The room into which the commander of the yacht was ushered by the
beautiful young Jewess was of a very different character from the other parts
of the interior of the dwelling already described. It was large and spacious,
and furnished with all the luxury of a nobleman's private chamber. Gold
mingled with crimson met the eye in the drapery of the windows and the richest
colors covered the chairs and ottomans. The general style of the
room and its furniture was oriental rather than English. At a table covered
with an embroidered scarlet cloth sat a man about fifty years of age
dressed in a lose black gown. A brazen antique lamp suspended above
the table cast its beams downward upon his majestic head and features. His
high, column-like forehead shaded with short, black locks; his strong arched
brows, and large, full, piercing black eyes; his high-bridged and slightly
arched nose, and the red fulness and flexibility of his lips betrayed him to belong
to the tribe of Israel. A jet black beard mingled with gray descended
from his chin to his breast. His size was large and his air noble and imposing.
But there was an expression in his eyes of profound avarice, and about his
mouth played deceit and cunning. Physically the Jew was a noble specimen
of his finely formed race; but morally he looked in every lineament the usurer.
As the captain of the yacht entered he was busily summing up a column of
figures in a book before him. He did not look up from his occupation until
he heard the door close again and the step of the visiter advancing towards
him. He then raised his face from his accounts, keeping his forefinger upon
the column he had been calculating, and fixing his glance upon him said with
a strong Jewish accent,

`You are velcom, my lort. Pe pleesh to take a shair! So, you haf come
vor more monish?' he added, with a scarcely perceptible glimmer of satisfaction
in the expression of his eyes.

`You seem to approach the subject abruptly enough, Moloch,' said Dauling
coloring, as if displeased at his business being so readily divined and declared
to him. `The truth is, it is more money I have come for! Nothing else, you
may be assured, would bring me into this infernal quarter.'

As he spoke he drew a high-back, crimson chair towards the table before
the Jew and placing his arms crossed upon the rich table-covering, he regarded
him with a look of anxiety and painful uncertainty.

`You haf de shureties, my lort?' said the Jew with a grave aspect and drawing
down one corner of his mouth in a peculiar and sinister manner.

`You well know I have not, Enoch!' answered Dauling with emphasis, all
the color leaving his cheeks.

`Then you vell knows dat I has not te moniesh,' responded the Jew coldly,
and without moving a muscle of his dark Arabian visage.

`I know that you must let me have money, sureties or no,' answered Dauling
almost fiercely.

[figure description] Page 011.[end figure description]

`Peace, my lort! Peace in a pargain is more petter nor war! You say you
haf want moneish, put you haf not de sureties; I say I vant te sureties for my
moneish.'

The officer remained a few moments silent, his hand upon his brow. His
face was dark and troubled. At length he spoke.

`I well knew, Jew, that I could not get money of you, nay not a farthing to
save my soul, without security. I was not so ignorant of the cold avarice of
thy own heart, or of thy race! Hear me what I have to say and then do as you
please; for, as I know you have no principle or conscience where gold is concerned,
I am assured what I am about to propose will meet your peculiar views
of things.'

`If, my lort can get te shureties dem ish all tat ish want,' answered Moloch
briefly, and bending his great eyes upon him to listen with them; for he heard
and understood more by the expression of the countenance than by the words
that fell upon his ear.

`You know well, Jew,' said Dauling, gloomily and hesitatingly, `that
have no further means! There,' he continued, pointing to an iron box at the
Jews feet and which he used as a foot-stool, `there is locked up and the key
is at thy girdle, the deed of the only estate I ever owned.'

`The gift of thy noble father the Duke,' said the Jew.

`Such gift as it was! a mere pittance of twenty thousand pounds! But were
it worth a hundred thousand it is no longer mine!'

`If shentlemen's vill play tey must expect to lose deir moneish,' answered
the Jew, with a twinkle of avaricious gains in the corner of his eye.

`I know well the risks of play, Moloch. You know I have suffered from
their effects. Cursed be the day I ever adventured the first guinea! But this
is past. I have now only to save myself from ruin.

`Ruin! Has my lort lost all his moneish?'

`I have not a sovereign left of the large sum you let me have when I called
to see you last June!'

`And no estate now?'

`Not an acre!'

`Tish very bat, very mootch bat,' answered Moloch with a sympathising
shake of his head, while a gleam of pleasure secretly passed across his expression.

`Bad! I am ruined, Jew, and you must save me,' cried Dauling with. intense
excitement and placing his hand forcibly and earnestly upon the moneylender's
wrist.

`My lort cannot pe ruined vile te Duke ish livin? He gif my lort a pretty
eshtate, ant if my lort tell him he must haf anudder, te Duke vill gif my lort
anodder pretty eshtate.'

`No. I have seen the Duke my father, Moloch. I have told him that I
was in need of money, but he refused to advance me!'

`Gid you tell te Duke you had mortgage your eshtate?' asked the Jew
quickly.

`Yes; but not to whom? I told him my whole situation and how that the
mad passion for gaming had step by step brought me to it. He answered me
that in giving me what he had, an education befitting my birth, illegitimate
though it was, and on my coming of age presenting me with a property worth
twenty thousand pounds, that he had done enough for a son who had no legal
claim upon him! This was his answer to me, Jew! Moreover, he said that
as his influence has obtained for me the command of the Royal yacht, with a
very handsome pay, that it was enough for him to do; and that I must now depend
on my pay and my character as an officer for my future prospects in my
life!'

`This looksh vary bat,' said Moloch gravely; for he saw now that he had no
further prospect of getting any more gold and silver gains out of the gamester.
He spoke gravely and looked coldly and reserved. Dauling at once perceived
the change in his manner and divined the cause of it with a ready interpretation.

`I have told you frankly the facts relating to myself just as they are,' he

[figure description] Page 012.[end figure description]

said trying to assume a frank bearing and tone as he addressed the Jew. `This
interview with the Duke took place five weeks ago!'

`But a month after my last loan of five thousand pounds to you. You did
not keep it long my lort!'

`That is my affair. When I saw the Duke I had not a guinea in the world.
After receiving his reply I left him in great rage, though I was careful to disguise
it under an appearance of calm, sorrowful submission to his decision. I
was in debt two thousand pounds at the moment; debts of honor! incurred
within the last three days. It was the necessity of paying these that drove me
to my father!'

`And now you come to me!' said Molock sternly.

`Jew, though I have no means I can make means, therefore return to your
civility, which your race measure as you do gold, by gold! I come to you for
money but not to pay those gambling debts. They are already paid! paid the
very moment they became due! paid within three hours after I quitted my father's
presence!'

`How?' inquired the usurer opening his eyes with a sort of incredulous surprise.

`Enoch,' said the Captain of the Yacht, in a low, deep impressive tone of
voice, `I am about to confide to you a secret. Such confidence doubtless is
not new to you! You are a money-lender! Your conscience is gilded. You
act from self-interest and love of gain! So you keep within the law you do
that which seems righteous in the sight of your own eyes. I am about to tell
you how I got that money the Duke haughtily and cruelly denied me; and also
I am about to inform you how I am to get money from your coffers!'

`With shurities, yesh! mitout dem no!' ejaculated Molock significantly
touching with his thumb the key of his iron-box which hung at his girdle.

`Enoch, you know there is a law in the land against usury!' said Dauling
impressively.

`And you know you have made yourself amendable to this law by your transactions
with me!'

The money-lender drew back his person and fixed his eyes with fierce suspicion
upon the gamester.

`Nay, do not fear, Enoch! no one shall know that you have taken from me
twenty thousand pounds for eight thousand! or loaned me money at forty-two
percent. You confided in my honor, and if I did not regard my own I should
fear the scorn of all honorable men, should I be an informer. Yet it is in my
power to do you mischief! But I only allude to this, that I may have assurrance
of your secrecy in the matter I am about to confide to you. Perhaps,
however,' he added with a haughty contempt, `perhaps I shall find a surer security
in your love of money!'

`Vat secret ish given to me in pusiness I never petray, my lort,' answered
Molock with a countenance wholly unmoved by the insulting words and manner
of the Duke's son.

`Know then, Enoch,' said Dauling, lowering his voice and approaching his
lips to the Jew's ear, `that I obtained the money by drawing a check for it in
the Duke's name!'

`Forged a draft? exclaimed the usurer with a look of astonishment.

`Yes,' answered Dauling bolding. `What else could I do? I was owing
debts of honor to the amount, as I told you, of two thousand pounds! They
had to be paid within three hours, for I had spent several hours in searching
for the Duke to get an interview! Debts of honor are imperious! I left the
palace of my father with my decision formed; and in a coffee-house not far
distant, drew a check of three thousand pounds on the Duke's banker. I had
no fears of detection from the signature for I knew it was perfect; and as I
presented it myself I knew it would not be closely scrutinized!'

`You were a very pold man, my lort, to offer the draft yourself! It vas very
dansherous, my lort!'

`I had no alternative. The draft was cashed. I paid my debts of honor and
felt relieved.'

`Vary moosh, I tare say, my lort,' said the money-lender with a slight shrug
of the shoulders.

[figure description] Page 013.[end figure description]

`With the other thousand I repaired to the L— Rooms to play for the
purpose of winning enough to replace the amount of the draft at once. I succeeded
in my wishes and the next day replaced the sum I had drawn, and by a
dextereous manœuvre got possession of the forged draft, which else would
have been retained on file against me.'

`You vere fortunate, my lort,' said the usurer, who had listened with interest
to his money operations; for those who boldly managed, were always entertaining
to him.

`Yes, it might have gone hard with me had it met the Duke's eye. But I
was shortly in want of more funds, and having one night gone ashore after a
week's pleasure trip with the yacht to Portsmouth, at the place to play. I lost
every thing. I had not a half-crown left. I had to stay in Portsmouth some
two days longer as the Queen and her party, whom I had taken down, were not
yet ready to return. I could not be two days in Portsmouth without money.
So I resolved to try the Duke again.'

`Vas he in Portshmouth, my lort?' asked Moloch dryly. `I tink if he vas
you would get no monish no more as pefore.'

`No, the Duke was at his seat near London. But I had no intention of
making a personal application. My proud spirit had been too keenly wounded
before. No, Enoch, this is what I did! I made a draft on his Grace for
five thousand pounds, drawing it in my own name and forging the Duke's acceptance
to it. This draft I made at thirty days. Well, I got the money upon
it in Portsmouth and the draft was sent to a banker here for collection! As
my ill-fortune would have it the Queen's daughter the princess Amelie was
taken ill at Portsmouth and the Royal Party decided on returning to Windsor
by land. Two weeks of my draft's time had already passed when this decision
was made, and I then weighed to sail round to London alone. But I lost
my foretopmast in a gale and was forced to put into Cowes to repair. With
all the haste I could press matters, it was a week before I could leave there,
and adverse winds made it four days more before I reached the Thames. From
the Pilot I received a packet which I found to be from the Secretary of state,
ordering me to proceed up the river with the yacht and anchor off against the
Tower until further orders. I have been at my anchorage now this is the
third night without receiving any orders, although I have reported myself.
The truth is I have my fears that my forgery is discovered and that I may see
the inside of the Tower. I know it is for the Duke's interest to get me out of
the way; and as he would not like to bring me and his family matters up before
the criminal tribunal, he may have taken advantage of his discovery and
engaged for me a snug birth for life in one of the dungeons of the Tower.
He has only to breathe his wish and the thing is done at his will! This is
however, perhaps, only an unfounded notion of my own fears. But the fact is
that my draft is due to-morrow and that if it is not paid then the Duke must
hear of it before night.'

