what tales of past affections, hopes, and sorrows do they not tell! But
no sentiment of so general a sort ever saddened the hard mind of William
Brandon, and now less than at any time could such reflections have
occurred to him. Impatiently he threw on the table, one after another,
the baubles once hoarded perchance with the tenderest respect, till at
length his eyes sparkled, and with a nervous gripe he seized upon an old
ring which was inscribed with letters, and circled a heart containing
hair. The inscription was simply, "W. B. to Julia." Strange and dark
was the expression that settled on Brandon's face as he regarded this
seemingly worthless trinket. After a moment's gaze, he uttered an
inarticulate exclamation, and thrusting it into his pocket, renewed his
search. He found one or two other trifles of a similar nature; one was
an ill-done miniature set in silver, and bearing at the back sundry half-
effaced letters, which Brandon construed at once (though no other eye
could) into "Sir John Brandon, 1635, AEtat. 28;" the other was a seal
stamped with the noble crest of the house of Brandon, 'A bull's head,
ducally crowned and armed, Or.' As soon as Brandon had possessed himself
of these treasures, and arrived at the conviction that the place held no
more, he assured the conscientious Swoppem of his regard for that
person's safety, rewarded him munificently, and went his way to Bow
Street for a warrant against the witness who had commended him to the
pawnbroker. On his road thither, a new resolution occurred to him. "Why
make all public," he muttered to himself, "if it can be avoided? and it
may be avoided!" He paused a moment, then retraced his way to the
pawnbroker's, and, after a brief mandate to Mr. Swoppem, returned home.
In the course of the same evening the witness we refer to was brought to
the lawyer's house by Mr. Swoppem, and there held a long and private
conversation with Brandon; the result of this seemed a compact to their
mutual satisfaction, for the man went away safe, with a heavy purse and a
light heart, although sundry shades and misgivings did certainly ever and