ERNEST MALTRAVERS

BY EDWARD BULWER LYTTON
(Lord Lytton)


BOOK VI.

Perchance you say that gold's the arch-exceller,
And to be rich is sweet?--EURIP. /Ion./, line 641.

* * * 'Tis not to be endured,
To yield our trodden path and turn aside,
Giving our place to knaves.--/Ibid./, line 648



CHAPTER I.

"L'adresse et l'artifice out passe dans mon coeur;
Qu'ou a sous cet habit et d'esprit et de ruse."*--REGNARD.

* Subtility and craft have taken possession of my heart; but under this
habit one exhibits both shrewdness and wit.

IT was a fine morning in July, when a gentleman who had arrived in town
the night before--after an absence from England of several years--walked
slowly and musingly up the superb thoroughfare which connects the
Regent's park with St. James's.