`You did vary ill, my lort, to gif your own name to it! Any oder name, mit
de Duke's acceptances was just as goot. 'Tis was vary wrong.'

`I see it was now!'

`Vary. If you bad put anodder name, den te Duke vould nevar know it vas
you!'

`But you forget that without some responsible name I could not have got
the draft done. I had no person but myself. The broker I knew would take
my draft without question!'

`I see, I see! Vat you say is correct, my lort. You could not vell done oter
vays! Tish a pad pusiness!'

`You must help me out of it,' cried Dauling with anxiety.

`It is a vary pad pusiness,' repeated Enoch a second time, shaking his head
very gravely. `Haf you no moneish, my lort?'

`I lost every pound I had received at Portsmouth, except two hundred, before
I left there. That two hundred I left to play with when I got to London.'

`And tis moneish—tis doo huntret pounts! Haf you lost tis too?'

`All! I was fortunate the first night of my arrival and won! But last night I
lost every thing. To-morrow the draft comes due! I drew it with the hopes
of being able to win enough to meet it before its maturity! But you have seen

[figure description] Page 014.[end figure description]

how I am at fault,' he said bitterly; and rising he paced the rich carpet of the
Jew's private chamber with a hurried step.

`Vhy dit you not draw on te government ant set te amount down to damashes?
' asked the wily banker.

`Ha! you are as deep as I am, Moloch,' exclaimed the captain of the yacht
stopping and laughing with a sardonic expression, as he regarded Enoch's tace.
`Know, oh. Jew; that I have done this thing already from Cowes; but I did
it only for three hundred and fifty pounds over the damages the gale did the
yacht! If I could have drawn for five thousand with safety, or any chance of
its being paid, I would have done it you may depend.'

`Vat dit my lort do mit te tree hundret ant vivty pounts?'

`Lost every farthing of it before I left that port.'

`My lort loves play vary moosh.'

`It is a passion with me! But, I swear to you, Moloch, if you will help me
pay this sum to-morrow I will never play again.'

`Vat interest has te Jew in my lort's play? 'Tis just te same to me if my
lort play or my lort stop play. I haf no interest in te matter ony as I gets all
my moneish vish I has got, pleash fader Abraham!'

`True. I ought to know that on the contrary you thrive on other men's vices
and follies. But I must have money to-morrow, Moloch. The broker holds
the draft and unless it is paid before two o'clock it will be presented to the
Duke. He only would want such a plea for getting well rid of me! His
daughter, my legitimate sister, is now coming forward in her tenth year, and
he thinks I might not honor the relationship! In a word he would not hesitate
either to give me up to the authorities as a forger, or by consent of the King
place me secretly in the Tower. I never see the King's boat quit the stairs
but I think it is coming on board for me! Help me to get this draft off my
hands and I will do anything for you, Enoch?'

`Te Christian plead humbly to te Jew vhen he would haf money; and curses
him vhen he no more needs him! Vat can the Jew do? Shew me how I can
let you haf money?'

`I want five thousand pounds. Security I have none. Nay, do not smile
so sneeringly! Listen! The money I must have to-morrow, else I am a
ruined man! Bastard though I am yet. I am a gentleman and men treat me as
such. I have royal blood in my veins and am proud of it. Before the world I
would keep it untarnished by any low crime. Nor would I give my father
cause to get rid of me by having him make the discovery of my forgery. To
conceal it I am ready to commit a greater! Moloch, you have money, and by
money you live. More, more, MORE is your cry! You ask not for the sources
of the golden stream that flows into your coffers. You care not whence it
comes, be it from Palestine or Pagandom, so as you are enriched. Now to get
the money I want I am ready here, with this pen I have seized in my grasp to
put the Duke's name to paper in any shape and to any amount under twenty
thousand pounds that you may draw up! You shall cash it, and for your pay
receive a thousand pounds down beside the usual discount.'

Moloch's eyes brightened and his whole manner instantly changed.

`Vill my lort make a draft for twenty tousant in his own name and endorse
it mit te Duke's?'

`I will do it,' answered the captain of the yacht, with emphasis, his features
lighting up with hope as he fastened his gaze earnestly upon the face of the
Jew.

CHAPTER III. The Forged Draft.

[figure description] Page 015.[end figure description]

The money-lender was thoughtful a moment and seemed to be weighing
the risks. At length he spoke and said,

`My lort, you say you vant tventy tousant pounts. Vary goot! Tventy
tousant pounts is moosh money.

`I would rather not make it more than ten thousand.

`Vy no more dan den tousant?'

`Because I may not be able to repay it!'

The Jew laughed with his eyes in a manner peculiar to him, and replied,

`Vor dat matter, my lort, it might pe von huntret tousant. Put to the pusiness.
You haf five tousant to pay to-morrow?'

`I have or am ruined!'

`You haf no shurities?'

`Not a guinea's value.'

`You come to me to ashk me to loan you ten tousant pounts?'

`Yes; for which I will give you a forged acceptance of my father!'

`All vary goot, vary,' said Moloch dryly, and lifting his arched eye-brows;
`but if I cash dis paper vot am I to do mit it?'

`Present it to the Duke's banker. It will be paid.'

`Of dat I haf no doubt. my lort. But vhen it is py ant py discover to pe a
forshery, vat shall I do?'

The captain of the yacht paced the room several times in perplexity before
he replied,

`Make it twenty-five thousand pounds and you are at liberty to say that I
presented it to you.

`Den vhy did you not forge te acceptance, my lort, for tis amount and presend
it yourself mitout comin to me?'

For this reason: I had began to conceive that the Duke's Banker suspected
me. I was afraid to offer another, and especially while the one that is due tomorrow
remains unpaid. This alone would lead to a suspicion; for the Duke's
banker knows of the existence of my draft from Portsmouth, the broker who
has it for collection having gone to him to get his testimony as to the signature.
This I learned this morning from the broker in a round-about way.—
Therefore, Moloch, I had no resource but to make a confidant of you.'

`If I cash an acceptance for twenty-fife tousant pounts, why are you more
villing I should tell I got it from you my lort, dan if it vos only vor ten?' asked
Enoch, eying him closely.

`Because I see now what did not occur to me at first, that you will be held
responsible when you present the draft on which you have given me the money
unless you can give the name of the person from whom you received it; for it
must at maturity be discovered to be a forgery. Therefore, I have made up my
mind if my name must be given it shall be for a sum of high value. But pledge
me, Moloch, that you will only give my name when you are called upon to the
Duke in person and in private!'

`Dis I promise.

Then give me paper and let me make the draft. For what time shall it be?'
asked Dauling, seating himself and removing his cap, exposing, as he did so,
a noble head and kingly brow that bespoke his royal lineage. An expression
stern and dark clouded his features and marred with guilty purposes the dignity
of his manly countenance.

`Tree days!'

`Three days! Thirty it must be?'

`It is safer at tree day,' answered the Jew quietly.

But three days will not give me any time to win at play?'

`Nor will thirty, my lord. Tree day or not at all. Pefore thirty day te
Duke may shange his banker ant I lose all I gif you pefore I get it pack again.'

But I expected if you gave me the money on it to-night you would take it
to the Duke's banker in the morning and get it discounted and off your
hands.'

[figure description] Page 016.[end figure description]

`No. I sall take it to te banker just two minute no more, just two minute
pefore te last hour of its payment expires. I sall den hand it to do banker and
he vill pay it vith hurry so as not haf time to look too sharp, pecause he would
not like to haf te Duke's name dishonored py delay. Therefore, as I must lay
out of my moneish, I cant pe out of longer den tree day.'

`Well, three days then! My mind is made up as to the step I shall take, if
I once get this Portsmouth draft taken up.—Three days, he added in a halftone
and frowning till his brows met, `three days will serve me as well as
three hundred. What I have resolved upon I shall execute. I will once more
meet my father. Three days is long enough to put off the meeting. You are
waiting for me, Enoch. Well, I will write and sign.

The commander of the yacht then rapidly wrote a draft upon the Duke of—,
for the large amount of twenty five thousand pounds, and was about
to sign it with his own name when the Jew laid his hand upon his:

`You must put some oder name, my lort, if as you say, you are suspected!

`Whose?' demanded Dauling suspending his pen over the paper.

`Can you imitate this closely?' asked Moloch, drawing a note of hand from
a black leather pocket-book and showing him the signature of `Foster, Murray
& Co.' at the bottom of it, one ofthe wealthiest banking firms in London

`Yes,' answered Dauling on glancing at it.

`Sign den, dis names to de draft! It vill pe petter nor yours, my lort.'

Dauling did not hesitate to do as he was requested, and placed the forged
signature accurately imitated at the foot of the draft.

`Now te Duke's acceptance!' said Moloch after he had examined carefully
the two signatures, and smiled approvingly.

The officer with a ready pen placed the forged acceptance of his father,
across the face of the draft and the paper was completed!'

`Vary goot,' said the Jew placing his spectacles more closely upon his eyes
and carefully inspecting the draft. `'Tis now goot negoshiable papers!—
Twenty fife tousand pounts ish a goot deal of moneish! It vill make de Jew
poor to give all dis! Put if I vill do dis paper for you, my lort how mooch
vill my lort gif me vor de risks?'

`Two thousand pounds!'

The money-lender smiled sneeringly. `No, no, my lort! I must haf ten
tousant ant gif you te palance!'

This was spoken very positively. Dauling fixed upon him a look of surprise
and anger, and seeing by his countenance that he was in earnest he exclaimed
fiercely,

`Accursed Jew! Do you dare to propose such a thing to me! I will give
you no more than two thousand pounds.'

`Den I can't do it my lort!' answered Moloch firmly and calmly.

`I will give you three thousand, and not a guinea more so help me the God
of Abraham!'

`Den dere is an end to our pusiness, my lort!' coldly said Moloch turning
his attention again to his accounts, in poring over which the entrance of Dauling
had interrupted him.

The captain stood and regarded him with dark looks for a moment and then
said in a changed tone,

`Enoch, I will make it five thousand. Pay me twenty and let me depart;
for my time is measured!'

`Not a farthing less, my lort!'

`Are you not satisfied that the draft can be discounted?'

`It is perfectly goot, my lort,' he answered smoothing it over with his forefinger
as it lay upon the table before him.

`Then you have no risk. All the risk is mine, as you will give up my name
when you are called upon to declare how you came by it! You shall have only
what I have offered you!

`Ten tousant pounts, my lort!' answered Enoch without lifting his eye from
his accounts.

`Ten thousand devils! I will not give it! You are a brazen-faced usurer,
and know you, Jew, that you are in my power! You know that you have infringed
in the most bare-faced manner the severe Statutes recently enacted

[figure description] Page 017.[end figure description]

against usury, and have laid yourself open to all its terrible penalties. Your
vile terms have exasperated me; and I now swear to you that unless you do
this on my terms I will make you a public example. You are in my power and
beware.'

`And you, my lort are in mine,' responded the money-lender taking up the
forged draft and thrusting it into his bosom.' So long as I hold this evidence
of your guilt I do not fear you!' As Moloc hspoke his lip curled with a bitter
smile of triumph aungled with contempt.

