living in a castle a long way off, and this patriarch was the father
of several of the characters, but he didn't exactly know which, and was
uncertain whether he had brought up the right ones in his castle, or the
wrong ones; he rather inclined to the latter opinion, and, being uneasy,
relieved his mind with a banquet, during which solemnity somebody in
a cloak said 'Beware!' which somebody was known by nobody (except the
audience) to be the outlaw himself, who had come there, for reasons
unexplained, but possibly with an eye to the spoons. There was an
agreeable little surprise in the way of certain love passages between
the desponding captive and Miss Snevellicci, and the comic fighting-man
and Miss Bravassa; besides which, Mr Lenville had several very tragic
scenes in the dark, while on throat-cutting expeditions, which were
all baffled by the skill and bravery of the comic fighting-man (who
overheard whatever was said all through the piece) and the intrepidity
of Miss Snevellicci, who adopted tights, and therein repaired to the
prison of her captive lover, with a small basket of refreshments and a
dark lantern. At last, it came out that the patriarch was the man
who had treated the bones of the outlaw's father-in-law with so much
disrespect, for which cause and reason the outlaw's wife repaired to
his castle to kill him, and so got into a dark room, where, after a good
deal of groping in the dark, everybody got hold of everybody else, and
took them for somebody besides, which occasioned a vast quantity of
confusion, with some pistolling, loss of life, and torchlight; after
which, the patriarch came forward, and observing, with a knowing look,
that he knew all about his children now, and would tell them when they
got inside, said that there could not be a more appropriate occasion
for marrying the young people than that; and therefore he joined their
hands, with the full consent of the indefatigable page, who (being the
only other person surviving) pointed with his cap into the clouds, and
his right hand to the ground; thereby invoking a blessing and giving the