CHAPTER VII.

ARAM'S SECRET EXPEDITION.--A SCENE WORTHY THE ACTORS.--ARAM'S
ADDRESS AND POWERS OF PERSUASION OR HYPOCRISY.--THEIR RESULT.
--A FEARFUL NIGHT.--ARAM'S SOLITARY RIDE HOMEWARD.
--WHOM HE MEETS BY THE WAY, AND WHAT HE SEES.

Macbeth. Now o'er the one half world
Nature seems dead.

Donalbain. Our separated fortune
Shall keep us both the safer.

Old Man. Hours dreadful and things strange.
--Macbeth.

"And you must really go to _____ to pay your importunate creditor this
very evening. Sunday is a bad day for such matters; but as you pay him by
an order, it does not much signify; and I can well understand your
impatience to feel discharged of the debt. But it is already late; and if
it must be so, you had better start."

"True," said Aram to the above remark of Lester's, as the two stood
together without the door; "but do you feel quite secure and guarded
against any renewed attack?"

"Why, unless they bring a regiment, yes! I have put a body of our patrole
on a service where they can scarce be inefficient, viz. I have stationed
them in the house, instead of without; and I shall myself bear them