`Ha! Do you dare, infernal Israelite?' cried the Commander of the Yacht,
drawing his sword and springing upon the Jew to wrest from him the fatal paper.
Moloch who was a taller and larger man than his visitor, though Dauling
himself was of a powerful frame, sprung to his feet and seizing the wrist
of his sword arm with a pressure that caused him to drop the weapon at his
feet. As it fell Moloch kicked it across the chamber, and then releasing him
said calmly,

`Dis ish no vays, mine lort, to get your monish! If you vants your draft
take it and seek some other broker.' As he spoke he drew from his breast the
paper and laid it upon the table. Dauling stood silent and gloomy, looking
irresolute. He did not extend his hand to take up the draft, glad as he would
have been to have had possession of it by force the moment before.

`Moloch,' he at length said in an impassioned tone of voice, `let us not be
foes! Give me fifteen thousand on the condition you will not give up my name
as a party. I begin to fear that it will be unsafe. My plan was to let you
give it up to the Duke alone when you should be called upon, telling him it
was purchased by you from me in the way of business; and I then contemplated
calling on the Duke in person, confessing the whole, and assuming the
penitent, throw myself upon his mercy; which, if I failed in, I meant to take
another course, which it is not expedient to detail to you. I shall, however,
still see him in person! But I fear that the Duke will think more of the loss
of his twenty five thousand pounds than of my relationship to him and give me
up to the laws! In a word I dare not trust him. Therefore, if you can devise
any other way by which to escape the responsibility, and I know you are
fruitful in expedients, I will give you ten thousand pounds.' Here Dauling
paused; for he saw that the money-lender was already thinking deeply, as if
struck by his suggestion and its feasability. The Jew sat silent full three
minutes his eyes fixed upon the carpet and his manner wholly that of one absorbed
in some deep project. Dauling watched him closely and anxiously.
At length the Moloch raised his head and said,

`My lort, 'tis a great risk, vary great dangers, put I vill do it! Your name
sall not pe gifen. I can do it mitout, put te risk is immense, my lort.'

`And the sum I give you is immense.'

`It ish a vary goot sum, my lort,' answered Moloch indifferently. `You vill
half fife tousant to take up your draft from Portshmout, and ten tousant left,
and no fear from arrest for forsherg! Ten tousant pound to me is not moosh
for all dis happenesh.'

`You swear you will not devulge my name.'

`I shwear it.'

`Place your hand upon your thigh and swear it by the faith of Israel,' he
said commandingly.

`I shwear it by the faith ov Israel, my lort,' answered Moloch, laying his
hand upon his thigh and speaking the words with solemnity.

`Now I am free again,' cried Dauling with animation. `Please you, good
Enoch count out your soverigns and bank-notes.'

`So much monesh I haf not in my house, my lort. If you vill call to-morrow
at elefen o'clock, you sall haf te vivteen tousant pounds.'

`I must have it to-night,' he demanded imperiously.

`I haf not one tousand pounts in my shest, my lort! Mine moneish ish in
te panks. Come to me in te mornins' at elefen and you sall haf te moneish!'

The officer stood a moment silent and thoughful and then replied,

`Be it so, Moloch. At eleven o'clock I shall be here! Now a good night
to thee!'

`Goot night my lort,' answered the Jew; and taking up a little silver bell

[figure description] Page 018.[end figure description]

that stood before him upon the table, he rang it and the beautiful Rachel came
into the chamber.

`Neice, see this gentleman down stairs and through the shop,' he said to
her.

`I am honored by so fair a guide, charming Jewess,' said Tudor Dauling
bowing with an air of gallantry to her; although this courteous manner sat ill
with the haughty and sinister expression that was upon his features, as if he
despised the race to which the young girl belonged, while he admired her
physical beauty.

`My niece little understands the fair words of flattery, my lort,' said the Jew
coldly as if displeased.

`Nay, Enoch, I am no gallant for the sex. Little care I for any of them,
else might I seek to mend my fortune,' he added in a tone meant only to reach
the Jew's ear, `by taking a wife. But seldom have I given them more than a
passing glance, for rare must be the beauty that causes my eye to linger.
Such beauty is that of thy niece! But good night. To-morrow at eleven!
Fair daughter of Abraham I follow thee.'

Thus speaking the captain of the yacht preceded by Rachel, who all the
while had stood silent and down-looking, left the sumptuous private chamber
of the rich money-lender, Enoch Moloch, and passing down the dark stairscase
emerged into the shop below. Then with a slight bow he took leave of
the Jewess, and wrapping his cloak closely about his face went forth into the
street and rapidly pursued his way in the direction of the strand.

Rachel lingered a moment, with her forefinger placed upon her lip, as if reflecting
upon the mingled indifference and admiration towards her of the dark
featured noble looking stranger, when the sound of the silver bell recalled her
to he uncle's presence.

`Well, neice, what think you of my noble visitor,' said Moloch, speaking in
the Hebrew tongue with a dignity of accent and enunciation that singularly
contrasted the badly pronounced English he had made use of in his conversation
with Tudor Dauling.

`Is he noble?' asked the maiden and she seated herself upon an ottoman opposite
to him.

`What dost thou think of him?' repeated Molock with a half-smile; forduring
his brief interval that had elapsed since the departure of the commander
of the yacht he had conceived a thought in his inventive brain, which the
last words of the other had given bot spark and fuel.

`I think him a man of large statute, about eight and thirty years of age,
with a haughty air and a countenance exceedingly noble and handsome yet at
the same time singularly forbidding.'

`Could you love him, Rachael?'

The Jewish maiden started slightly, and then opening her large black eyes
rested them upon the face of Molock with an expression of surprise and alarm.
`Love him! oh no! I should fear him were he powerful and I in his power.'

`Yet methinks he looked kindly upon thee!'

`It was not a look a maiden could meet or that would please her. It was
cold and supercilious at the same time insultingly condescending. So might
a cavalier regard a handsome gipsey in her rags! Why dost thou ask me these
questions with such a serious face? Is the man not a Christian? Am I not a
Jewess? You mock me in asking me if I would love him!' she said with a
look of displeasure the proud style of her beauty.

`Nay, be patient, Rachael. Christians and Jews have wed ere now. You
are now of full age to have a husband. You have refused more that one
Israelitsh youth who has sought your hand of me. Your heart is therefore
free. This stranger who just left us is by no means so bad a man as to his
heart as you think. He has been in great perplexities and they have soured
his visage. He is nominally a Christian but I assure you he has as much reverence
for Joshua as Jesus. His religious scruples will not be in the way. I
am desirous that you should try to captivate him and win him.'

`Would you have me marry him indeed, uncle?' she asked earnestly.

`Truly I would.'

[figure description] Page 019.[end figure description]

`He would scorn me. Besides I know him not. Nor could I wed a man I
have no love for, much more a Christian,' she said jeeringly; and rising up
she walked the space before the table with a quick tread and a look much excited.
Moloch, in the meanwhile sat perfectly composed yet with a firm aspect.

`Know you, Rachel, that this man is not only noble, but Royal?'

`How?'

`He is the illegitimate son of the Duke of —, the near relative of the
King. The Duke has no other son, but one daughter about ten or twelve
years of age, by a later marriage with the sister of Prince —.'

`His royalty is tarnished by his birth! I regard him less noble than I did
before.'

`But the world does not. Men look upon him in the same light as if he
were born in wedlock. The blood flowing in his veins covers all disgrace.
He is admitted into society with honor and save the title and inheritance is as
good as the Duke's lawful son. His father was greatly attached to him until
he became married and had a daughter, when by the influence of the Dutchess
he was sent a way from the paternal roof. The rest of his time till he came
of age he passed at Eton school and at Oxford, the Duke in the meanwhile
lavishly supplying his expenses. But after he became of age he pursued a
course of the most extravagant dissipation; which, at length, reached to such
lengths that the Duke became embarrassed to meet his exorbitant drafts to
pay gambling debts; for gaming was his passion. Finally his father after
long forbearance, firmly refused longer to give him money. But he made
over to him an estate worth about twenty thousand pounds, on the condition
that he should reside on it, live within its income, and marry within one year.
Tudor subscribed to the terms and conditions and returned to his estate.
Here he did remain very quiet for a year, but yet did not marry. Nevertheless
the Duke did not insist upon this so long as he was steady. There he
remained until last year in the most perfect retirement, but the secret of his
content was, that he had surrounded himself there with all the gay scenes he
so much loved in London. Fine rooms in his villa were fitted up as gaming
rooms, and his house was the resort and almost the habitation of the principal
gamblers of the metropolis. He took for his part a certain percentum of all
the money won there by others and by this means lived, and lived expensively.
As the Duke never came to see him, this state of thing's only reached his
ears inpartial statements, and by no means in their truth, as Tudor conducted
all thing's about his establishment with the greatest caution and secrecy.
But his good fortuneturned and reverses rendered it necessary he should
mortgage his property. The deeds of the whole are in this chest,' added Moloch
placing his foot upon the iron box at his side.

`And this is the man you wish me to sacrifice myself to, uncle,' cried the
Jewess with indignant surprise.

`Nay, listen to what more I have to say, and then decide,' he answered with
composure.

`I will hear you, uncle,' she replied, reseating herself upon the ottoman and
folding her arms upon her bosom with a haughty air that exceedingly became
her.

CHAPTER IV. The Bank-Clerk.

[figure description] Page 020.[end figure description]

Moloch proceeded for a few moments to explain to Rachel, more in detail,
the nature of the business which the captain of the yacht had with him. When
he had ended he said with a scorching look, surveying her handsome intelligent
face,

`Do you clearly understand all this, niece?'

`Perfectly, uncle!'

`Now I will tell you how you can serve me in obtaining this money on the draft.
I have to run all the risks and my lord is not to be known in the transaction.
Neither do I wish to be. Here, you see, is the paper which he has so boldly
forged!' added Moloch, showing her the draft. `He has not only forged his
father's acceptance but the names as drawers of one of the first bankers in London.
The paper is good—none better if it can be made to pass.'

`How can I serve you, uncle?'

`By disguising yourself as a young gentleman to-morrow and driving in a
cab to the Duke's banker and presenting the draft in person!'

`What costume shall I assume?'

`That of a banker's clerk. I have the costume in the shop. The disguise
must be perfect and complete. You nor I must never be suspected in the matter,
and I shall trust to you to play your part with skill.'

`Have I ever deceived your confidence, uncle?'

`No, child, no! You are faithful and artful. I feel I can trust you. You
will present the bill at the Cashier's desk, as clerk of the House which draws
it. It will be paid if you are self-possessed.'

`I shall be composed, uncle.'

`That I am convinced of. The third day the forgery will necessarily be
discovered, and then you will find the usefulness and necessity of your disguise.
As a young man, seemingly, was seen to present the bill, they would never
think of suspecting a female. Thus you will escape as well as myself.'

`There is danger, uncle; but I will undertake it. There is nothing I will
shrink from to serve you and do injury to the Christian!' As she spoke her
dark eyes flashed and her lip curled with the proud hatred a beautiful Jewish
woman only can express when she speaks of the persecutors of her race.

`If then you would injure them farther, wed this Duke's son! You know
what I have secretly confided to you touching him. It is true. You see what
it will avail you. Do as I wish—wed him and your reward will be what I have
told you.'

`Of this I will think by and bye, uncle. At present let me only give my
thoughts to the perilous task you have imposed upon me.'

