's murderer. She had no to charge the upon Colepepper, (commonly called Peppercull,) whom she knew to be as capable of any act of cruelty, as he was cowardly, where actual manhood was required. He had been strongly suspected of two robberies before, one of which was coupled with an atrocious murder. He had, she intimated, made to her hand as the easiest and safest way of obtaining possession of her father's wealth; and, on her refusing his addresses, if they could be termed so, in the most positive terms, he had thrown out such obscure hints of , as, joined with some imperfect assaults upon the house, had kept her in frequent alarm, both on her father's account and her own.
 
Nigel, but that his feeling of respectful to the unfortunate woman forebade him to do so, could here have communicated a circumstance of her suspicions, which had already occurred to his own mind. He the hint that old Hildebrod threw on the preceding night, that some communication betwixt himself and Colepepper had hastened the . As this communication related to the plan which Hildebrod had been pleased to form, of promoting a marriage betwixt Nigel himself and the rich heiress of Trapbois, the fear of losing an opportunity not to be , together with the mean of a low-bred ruffian, disappointed in a favourite scheme, was most likely to the bravo to the deed of violence which had been committed. The reflection that his own name was in some degree with the causes of this tragedy, doubled Lord Glenvarloch's anxiety in behalf of the victim whom he had rescued, while at the same time he formed the tacit resolution, that, so soon as his own affairs were put upon some footing, he would contribute all in his power towards the of this affair.
 
After from his companion that she could form no better plan of her own, he recommended to her to take up her lodging for the time, at the house of his old landlord, Christie the ship-chandler, at Paul's , describing the and honesty of that couple, and expressing his hopes that they would receive her into their own house, or recommend her at least to that of some person for whom they would be responsible, until she should have time to enter upon other arrangements for herself.
 
The poor woman received advice so grateful to her in her desolate condition, with an expression of thanks, brief indeed, but deeper than any thing had yet extracted from the austerity of her natural .
 
Lord Glenvarloch then proceeded to inform Martha, that certain reasons, connected with his personal safety, called him immediately to Greenwich, and, therefore, it would not be in his power to accompany her to Christie's house, which he would otherwise have done with pleasure: but, tearing a leaf from his tablet, he wrote on it a few lines, addressed to his landlord, as a man of honesty and humanity, in which he described the bearer as a person who stood in singular necessity of temporary protection and good advice, for which her circumstances enabled her to make ample acknowledgment. He therefore requested John Christie, as his old and good friend, to afford her the shelter of his roof for a short time; or, if that might not be consistent with his convenience, at least to direct her to a proper lodging-and, finally, he imposed on him the additional, and somewhat more difficult commission, to recommend her to the counsel and services of an honest, at least a reputable and attorney, for the some law business of importance. The note he with his real name, and, delivering it to his protegee, who received it with another deeply uttered “I thank you,” which the feelings of her better than a thousand combined phrases, he commanded the watermen to pull in for Paul's Wharf, which they were now approaching.
 
“We have not time,” said Green-jacket; “we cannot be stopping every instant.”
 
But, upon Nigel insisting upon his commands being obeyed, and adding, that it was for the purpose of putting the lady , the waterman declared that he would rather have her room than her company, and put the wherry alongside the wharf accordingly. Here two of the porters, who in such places, were easily induced to undertake the charge of the ponderous strong-box, and at the same time to guide the owner to the well-known of John Christie, with whom all who lived in that neighbourhood were acquainted.
 
The boat, much lightened of its load, went down the Thames at a rate increased in proportion. But we must forbear to pursue her in her voyage for a few minutes, since we have to mention the issue of Lord Glenvarloch's recommendation.
 
Mistress Martha Trapbois reached the shop in perfect safety, and was about to enter it, when a sickening sense of the of her situation, and of the singularly painful task of telling her story, came over her so strongly, that she paused a moment at the very threshold of her proposed place of refuge, to think in what manner she could best second the recommendation of the friend whom had raised up to her. Had she that knowledge of the world, from which her habits of life had completely excluded her, she might have known that the large sum of money which she brought along with her, might, managed, have been a passport to her into the of nobles, and the palaces of princes. But, however conscious of its general power, which assumes so many forms and , she was so inexperienced as to be most unnecessarily afraid that the means by which the wealth had been acquired, might exclude its inheretrix from shelter even in the house of a tradesman.
 
While she thus delayed, a more reasonable cause for hesitation arose, in a considerable noise and within the house, which grew louder and louder as the disputants issued forth upon the street or lane before the door.
 
The first who entered upon the scene was a tall raw-boned hard-favo............