"This is mere folly," said Clifford, from whose nervous and masculine
mind habits were easily shaken. "We have not for so many years discarded
all the servile laws of others, to be the abject slaves of our own
weaknesses. Come, my dear fellow, rouse yourself. Heaven knows, were I
to succumb to the feebleness of my own heart, I should be lost indeed.
And perhaps, wrestle I ever so stoutly, I do not wrestle away that which
clings within me, and will kill me, though by inches. But let us not be
cravens, and suffer fate to drown us rather than swim. In a word, fly
with me ere it be too late. A smuggler's vessel waits me off the coast
of Dorset: in three days from this I sail. Be my companion. We can both
rein a fiery horse, and wield a good sword. As long as men make war one
against another, those accomplishments will prevent their owner from
starving, or--"

"If employed in the field, not the road," interrupted Tomlinson, with a
smile,--"from hanging. But it cannot be! I wish you all joy, all
success in your career. You are young, bold, and able; and you always
had a loftier spirit than I have. Knave I am, and knave I must be to the
end of the chapter!"

"As you will," said Clifford, who was not a man of many words, but he
spoke with reluctance: "if so, I must seek my fortune alone."

"When do you leave us?" asked Tomlinson.

"To-morrow, before noon. I shall visit London for a few hours, and then
start at once for the coast."

"London!" exclaimed Tomlinson; "what, the very den of danger? Pooh! you
do not know what you say: or do you think it filial to caress Mother