After some further directions given by Moloch to his neice she took up a
light and bidding him good night left the chamber to retire to her own: while
the money-lender, after locking his strong box and arranging his papers, went
down into his shop to give orders to the two Jewish lads to close it for the
night.

Tudor Dauling left the habitation of the Jew with a feeling of disappointment
which was, however, somewhat modified by the hopes held out on the
morrow. Nevertheless he was chagrined and vexed at being unsuccessful in
obtaining from Moloch even a sufficient sum to enable him to venture a stake
at play. The night before he had lost his last guinea and this evening came
on shore with the view, if he obtained means from the money-lender, to make
an effort to recover his losses. But he had now left his shop without anything
beyond a promise for the next day.

`It is useless for me to seek the playing saloon with empty pockets! he said
as he came to the corner of two streets, one of which led to the Halls he had
so much frequented, the other to the stairs opposite his yacht. At length, after
lingering a few moments he slowly retraced his steps towards the water-side.

[figure description] Page 021.[end figure description]

As he reached the stairs he discovered, by the light of a lamp, a youth approaching.
As he came nearer he saw that it was Percy, one of his midshipmen.
The lad was passing him; but after eying him closely he stopped and
addressed him, touching his cap.

`Captain Dauling?'

`Well Percy.'

`Ah, then it is you, sir. I wasn't quite sure!'

`Where are you going? Why are you ashore to-night?'

`I came to seek you, sir.'

`And pray where were you going to find me?' asked Dauling sternly yet
with irony.

`To St. —'s Saloon, sir.'

`So then you know where I have been of late, youngster?'

`Yes, sir. If you remember, I came ashore with you the last two nights and
passing up the town after you, I saw you enter there.'

`Well, well. Never go there yourself, boy, if you want to be a happy man.
Why do you seek me now?'

`An express has just come aboard the yacht to see you, sir; but as you
were ashore, I was sent to find you, if possible, with instructions to place this
pacquet in your hand. When the man-at-arms gave it to me, he left, and relanded
at the Tower-stairs. I immediately took the third cutter by command
of the first lieutenant, and pulled ashore, and was going to seek you, sir, when
you passed me.'

`Let me see the package. Ah! the king's secretary's band, and the royal
seal,' he exclaimed, taking it from him and stepping under the quay lamp which
burned near.

`It was a king's livery-man, who came with the man-at-arms that brought it,
sir,' answered Percy.

Dauling broke the seal, and after reading the contents a few moments, he
seemed troubled.

`An order to get underweigh at sun-rise, and lay to off the tower, to take a
States' prisoner on board,' he said with a muttered tone of ill-humor, and displeasure.
`This order I can never obey. I must be present to take up my
draft of five thousand pounds. Moloch might be trusted to pay it, but trust
him I will not. If I go my honor is lost, for my forging will be divulged to
the world, and I cast into a felon's cell. Hold! I have a thought. Cannot
some way be invented to delay this matter one day—or even till afternoon?—
By three o'clcck I should have my forged draft in my hand and be free, with
the additional sum advanced by the Jew. I could pray for a storm or for a
lightning bolt to shiver my foremast, or do a damage to the yacht to detain
her; for only some accident can set aside this order of his majesty. Confound
this new duty I am put upon. I thought when I took the yacht I should have
all holiday-work, sailing the queen and the royal cortege from place to place.
This order I cannot obey. I am ruined if I obey it. Ah, I have the idea!—
Percy.'

`Sir.'

`Are the men in the boat?'

Yes, sir.'

`Follow me.'

Dauling hastened down the platform to the steps and springing into the cutter,
sternly bade the men give way out into the stream. He took the helm himself
sending the coxswain forward to take the bow oar.

`Now, Percy,' he said in a low tone to the midshipman as he leant back in
the stern-sheets, `I want a little peice of service from you.'

`What is it, sir?'

`Do you see the coal barge that was moored up stream just above the yacht
at sun-down?'

`Yes, sir, I believe I do,' answered Percy, after looking off into the river
and endeavoring to distinguish the craft in question from multitudinous others
achored all around them.

[figure description] Page 022.[end figure description]

`You remember its position was just in a line with the current above us.'

`Yes sir; and that you bade them take care how they anchored or they would
drift foul of the schooner.'

`The same vessel! Now what I want you to do is this. I am steering directly
for the barge. When I reach her side I will pass near enough for you
to spring on board over the bows. The crew, at this hour, will be all turned
in below. After I leave you on board I will pull for the yacht. When you
see me fairly on my deck, I want you to slip or cut the barge's cable and let
her drift dead upon the yacht's bows.'

`She will carry away her bowsprit if not do more mischief, sir,' answered
Percy with surprise.

`She will do no more than carry away the bowsprit, for the current is not
strong enough for her to do more harm!'

`And do you want any done, sir?' inquired the midshipman with surprise.

`Yes. Percy would you like to go to the opera to-morrow night?'

`Of all things, sir.'

`The package you gave me contained an order from the King for me to get
underweigh at sun-rise in the morning.'

`Then I cant go to the opera to-morrow night,' answered Percy in a desponding
tone.

`No, not unless the barge should happen to fall foul of the yacht and carry
away enough to make it necessary to delay for repairing damages. Do you think
such an accident likely to happen?' asked the captain dryly.

`I would bet a month's pay on it,' answered Percy; that is,' he added significantly,
`if thereby I go to the opera to-morrow night!'

`That you may be sure of,' answered Dauling. `I have a good reason of
my own for wishing to delay my departure a day or two. So let us manage
this little affair between us.'

`I am ready, sir,' answered Percy promptly, and elated at the prospect of
the adventure before him and the opera as the reward of his tact and skill.

`Here we are close aboard,' cried Dauling as the boat ranged up under the
black sides of one of the huge coal-barges of the Thames. `Spring lightly
and free.'

The next instant the young midshipman stood upon the deck of the hulk and
Dauling in his cutter shot away down stream in the direction of the yacht.—
Percy walked forward without noise, and found all still. A single lamp, only,
burned dimly in the gloomy fore-cabin, the doors of which were ajar.

`They are all asleep,' he said after making his observations. `But I shall
soon wake them up with a sudden surprise.'

He then went aft, and following, with his eye, the course of the cutter, saw
it reach the yacht. He then examined the cable and seeing there were but
three or four turns round the windlass, he concluded to slip it by cutting the
stoppers instead of severing the cable with his knife. A single stroke was
sufficient, and the cable run out rapidly through the hawse-hole and fell,
splashing into the water. The barge no longer feeling the strain binding her
to her anchor, fell off and floated away from her moorings. The swift current
soon bore her onward upon its bosom, and with a fearful velocity the huge
body came sweeping down upon the yacht. Percy seeing that she was likely
to strike the schooner stern on, and do more mischief than was wanted, seized
the helm and, with great exertion, gave her a sheer obliquely, so that her starboard
quarter would strike the head of the schooner. Nearer and nearer she
came surging downward upon the arrowy tide, threatening destruction to the
graceful little vessel which lay in her course.

All was at once bustle and excitement on board the yacht; for her captain,
at the first perceptible change in the position of the barge had given the alarm
and secured his bows from damage by fenders thrown over them by his crew.
Still, as he saw how rapidly the dark body was coming down upon him, he
trembled for his vessels security, and gave quick and repeated orders to his
men to stand by and defend her bows! He had the cable loosened and slipped
so that it would easily pay out, that the schooner might be in motion also, and

[figure description] Page 023.[end figure description]

so deaden the force of the shock. But with all this precaution the barge came
heavily upon them, crashing and shivering every thing that projected beyond
the bows, flying-gib-boom, gib-boom and bow-sprit, crushing them, with the
martingale and figure-head, all together, in one confused mass of ruin and devastation;
while the force with which she struck her hull made the light vessel
tremble to her kelson.

The confusion on board the barge was hardly less than that upon the deck
of the yacht; and amid the mingled curses and denunciations of the crews of
both vessels, the barge swung herself clear just as Percy, unseen, by his own
people, leaped into the schooner's fore-rigging. The hulk was borne by the
current far astern, and soon disappeared in the darkness; while the crashing
and cursing that, at intervals, came from the direction which she had taken,
bore to the ears of those on board the yacht, the evidence that she had served
other vessels in the same manner she had treated the royal craft.

The result of the `accident' wasthat the next morning the yacht, instead of
getting underweigh, was hauled into the Tower dock to have her damages repaired;
Dauling having previously sent word to the secretary of the situation
of his vessel. The same forenoon, at the appointed hour, he repaired to the
Jew's habitation. Moloch was in his shop cheapening a Dutch cloak to a customer.

`Ah, my lort, I'm glat to see you. Volk up stair mit me, iv you pleash.'

On reaching the private chamber of the money-lender, Dauling said, impatiently,

`Now, Moloch, the money?'

`It ish not come in from de panker. Vait a leetle ant it vill pe soon here,
my lort.'

`Have you arranged it so that I shall not appear in the matter?'

`Yes, my lort. You vill be all safe.'

At this moment the chamber door opened and a dark young man entered.
On seeing the guest he would have withdrawn but Moloch beckoned him to
advance.

`Have you the money?' he asked in Hebrew.

`I have, uncle.'

`You are true and faithful and a worthy daughter of Abraham. Keep composed
for the Christian plainly does not recognise you!'

`Speak in a Christian tongue, Moloch. I like not unknown words bandied
about over my head in this fashion. Is it the clerk who went for the money?'

`It is. Who paid it and how did you manage?' said the Jew, addressing the
disguised Rachel in English.

`I went to the bank, and entering sought the cashier's desk, and presenting
the draft, waited until he had examined it.'

`Was he long?' asked the Jew eagerly.

`Not more than a minute. He then counted out the money to me and took
my receipt for it. So I signed my name to it.”

`Your own name?' said Moloch alarmed and speaking in Hebrew.

`No, uncle. I signed that which first occurred to me. It was John Isaacs.'

`And you took the money and left?' he coutinued in English.

`Yes.'

`Did any one seem to suspect?'

`No.'

`Thou hast done well. Return till I shall call for thee.'

`Bravo! the youth has done Bravely,' cried Dauling as he saw the pile of
notes before the Jew. `So you don't appear in the matter at all. We are both
safe, Moloch, and the money in our hand; what youth is this who has performed
his part so bravely? He must keep concealed or he will ere long be arrested.
'

`I do not fear. De youth is my neice.'

`Thy neice?' exclaimed Dauling with a start of surprise.

`Yes.'

`Disguised as a banker's clerk?'

[figure description] Page 024.[end figure description]

`As you hut now beheld her.'

`I should never have suspected her sex. When she throws off this disguise,
she then is safe from suspicion, however close may be the search.'

`She will pe, my lort. But dere ish risk; de risk vas ven she vas in te pank.
Den if tey haf suspect and arrest her, she would have lost her life.'

`That is, unless she informed who sent her.'

`Which she never would haf done. She would haf die rather than petray
me.'

`Would you, in such case haf let her die?'

`Would you, my lort?' asked the Jew significantly.

`Nay, what is the Jewess to me. She is thy blood!'

`She is much to thee, my lort!'

`How? You speak in an enigma!'

`For your sake she took upon herself all this perilous risk!'

`For my sake?'

`Yes, my lort. The maiden has beheld thee with eyes of favor; and knowing it was for thee she offered her services.'

`I am truly grateful to her,' answered Dauling looking gratified and recalling
the handsome features of the Jewess. `I am honored I dare say by her regard.'

