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LONDON

RN HALDS, FRINIPR, ST MARTIN'S LANE, CHARING CROS

ROBERT D'ARTOIS;

OR,

THE HERON VOW.

CHAPTER I.

"Spirando il vento prospero, alla poppa
Monta Rinaldo, et addio dice a tutti:
La fune indi al viaggio il noccier sgroppa;
Tanto che giunge ove nei salsi flutti
Il bel Tamigi amareggiando intoppa,
Col gran flusso del mar quindi condotti,
I naviganti per cammin sicuro,

A vela e rami, insino a Londra furo."

THIS may not be exactly said, seeing that my traveller travelled not by water, but over land; yet will the above lines designate extremely well the spot on which a merchant, meanly attired, mounted on a sorry mule, and accompanied by a single attendant, whose appearance

VOL. III.

B

bespoke him to be not his personal domestic, but the proprietor of the animals of which he himself bestrode one, arrived in the borough of Suthverke-or Southwark, as it is now named -and presented himself before the arched gateway of Saint Thomas, which terminated the Southern side of London-bridge, and served, in times of civil commotion, to defend the burghers on one side of the river, from any sudden ingression of the citizens on the other.

The stranger-for both such his costume and accent declared him to be-turning to the guide, enquired at what hotel he was accustomed to put up. Having received for answer, that there was one at the other end of the bridge, in which both "man and beast" might depend upon receiving excellent treatment, he ordered the man to proceed, and show him the way.

In those days, London-bridge was encumbered by a double-file of houses, one on each side, close to, and almost overhanging, the water. Slowly, and with caution, the traveller went along the narrow street, in which their progress was, at each instant, interrupted by the sledges

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foreigner ought not, one would think, to have created surprise in any who beheld him there; yet did the presence of this one not pass unnoticed; though whether it was his powerful and athletic form which first struck upon and astonished the imagination of the host-whether it might have been the deep and apparently habitual gloom which hung upon his brow-or whether again it was that his mien and manner were such as to distinguish him from the general herd of those who taverned at the Spear and Buckler, I know not; but in replying to the demand, and acceding to it, mine host seemed to do so, with the air of one who felt himself to be addressing a superior; yet whatever his thoughts might have been, he made them not known, except, indeed, by respectfulness of demeanour: but silently ascending, shewed his guest into a room, from which he had an extensive view of the river west of the bridge, and then left him.

Having opened a small portmanteau, the traveller put off his dress, which had been soiled

and worn almost to rags upon the journey, and

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