Three days ago the person of whom I speak disappeared
suddenly from home; and, until this morning, I received no hint of
his situation. You will fancy my alarm when I tell you that he is
engaged upon a work of private justice. Bound by an unhappy oath,
too lightly sworn, he finds it necessary, without the help of law,
to rid the earth of an insidious and bloody villain. Already two
of our friends, and one of them my own born brother, have perished
in the enterprise. He himself, or I am much deceived, is taken in
the same fatal toils. But at least he still lives and still hopes,
as this billet sufficiently proves."
And the speaker, no other than Colonel Geraldine, proffered a
letter, thus conceived:-
"Major Hammersmith, - On Wednesday, at 3 A.M., you will be admitted
by the small door to the gardens of Rochester House, Regent's Park,
by a man who is entirely in my interest. I must request you not to
fail me by a second. Pray bring my case of swords, and, if you can
find them, one or two gentlemen of conduct and discretion to whom
my person is unknown. My name must not be used in this affair.
T. GODALL."
"From his wisdom alone, if he had no other title," pursued Colonel
Geraldine, when the others had each satisfied his curiosity, "my
friend is a man whose directions should implicitly be followed. I
need not tell you, therefore, that I have not so much as visited
the neighbourhood of Rochester House; and that I am still as wholly
in the dark as either of yourselves as to the nature of my friend's
dilemma.
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