`You speak with contempt, my lort. It is true she is a Jewess. But she is
rich.'

`Ah, that equalizes all races, and levels all distinctions. I see thy aim, Moloch.
I will look more closely to thy neice when I meet her again, for by my
faith, I have not, I must confess, noted her particularly.'

`If you wed her, my lort, she will pe te richest dowried Isaaelitish maiden
in Lonton.'

Dauling eyed Moloch steadily. He wondered that, knowing his character,
and his poverty, he should wish to ally his neice with him. He reflected a
moment and could not but feel that the Jew had some deep scheme at the bottom.
Of the Jewess he had hardly thought of in any way, for he was not a
man of gallantry; and he had too much pride and too strong prejudices to
think of an alliance with a Jewess, even with a rich dowry. Nevertheless he
thought it best to favor the idea for the present, hoping yet to discover Moloch's
true motive in wishing the alliance, and trusting in some way to be able to
direct the affair to the advancement of his own interests.

He then turned his attention to the more immediate business before him;
and received from the money-lender the amount already agreed upon. Placing
it in his money-book he took leave of the Jew, and hastened to the bank
to take up the forged draft for five thousand pounds which had caused him so
much anxiety.

CHATER V. The King.

[figure description] Page 025.[end figure description]

Unlike the dramatic writers, who must move constantly forward in time with
his events, the novelist has the privilege of going back on time and bringing
up the past to the present, like the worker at the loom, he now drops a thread
which is not wanted in the part of the figure he is then forming; but soon he
goes back and takes it up to weave into the next design, and so on till all parts
of his pattern are complete. Availing ourselves of this privilege, we shall,
before proceeding onward any further in the direct line of occurrences, retrace
our path a few hours to about the time on the evening previous, that this story
opened with Dauling on his way from the yacht, to visit Moloch in the Jew's
quarter in Monmouth street.

The scene to which we introduce the reader is in an apartment in St. James'
Palace. It was a room which the king used both as a library and private audience
chamber. It was hung with tapestry three centuries old, yet the colors
were still brilliant and rich. A few antiquated and massive pieces of furniture
of the Elizabethan age, stood around the walls, and on one side was a
tall gothic book-case of jet black oak. A large square table stood near it covered
with books, maps and writing materials, with a guzette or two in French
and German. Upon this table stood a tall silver candle-stand with seven
branches of stag's antlers capped with silver branching from it, a chased silver
socket at the extremity of each horn. In each socket burned a lofty wax-candle,
the whole presenting to the eye a magnificent candelebra well becoming
a royal palace. The chamber was otherwise very plainly furnished; two or
three portraits of the king's German ancestors hung above the fire-place; and
a jewel-hilted dress-sword lay across the mantle upon a plain chapeau distinguished
only by a sample cockade of black silk.

By a large velvet covered arm-chair with a high carved back surmounted
by a small bronzed crown stood a man large in bulk, and something inclined to
corpulency, with a heavy countenance and fleshy chin: yet, withal, with a
clear, lively blue eye, and an agreeable expression of kindness and suavity
about his mouth, which was very finely shaped. His stature was commanding
and his air of dignity and power, at once proclaimed him a monarch. It was
George III. He was dressed in a violet colored velvet coat much worn at the
cuffs and soiled about the collar, with the lace torn off in front; for he had
when deeply thinking, a habit, of pulling at it with his fingers, which he was
now doing with great perseverance. His head was divested of the silver-powdered
wig, which he was accustomed to wear, and being slightly bald, exhibited
finely developed outlines of benevolence and firmness; though these attributes
of character were, as the phrenologist would speak, much qualified
in his acts by a deficiency of conscientiousness and a large share of
combativeness.

The king had been seated but a moment before, but had risen to walk the
room, and after a few turns paused by his chair and stood there as we have
described him. His eyes were fixed upon a person opposite to him, who had
also risen when he saw the king do so, and who now stood, as waiting the decision
of his majesty. This person was tall and spare, with a dark full eye and
a countenance full of intelligence and feelin. His person was strikingly
handsome and his air imposing. He was about fifty six years of age but had
the appearance of being under forty five. There was in his address an unstudied
elegance and quiet dignity, a pleasing union of graceful ease with
boldness and courage, of decision with mildness, that could not fail to prepossess
in his favor the most indifferent observer. He was attired in a plain suit
of black velvet, and was booted and spurred. This person was the Duke of—
the father of Tudor Dauling, and a near relative to the king.

`I am at loss, your grace,' at length said his majesty without looking up,
speaking slowly and as if still deeply meditating, `I am at a loss how to

[figure description] Page 026.[end figure description]

proceed in this matter you urge upon me! My love for you, cousin, would prompt
me to do you this service. But I would some other way could be devised.'

`I can think of no other, your majesty. The expedient I have suggested is
the only one I can think of. Tudor must have an end put to his course at
once or he will make himself amendable (as he already is) to the law of the
land, and then, beyond even the reach of your majesty, he will die a
felon's death at the hand of the hangman! Although he is but an illigimate
son, he is my son, and my only son; and much as he has tried my love and patience
I am still attached to him, and it would deeply grieve me that this affair
should come to light. The blood which flows in my veins and also in your
majesty's, flows in the veins of this unhappy young man! Your majesty, I
know would not wish all England to ring with the infamy that a near relative
of her king was dragged from Newgate to the gallows and there suffered
death for forgery.'

`Of this forgery you are quite confident,' inquired or rather remarked the
the king sadly.

`Yes, your majesty. I was this day at my banker's to make my semi-yearly
settlement with them, when to my surprise I found there a draft dated at Portsmouth,
thirty days ago, for five thousand pounds, drawn by Tudor in his own
name and bearing on its face my forged acceptance. He had got it discounted
in Portsmouth and the broker there had forwarded it to my bankers for collection.
It had lain with them unsuspected. Confounded and grieved as I
was at this discovery, I forebore to express my astonishment, and without a
word paid the draft and took it into my possession. Here it is your majesty.'

`It is skilfully done,' responded the king, sitting down and examining
closely the forgery. `I approve of the course your grace took in not denouncing
it as a forgery to your bankers.'

`But to make a beneficial use of my forbearance, your majesty, it is needful
that very positive steps should be immediately taken to protect both Tudor and
myself against a like occurrence! This may not be the only draft! He must
be checked at once in his career of guilt.'

`If he were supplied with a sufficient income, cousin; would not this prevent
a temptation like this?'

`Your majesty is not ignorant of what I have, from time to time, done for this
young man, if I may still call him so, who has reached his thirty fifth year!
My indulgence has but given him licence for carrying out his follies! I can
do no more for him! A sufficient income, your majesty? What amount can
be a sufficient income for one who plays so deeply as Tudor does, and never
rises a winner! No, your majesty. He must be at once arrested, ere he bring
disgrace and bitterness upon me and render forever foul a near current of the
royal blood.'

`I perceive your view of the case, cousin. Something shall be done forthwith!
Your suggestion that I have him imprisoned in the tower to save him
from Newgate, to which he seems hastening, is one which it would be injudicious
to carry out. The tower is the state's prison for the realm, and is as
much under the control of Parliament as the king. If I should arrest Tudor
and privately imprison him in the tower, it would ere long be bruited abroad
that there was a prisoner mysteriously and secretly held there, and I should
have to yield to the public voice and declare who he was.'

`I see the position, your majesty, in which such a course would necessarily
place you.'

`He is your son and in your hands you, also, hold the evidences of a crime
that would bring hun to the gallows! Arrest him privately. Convey him to
your castle in the north, and there detain him a prisoner so long as you will.
Perhaps you could soon conquer him and suffer him to go free, holding over
his path ever the evidences of his crime, for which, assuring him on the first
act of his, unbecoming his birth and blood, you would deliver him up to the
laws he has offended.'

`Your majesty knows the peculiar character of this young man! If I could,
for a time, detain him prisoner without bringing about my castle spies and

[figure description] Page 027.[end figure description]

whispers of public curiosity, yet whenever I should release him, and holding
above his head this forged draft show him the power I hold over his future
course; he would laugh at me, knowing well and truly, your majesty, that I
would never dare bring him to justice.'

`He deserves to be brought to justice this day,' said the king in a tone of
displeasure. `Let the laws have him, your grace.'

`Your majesty forgets the considerations I have already urged against this
step—much as his conduct merits such a decisive course. Tudor is very much
beloved by me, still. He is nearer to my heart tkan I dare confess to myself.
He is the child of a lovely woman who gave me her maiden love and all her
heart'a treasures. I was then a young man at Oxford. She was of good birth,
your majesty, and her ancestors hold fame and name in history as brave knights
and wise statesmen. But she was poor and a widow's only child. She loved
me ere she knew my rank, and I adored her with all the ardor of my soul. Two
years of exquisite happiness I passed in the stolen society of this lovely and
virtuous woman—for your majesty I made her my wife, marrying her under
the assumed name by which only she knew me. I deceived her; but thank
God she never knew it to the hour of her death, which took place a few months
after the birth of her boy! But, alas! she knows it all now! continued the
Duke looking upward sadly, `and her pure spirit is gazing down from the skies
gently reproving me for my guilt! Can I then desert her child? Can I surrender
him to an ignominious death?'

`I sympathise with your affliction, cousin,' said the King with emotion.—
`Doubtless this sorrow that now comes upon you, is the Providential judgment
which in this life always follows wrong-doing.'

`If the affliction Tudor has caused me is sent upon me for the injury done
his mother, then have I been punished indeed, your Majesty. Unworthy as his
conduct has been, so long as I can see in his features the beloved lineaments
of her I loved but to injure, so long my heart will yearn towards him, however
severely I may treat him outwardly. Scarce has my sweet daughter, now in
her tenth year, with all the graces of person and mind she possesses, with all
her gentle affection and innocence, scarce has she the hold upon my heart
which he retains.'

The king remained silent and began vigorously to pull at the torn lace on
his coat. His brow was bent, his eyes fixed upon the floor, and his mouth
firmly compressed. The Duke watched his countenance with deep anxiety.—
At length his Majesty raised his eyes and his countenance cleared up all at
once:

`Cousin, I have it cow, I think. The yacht which he commands is now at
the Tower, where she was ordered by the Queen to wait for her to embark on
an excursion to the mouth of the Thames and so up the land a few leagues to
Morley Castle. The indisposition of one of the little ones has delayed the
contemplated expedition; and the Queen told me an hour since she would
give it up altogether, as it was already so long deferred. Now the yacht,
therefore, is unemployed. Tudor is on board!—'

`Unless, your Majesty, he be on shore at some of the gaming saloons.'

`He can easily be found. I will at once prepare an order under my private
seal to be despatched to him by a special messenger, with direction for him to
get underweigh at dawn, and lay to off the Tower to take on board a statesprisoner.
'

`And who is this prisoner of state, your Majerty, and how is it to carry out
my views with regard to Tudor?' asked the Duke perplexed.

`The prisoner of state is to be none other than the captain of the yacht himself,
' said the King smiling.

`I do not comprehend your Majesty.'

`I will explain, cousin. When he lays off the Tower, a boat containing
seven persons shall come off to him and they shall get on board. One of them
shall be masked. He shall be yourself. The others shall be four stout menat-arms
of tried courage, and the other two officers of the Police disgnised as
king's messengers! Tudor shall be instructed to give you the liberty of the

[figure description] Page 028.[end figure description]

deck, and leave you to the four men-at-arms. In my order I will instruct him
to proceed to the mouth of the Thames where the frigate Serapis is at anchor
awaiting my despatches for America, and after anchoring near her open the
private despatch which the chief of the police will retain for him, by my command
till then. That despatch will show hun who is the true prisoner of
state, and when he has read it through, reveal yourself to him and who your
companions are. You can then dictate to him your own terms. Shew him
that the Head of the Police, who alone we must take into our confidence, has
a warrant for his arrest as a forger, and that it will at once be served upon
him. Give him the alternative to sail away from England in the yacht (which
I give him) and carve out a name and fortune in distant lands, or to be taken
back to London in the custody of the Bow street officer as a common felon.—
If he attempts resistance show him the frigate, the captain of which will be instructed
to obey your slightest signal, and assure him he and his yacht are
entirely within your power. This is an unusual plan of proceeding, but, your
grace, under the circumstances, I cannot well devise any other. The succes of
it, I think, is sure. His pride of character will lead him to adopt the least disagreeable
alternative, and as I state in my despatch to him that his return to
England or its waters without permission will be the signal of his arrest as a
common forger!'

When the King had done speaking, the nobleman, who had listened at first,
with incredulous surprise and then, as his majesty proceeded, developing his
plan, with the closest and most interested attention, became thoughtful as if
deeply meditating upon the king's project. His majesty watched him closely
and with an expression of anxiety.

`Your majesty, he at length said, `has manifested in this affair the kindest
interest, for which I know not how to be sufficiently grateful. The plan you
have suggested, at the sacrifice of your yacht, and at the expense of so much
trouble in person, seems to me, on the whole, our only alternative. It is attended
with some difficulties, but I confess to your majesty, my cheerful cooperation!
But whither shall he go? Whereve he wanders he carries a fond
father's heart with him. It will be hard to give him up forever, perhaps to
pursue a course of crime and bloodshed!'

`Either he or yourself, my lord Duke, must be sacrificed,' said the King firmly.
`If he remains in England he will involve you, perhaps, irrevocably, when
he knows you will not prosecute. It is better he should be exiled, and I trust
your grace will feel the expediency of it.'

`It shall be done, as your majesty commands!'

`I do not command, cousin; I do but advise.'

`Your wishes are to me as commands. I require your command or else, I
am satisfied, I should let my weakness betray me in my stern duty!'

`Be it my command then, cousin,' said the King pleasantly. Will you
touch that bell for my private secretary. The despatches shall at once be
made up. The secretary need know nothing, as I will fill up with names,
etc., in my own hand!'

`Your Majesty is most kind.'

`You are too valuable a friend, and I esteem you too highly, my lord duke.
for me to suffer your happiness to be thus daily ventured by this reckless son
of yours, to call him by no worse epithet. Moreover, unless he be compelled
to leave our realm he will ere long be interfering, ten to one, with the happiness
of the young lady Mary, your daughter, whom, I have heard say, he
loves not too well for occupying his place as the inheritor of your name and
dukedom!'

`Have you heard such things of him?' cried the Duke, becoming very pale.

`Truly have I, cousin; and yet by your looks it seems news to you!'

`It is news, indeed!' answered the Duke faintly.

`Have you never seen ought of this ill-will manifested in him?'

`No, your majesty. On the contrary, Tudor has always shown the most
fraternal love for his sister. I never suspected but that he loved her with sincerity
and tenderness!'

[figure description] Page 029.[end figure description]

`It may all be a skillfully worn cloak to deceive your grace,' observed his
majesty impressively. `Does the child regard him with attachment?'

`The most devoted and faithful! She has of late seen him but seldom, but
never does a day pass but she names her brother Tudor with affectionate language.
If he is hypocritical only in his love for his sister, would not her pure
love discover the disguise by instinct, and take alarm at once?'

`Perhaps not, my lord duke, perhaps not,' responded the king with a shake
of the head.

`But what motive could he have?'

`That I cannot answer. One thing is very clear, that it would not be natural
for Tudor to love sincerely his sister under their mutual relations to each
other—she your legitimate child and heiress, he an outcast without other
name than that which you assumed and under which you became the
husband to his mother. On the contrary he has every thing to make him hate
her, and every thing to make him just the reckless man he is! He feels that
he has a right to avenge himself upon you, for the wrong you have done him;
and, I fear, that this vengeance he will not be satisfied in limiting merely to
extracting money from you.'

`What does your majesty mean?' demanded the duke alarmed by this mysterious
yet significant language.

`I mean that he may be tempted to pierce your heart through your daughter.'

`Your majesty cannot mean—' gasped the Duke—but he could speak no
farther, and stood gazing upon the king with the most painful anxiety, his lips
parted, his eyes fixed and wild.

`I do but surmise, your grace. I know nothing sure. Recover from your
alarm. If Tudor is at once aken care of as I have suggested, there need be
no apprehensions.'

`I thank your majesty for this hint. Your majesty is wise and clear-sighted!
I will not delay in taking this course you have pointed out. I shall feel
insecure while he remains on British ground. If he perish in far lands he
must perish! My child must not become the victim of his disappointed ambition—
of his filial vengeance.'

He then took up the little silver bell to which the king had before drawn his
attention and rung it. In a moment afterwards the door opened and a slender,
gray-headed man wearing a long silk gown, and his head buried in a huge
red woolen cap shuffled into their presence. A pen was stuck behind his ear
and the second finger of his right hand was blackened with ink. He was the
secretary.

After a busy half-hour the necessary documents were executed, and that
directed to the captain of the yacht was immediately despatched by a king's
messenger. Its arrival on board and the events which followed are already
known to the reader. The remaining papers were given by the king into the
Duke's possession, and in a little while afterwards he took leave of his majesty.

CHAPTER VI. The Jewess.

[figure description] Page 030.[end figure description]

On reaching the banking-house, Tudor Dauling leaped from the cab in
which he had rapidly been driven there, and entering the vestibule, drew from
his pocket-book as he passed in, the notes with which he was to take up the
forged paper. With a feeling of relief and satisfaction, he approached the
desk of the cashier with the five thousand pounds in his hand. His air was
confident and his manner easy and self-possessed, for he felt he had now his
reputation in his own hands once more.

`Your House holds a draft, I believe, against the Duke of —,' he said
addressing the banker, and displaying the money upon the desk.

`Do you speak of a draft dated at Portsmouth for five thousand pounds?'
asked the gentleman.

`Yes.'

`The Duke himself paid it yesterday.'

`The Duke?—paid? How do you mean, sir?' demanded Tudor with surprise,
hardly sure that he had rightly understood him.

`His Grace settled yesterday, and although the draft did not mature till today,
he preferred taking it up.'

`Are you positive that it was a draft drawn from Portsmouth?'

`Yes, sir! Drawn thirty days since by yourself, if, as I believe this is Captain
Dauling!'

`Oh—ah—very right—very well!' he stammered, now convinced that his
father had really paid the forged paper. He at once divined his motive in taking
it up, and remaining silent as to its true character. `Yes, yes. The Duke
then took it up himself. He told me day before yesterday as I was coming up
to London, I might call and pay it. But I perceive he has anticipated me by
coming up himself. Good morning, sir!'

The banker bowed respectfully and Dauling quitted the place and threw
himself into his cab.

`Vere shall I drive, sir?' asked the cabman.

He was silent a moment reflecting how to answer this question. His mind
was in a state of alarm and confusion at the startling discovery he had just
made, that his forgery was not only known to the Duke, but that he held in
his possession the forged testimony of his crime. In this perplexity he thought
of his yacht, and a vague idea suggested itself to him, of escaping in her instantly
from England; but at the same moment he reflected upon her crippled
condition, and bitterly condemned his folly in placing her in this condition;
for he felt convinced, the more he thought upon his act, that the Duke would
not have paid the five thousand pounds without some deep motive—deeper
than the fear of his exposure.

`Drive to Monmouth street,' he said abruptly, for he could think of no other
person than Moloch to advise with in this extremity.

`Vere I tooks yer honor up?'

`Yes—drive at full speed.'

`Yes, yer honor—double fare though.'

`Trible—only spare not your whip.'

He found Moloch in the room where he had his first interview with him.
The Jew looked up with surprise at his sudden entrance, for he had passed
through the shop, ascended the dark stair-way, and entered the chamber unannounced.

`Well, Moloch, the devil has me at vantage this time,' he said, throwing
himself upon one of the velvet chairs that graced the money-lender's private
room.

[figure description] Page 031.[end figure description]

`Vat ish it now, mi lort? Haf you forgot te right day and ish it too late to
take him up?'

`No. To-day is the day it was due. But what do you think?'

`Vell, my lort, vat ish it?' asked Moloch with a look of curiosity.

`The Duke—my father—has been before me!'

`How, mi lort?'

`It seems, as my luck would have it, that yesterday was the Duke's setting
day. So he goes to the Bank for this purpose, and of course this draft was
spoken of as due to day. At any rate he found out that the Bank had such a
draft. Now what do you think he did?'

`Had a Bow shreet officer to lay in vait vhen you come to pay it and take you.'

`No—worse than that.'

`He, perhaps, told te pank it vos forge and te pank arrest you ant you escape
and come here—for you look as if you haf been in fright, my lort.'

`It was worse than this. The Duke quietly paid the draft, said nothing about
it being a forgery, so far as I could discover by the cashier's manner, and
took the accursed paper into his possession. There he has it and me, also, as
you perceive in his power! Now what is to be done?'

The Jew remained silent and seemed to be deeply meditating upon what he
had heard. There was, at the same time, perceptibly lurking in his dark Syrian
eyes a look of inward satisfaction—as if he was well pleased in his heart
at this turn of affairs.

`When dit te Duke pay dis monies?' he asked without raising his eyes, which
were fixed thoughtfully upon the carpet.

Yesterday.—He has had, since then, the damning proof of my guilt in his
hands. What use he has made or intends to make of it I dare not contemplate.
I am fully in his power. If my schooner was in a condition to sail, I
should be tempted at once to fly the country. Each moment I may be arrested
as a forger and thrown into Newgate!' Dauling, as he spoke, rose and
walked the room with a flushed brow and an agitated step.

`Tish a pad affair, my lort.'

`I must get possession of that draft. I am not safe a moment while it is in
my father's hands. He may see fit to arrest me upon it, and then behold me
swinging on a hangman's gallows! Good God! this idea is horrible. Moloch
you must aid me. You must help me to get possession of this forged paper!'

`Tish a fery pad affair, my lort, inteed,' repeated Moloch with a shake of the
head; `fery pad.'

`You need not aggravate me by repeating that. I know it is bad—bad
enough. Use your wits and help me with some advice. If you want money
you shall have it.”

`Vere ish te Duke now?' asked Moloch raising his eyes a moment to the
haggard visage of the forger.

`He must be at his house in Regent street if he is still in London. I dare
not go there! You, Moloch, must in some way manage to get this proof of my
crime.'

The money-lender's eyes sparkled. A singular expression passed slowly
across his countenance and then vanished, leaving his face perfectly calm and
serene, which was its natural aspect. Dauling stopped before him and eagerly
surveyed his face as if trying to read there his mind.

`Sit down, mi lort, ant ve vill talk it ofer! Now vot vill your lortship gift
me if I get 'tis forge paper from te Duke's hants?'

`Money—yes! Money is your only god!' said Dauling contemptuously.
`I will give you one thousand pounds!'

`My lort, one tousant pounts ish little monies to pay for your reputation and
safety!'

`Name then your wages!' answered Dauling indignantly.

`Your lortship vos to-day ready to pay fife tousant pounts for te draft!'

`Human leech! take the five thousand pounds then! I will give it you if
you will possess yourself of that paper!'

[figure description] Page 032.[end figure description]

`It will be a difficult matter, my lort! Do you think the Duke would give
it to Moloch the Jew?' he asked scornfully.

`You must devise means. Your race are never at a loss for artifices in extremities
where gold is to be won!'

`I must haf one to aid me, my lort! There is one who has a ready wit, who
may be willing to serve us! You have already seen her tact!'

`Your daughter?'

`My NEICE, she is my lort!'

`Your neice, then. How can she effect this for me?'

`I will insure your lortship that if she will undertake it, she vill succeed in
it!'

`Then entrust it to her!' said Dauling impatiently.

`She must be paid too, my lort,' said Moloch quietly.

`Are you not paid? reward your own assistants!'

`I am paid this to place the draft in your hands. She is to be rewarded for
getting it from the Duke's!'

`What pay dost thou want, Jew, for thy neice's services?'

`Your lortship's hand!' replied Moloch, fixing his dark, piercing gaze full
or his face, and speaking in a tone of singular decision.

`My hand?'

`Your hand, my lort!'

`Explain yourself, Jew?' demanded the ignoble nobleman wholly at a loss
to comprehend the bold money-lender's meaning.

The condition on which Rachel serves in this affair, my lort, is dat if successful
your lortship make her your wife.'

`Make a Jew's daughter my wife? Do you know what you say and who I
am?'

`Both one and the other, my lort.'

Dauling looked at him a few seconds in silent surprise, and with a brow
black with anger. The insult stung him to the soul. He saw at a glance the
deep policy of the aspiring Jew; but he reflected that without his aid he was
lost should the Duke make use of the power he possessed. He saw that Moloch
was in earnest; and that the desire of giving his neice in alliance with a
duke's son, blinded him to the stain upon his birth, and the infamy of his character.

`Moloch, you jest,' he said forcing a laugh, while he felt like crushing him
for his insulting suggestion. `You know I am not a marrying man. Besides
your neice would gain little honor in wedding one like me.'

`I fear not that. The maiden loves you, my lort, and it is my vish she should
pecome your wife.'

`You forget I am a Christian. Jews and Christians never unite in wedlock.

`It has been done, my lort.'

`What motive, have you, in pressing this strange union? What can her
alliance with me profit her or you? By the rood! There is little in me to covet
an illegitimate scion of royal blood.'

`It is because the royal blood flows in your veins I covet this.'

`I am a forger! Would you wed your neice to a forger?'

`Your forgery is only known to the Duke and myself. To the world you
still are a man of honor.'

`I am poor, Moloch!'

`I have money!'

`Do you mean to say you will give a dowry with your neice?'

`I promise nothing, my lort,' answered Molock coldly. `I will not sell her
to you. If you choose to marry her for the service she will be to you, well.'

`Is this the only alternative, Jew?' asked Dauling after a short silence.

`It is, my lort. Wed her and I pledge you my word the draft you so much
desire to possess, shall be in your hands within four and twenty hours.'

`What shall I do with thy neice as my wife, should I consent, from force of
circumstances to make her such? I have no house but my schooner? Shall
I bring a Jewish wife into the cabin of the Queen's Yacht?'

[figure description] Page 033.[end figure description]

`Thy wife, for the present, may remain with me,' answered the Jew.

The captain of the yacht stood for some minutes wrapped in gloomy meditation
upon his perplexing and even dangerous position. He reflected that
he made himself amenable to the outraged laws of his country by an act of
forgery, the testimonials of which were in the hands of the Duke, from whom,
(from this circumstance) he apprehended, he knew not what, severe manifestation
of his power over him which the possession of this instrument gave
him. Till he had this paper in his own hands he felt he should be in instant
fear of arrest and exposure. To live in this constant lear was impossible. To
purchase exemption from it by sacrificing himself to the Jews' neice he felt
would be paying too dear a price. That Moloch should make this a condition
astonished and perplexed him. The firmness of the Jew in insisting upon it
showed him that it was his only alternative, unless he secretly went himself to
the Duke's house and sought for the draft among his papers (if it were possible
to steal into his dwelling unseen!) or seek out the Duke and take it from
him by menacing him with death. The idea of casting himself upon his father's
clemency he did not dwell upon for a moment; for he well recollected
how he had repeatedly before abused it, and, as he believed, shut up his heart
against him. By force, subtlety, or treachery he only expected to attain his
object, and without the Jews' aid he felt he could do nothing effectually and
safely.

`Moloch, this is a hard condition you put upon me,' he said gloomily, `The
draft must be had at all sacrifices, and had at once! for, the more I reflect upon
the Duke's manner of taking it up before it was due, and paying the money
without a word to the banker, eagerly grasping at the draft, as it were, to anticipate
my getting possession of it, the more I am satisfied he means to make
some use of it to hold me in his power. `I will wed your neice! But has
she no voice?'

`I will ask her.' As he spoke he rose and crossed the room to what seemed
a window covered from the ceiling to the floor with drapery. Lifting this with
his hand, he exposed a recess of considerable dimensions and tastefully furnished.
Within it sat the Jewess Rachel at a writing desk. She looked up
and smiled at the surprise of Dauling on thus discovering that his interview
with the Jew had had a third party.

`He gazed upon her with surprise, yet not unmixed with admiration. The
lofty character of her oriental style of beauty, the Esther-like lovelines and
dignity of her air, the glorious beauty of her dark Arabian eyes as they beamed
on him, softly shaded by their curving fringes of long lashes, had an effect
upon him he could not resist. He felt, in his heart, that were she not a Jewess,
he would not be making so great a sacrifice after all his objections and
arguments against the union.

`There is the maiden, my lort, let her answer for herself.'

Rachel rose and entered the chamber, moving with a queenly grace that
was captivating and yet singularly imposing. A scarlet ribbon bound up her
black locks and a spencer of bright crimson velvet displayed the superb volume
of her bust. Her diminutive feet were encased in red slippers, and her small
olive tinted fingers were sparkling with rubies. Such was the favorite costume
of the handsome Jewess, and finely did it become her.

`My lord,' she said, `I have but one will, and that is my uncle's. He has
been my benefactor from infancy, and but for his care I should have perished.
He commands. I obey.'

`You then consent to this singular condition he proposes? For you, doubtless,
have heard all that has been said, and therefore know who and what you
are to wed?'

`I both know who and what, my lord;' she said, repeating his words with a
peculiar emphasis upon the two pronouns, which did not strike him then, but
which occurred to him afterwards.

[figure description] Page 034.[end figure description]

`It is surprising you should be willing to sacrifice yourself.'

`You are not indifferent to me, my lord. I know circumstances have made
you criminal rather than evil principles. You feel yourself at feud with men
of noble acknowledged birth, and hence all your errors of conduct.'

`Errors of conduct! You are charitable, fair Jewess,' said Dauling with a
gratified tone in his voice. `You know me better than I dared to know myself.
I am, indeed less guilty,' he added with emotion, `than I seem! I was
honorable in feeling and noble in principle, till, as I grew up to manhood, I
learned the infamy that clung to my name! Then I little cared to keep up in
fair show before the world a counterfeit as if it were genuine! I could not pass
with men for what I would be and should have been, and therefore I became
indifferent how I passed! You have spoken truth, Jewess. I am not by nature
so depressed as I seem! For these words I thank you most kindly! You are
then willing to wed me?'

`Not against thy will, my lord,' said Rachel with a smile and glance that
penetrated his soul.

`It will be against my will, beauteous as thou art. But look ye, fair Rachel,
I am to wed thee only on conditidn you succeed in obtaining this draft. If
you succeed in getting it, I swear to make you my wife! But in marrying
me, mark you, you gain nothing and risk everything!'

`I gain thee, my lord!' she answered. `This duty enjoined upon me I will
undertake and success is to be the condition of our union. I undertake it that
I may save you.'

`Are you then so much interested in me?' he said, taking her hand.

`I desire to save you, my lord, from the danger your imprudence has placed
you in. After I have possessed myself of the instrument of your guilt, is it
not fair that I should possess what I am to risk so much to save?'

`Be it so. Yet I warn you, noble Jewess, that I have neither house nor
land, name nor honor to endorse them with! Nay, that thou must still remain
an inmate of thy uncle's abode.'

`That I know, my lord,'

`Be it as you will then. Bring me within twenty-four hours the forged
draft my father holds, and I will wed you the next moment after!'

`I will try, my lord,' said the Jewess with a confidant smile. `If it can be
done at all, it will be done by to-morrow ere this hour.'

`Then you will see me here!'

Dauling had already began to feel diminished reluctance, under all the circumstances,
to take the Jewess to wife, (for she had really awakened an interest
in his bosom) so long as he was not compelled to acknowledge or take her
away from Moloch's dwelling; and taking leave of her and the Jew he quitted
the room escorted by Moloch to the lower door.

`My lort, you had pest keep close avhile till ve see vat can pe done apout
the draft. If te Duke should seek you it would be pad pusiness.'

`I see that, Moloeh. I know where I can be secluded enough till to-morrow.
By the way your neice is not so—that is, I mean to say she is a noble woman!
If she only wasn't a Jewess! But Jewess or no I will fulfil my promise on the
conditions, and make her my wife if she succeeds.'

`To-morrow will show,' answered Moloch as he closed the door upon him.

CHAPTER VII. The Duke.

[figure description] Page 035.[end figure description]

At the moment that his son was quitting the tenement of the Jew, Moloch,
the Duke of — was being ushered into the private audience-chamber of his
majesty. The king had just dismissed his prime-minister and was alone
walking up and down, his feet shod in red cloth slippers, an old brocade dressing
gown hanging back from his shoulders and a cup of coffee in his hand,
this being his favourite beverage which he always imbibed, walking slowly to
and fro the apartment, and talking as he sipped and walked, if he had any one
present.

`Ah, cousin, how is this?' he said, stopping and regarding him with surprise.
`I thought by this time you were well underweigh down the Thames! How
is it I see you so soon again? Have you given up the project?'

`Your majesty, I was prepared with my party and disguises at sun-rise this
morning, and waiting in the Tower for the yacht to come to take us on board.'

`And has the scapegrace run away with it?'

`No, your majesty, on the contrary, he shortly brought the yacht into the
Tower dock, but a wreck! She had been run into during the night by a coal
barge which had drifted from her moorings, and her bowsprit with all its rigging
was carried away!'

`This is most unfortunate. How long will it take to repair her?'

`I gave orders at once in your majesty's name to Sir John who commands
the Tower, to have her repairs expedited with all celerity; and he told me that
by to-night's ebb tide she could be made ready. This will be at seven
o'clock!'

`This is better. You will then go on board and proceed with your plan of
conduct as already arranged. Did you see Tudor?'

`No, your majesty. After landing he went into the city. Sir John informed
me that he had left orders for his own crew to make the repairs, and by no
means suffer the dock workmen to interfere.'

`This was a singular order!'

`It is my impression, your majesty, that this `accident' was no accident, but
an intentional thing on the part of Tudor. Sir John informed me that he had
despatched a barge from the Tower to board the coal-lugger to reprimand them
for their carelessness, when the skipper assured him that the cable had been
slipbed by some one who had got on board unseen, and whom he saw leap from
the bows into the yacht when they came in contact. The man said, as far as
he could tell in the night, this person was a youth and wore an officer's
button!'

`This is very extraordinary. Can you give any reason for Tudor's sending
any one on such a business?' asked the king, setting down his emptied cup,
and refilling it with his own hand from a small silver coffee-pot that stood by
him.

`The order to sail this morning, if obeyed, would have prevented him from
going to the bank to take up his draft, which, without doubt, he intended to
meet by some means; in this state of the case he might have brought the coal
barge down upon his vessel to have an excuse for remaining until he could
pay this forged paper, which must have been the uppermost thought in his

[figure description] Page 036.[end figure description]

mind. The statement of the master of the coal vessel is very positive, and
although Sir John was disposed to question its accuracy and to regard it only
as an excuse, I was at once inclined to give it credence; for such an act is
precisely characteristic of Tudor!'

`It is very possible,' said the king, adding a fourth lump of sugar to his fragrant
Mocha. `The sooner Tudor is out of the kingdom the better!'

`I think so, your majesty. By evening we shall be ready to embark!'

`But can he be found?'

`If your majesty will have such instructions conveyed to him to be delivered
on his first appearance on board, commanding him to prepare to leave with the
tide, and forbidding him quitting the yacht again, there is no doubt but that
we can carry out our object!'

`I will do this, your grace. Ah, Retsch,' said the king, speaking to his
German secretary who that moment entered, `What do you bring?'

`A letter, your majesty!'

`It is from this very captain of our Queen's yacht,' exclaimed the king, on
opening it. `Hark you, cousin, hear what he sayeth;

Queen's Yacht,
Tower-Dock, 7 A. M.

`May it please your majesty, it is with regret I have to inform your majesty
that in consequence of an accident which last night occurred to the yacht
by the carelessness of a coal-barge skipper, whereby my bowsprit was carried
away and other damage done which it will take three or four days to repair,
it is out of my power to render obedience to your majesty's commands last
night received. I await your majesty's further pleasure.

`Now what think you of this, cousin?' demanded the king after laying down
the letter, and taking very deliberately a sip of coffee, `what think you of this?
It seems to me we are doing Tudor injustice.'

`Possibly, your majesty. But this note confirms my opinion.'

`In what respect?'

`He says that the damage will need three or four days work to repair it,
when Sir John says the yacht shall be ready by sundown! It is plain he
wants to delay, and has some deep motive for it!'

`If it was only to meet the draft. to-day will have been all the time he required.
I must look upon this as an accident as he represents it. I can't believe
he would endanger the yacht from any selfish motives!'

`I will not press the point; I would rather much I were in the wrong than
your majesty. The delay of the yacht will change things materially. If
Tudor now goes to the bank he will there discover that I have taken up the
draft, and this knowledge will have upon his acts some kind of effect. It will
turn his thoughts towards me, and lead to erroneous suspicions concerning my
motive; and, that he will not quit London leaving in my possession the proof
of his guilt, I am convinced.'

`The only way, then, is to see that when he returns to his yacht, as he will
sometime to-day, to have Sir John instructed to convey to him my commands
that he remain and superintend the repairs, and not leave it again. Sir John
shall see, if need be, that he cannot,' concluded his majesty.

`I have some duties to attend to at my house, and I wish to ascertain if he
has been to the bank; therefore I will now take my leave of your majesty.
When next I see you, cousin, I hope it will be with the news on your lips that
this scapegrace who gives us so much trouble is well over the sea!'

Tudor, on leaving the Jew's habitation, took his way in a direction that
brought him to Ludgate street, ascending which and passing St. Paul's, he
stopped before a palace-like edifice situated a little retired from the street
Is was one of the club-house of London, connected with which in the extensive
chambers abovestairs, were suites of gaming-rooms, furnished with great

[figure description] Page 037.[end figure description]

elegance and luxury. He entered the club-room with the air of one at home,
and equal of those who thronged it. He nodded familiarly to several noblemen
and was recognized by a similar gesture; for although the bend sinister
marred his shield, his blood and well known paternal lineage gave him admittance
and a certain consideration among the titled aristocracy. His position
in society was not, however, precisely what it would have been had there been
no cloud upon his birth, In more than one way his sensitiveness had been
wounded; and although others did not shun him for his want of name and
family, he felt a sense of degradation which embittered his spirit, and made
him reckless of character and of consequences. It was this morbid feeling
which drove him for relief to the gaming-table, as parallel states of mind
drove others to the wine-cup. In the excitement of play he lost the sense of
his equivocal position among men of honor; and whether he lost or won, the
oblivion of thought which play brought with it, was in itself a sufficient recompense
to his spirits.

We shall not follow him into the upper-rooms of the stately edifice into
which he entered. In four hours afterwards he left it without a guinea of the
large sum he had in his pocket-book when he entered. Silent and moody he
took his way towards the Tower for the purpose of going on board his vessel;
but in a little while he reflected that the Duke might be there awaiting him to
arrest him; for, save for the purpose of getting him into his power, he could
not imagine why he should so quietly have taken up the draft. He, therefore,
turned aside and entering a low inn resolved to remain in private there
until the next day when he hoped by going to the Jews' to learn the success of
Rachel. Here he remained an hour or two in a restless state of mind, when
as he glanced into the tap-room, he saw several coachmen's coats and other
garments hanging on pegs around the wall. The idea immediately occurred
to him to disguise himself, and under this protection for his person visit the
dock and see if there was any appearance of the Duke's emissaries in wait
for him. The habit he made choice of was that of a countryman, consisting of
a long frock, thick boots, a broad-brimmed white hat, and gloves and whip to
match. The landlord loaned them to him taking in pledge his own suit. In
this disguise he sallied forth, and reaching the Tower gate, found he was debarred.
Satisfied from this that his disguise was perfect, he called a waterman
and getting into his skiff asked to be pulled along the water-side of the
Tower. He soon came near his yacht, which, to his surprise, he found in the
hands of the dock-men, and her damages nearly repaired. Confounded at this
celerity, for he had given orders to his first officer to be leisurely, as there was
no haste, he saw that it was expedient for him to act with decision. That the
king had ordered this despatch he had no question; and as he saw on examination
of what had been done, that by the close of day his vessel would be in
readiness for sea, when doubtless he would have to sail with his states' prisoner,
he began to deliberate what step to take. The morrow would show him
whether the draft would be recovered; and if so, he was then fearless and free
again. To leave before he had got this out of the Duke's hand, he felt was
out of the question.

`I will see the duke myself!' he said suddenly. This disguise will aid me.
I will seek him and forthwith, too. Fortune may favor me, and if I succeed I
am free from bondage to the fair Jewess! To go to the Duke's palace will be
placing my head in the lion's mouth if he should detect me. But I must act
with firmness and without delay; for I cannot exist with a forged draft of five
thousand pounds held over my head each instant by the hand of the man
whom I have reason to fear as my greatest enemy, though, God knows, he has
been mine in refusing me his name which is my right in nature. Pull for the
shore. Give way and land me at the first stairs.'

The waterman looked surprised at this sudden and commanding order from
one whom he supposed a common peasant; but, without speaking a word in
reply he bent to his oars to which not a little alarm gave a new impetus.

We will now change the scene of our story to the interior of the town

[figure description] Page 038.[end figure description]

mansion or Palace of the Duke of —. It is an hour before sundown. The
Duke has just retired from the dining room to his library where he is seated
writing a letter. It is addressed,

`To His most gracious majesty,
Sire,

I shall depart in one hour for the Tower
and go on board, or rather, be taken, en masque as the prisoner of state, on
board the yacht with my party of Police-men! Sir John informs me that the
repairs are already completed, and that the schooner will be ready to sail, down
the river with the first turn of the tide. Then getting Tudor to anchor under
the guns of the frigate at the mouth, we can dictate our own terms to him!—
Tudor has not yet been on board; but I have ascertained that he made his appearance
at the Bank at noon and called for the draft holding the amount in
notes in his open pocket-book. The cashier who suspects nothing, voluntarily
informed me as I entered the banking-house, that he had come to take up the
draft, not knowing that it was paid already. `When I told him that your grace
had taken it up in person,' said the banker to me, `he said that it was all very
well; that you had given him the funds to take it up, as he was coming into
town, not expecting to be in London yourself!'

`You see here my liege, Tudor's self-possession and readiness of invention;
for he must, undoubtedly have been taken by surprise on finding the draft in
my possession, yet he seems to have manifested none; at least nothing to attract
the attention of the banker or rouse his suspicions. Since then I am ignorant
of Tudor's movements. Once get him on board and down the river,
and I think he will rather set sail for distant lands, than return a prisoner in
the hands of Bow-street officers. Should he not appear at the Dock this evening,
I shall promptly advise your majesty.

The Duke had just completed this epistle, and was about folding it, when
an attendant announced a gentleman who desired to see His grace on very urgent
business. With his thoughts running upon his son the Duke instantly
desired him to be shown into his presence.

`Now, perhaps some message concerning Tudor!' he said looking eagerly
towards the door. `Yet what reason have I to look for any?'

The door was thrown open by the footman, and the Duke beheld enter a
young man, scarce twenty-one with a foreign style of face, but an air decidedly
noble and high bred. The youth on seeing the Duke bowed with respectful
courtesy, uncovering his head, and then standing silent before him.

`Pray sir, what have you to communicate? Be seated, sir,' said the Duke
who did not remember ever having seen this very handsome face before.

The young man glanced around the room as if to be sure that he was alone,
and then said

`What I have to communicate to your highness, perhaps should not have a
third party as a listener.'

`We are quite alone. Proceed, sir,' said the Duke with anxious expectation
of he knew not what, yet which he believed would have reference to Tudor.
'

`Your Grace has a son, I believe?'

The Duke started at this abrupt inquiry; but immediately composed himself
and answered sadly,

`Yes, unfortunately.'

`He is a source of unhappiness to your grace?'

`You but tell me what all men should know! What know you new of
him?'

`I will tell your grace.'

`First tell me, if you will do me the favor, whom I address?'

`I am the son, your grace, of a rich Jewish merchant of London!'

`A Jew! What do you here? What hast thou in common with my son?'

[figure description] Page 039.[end figure description]

`Much, your grace!'

`Then say on. Out with it! It is some affair of money, I warrant me. But
if he has had money of thy father, and has not paid it, come not to me with
the tale. I have had enough of them.

`Yet it concerns his honor and thine, for your grace to know it!'

`Then out with it! I have heard much evil and can listen to more. Thy
business with me? Be prompt for time presses!'

`The career of your grace's son, Tudor Dauling, is known to me and my
father fully. My father has advanced him monies from time to time!'

`Who is thy father and was he ever repaid?' demanded the Duke abruptly.

`My father is a Jewish merchant, his name I may not give. He has been
paid, your grace, save in one instance. It is as follows:—My father advanced
him the money upon a draft for six thousand pounds. The draft was drawn
upon your grace and accepted by you. It was due before the close of banking
hours to-day, and should have been taken up by him instead of being presented
to your grace: this being the understanding. But as the time has passed
by two hours, my father has sent me with the draft to your grace, and I now
have the honor of presenting it for payment.'

The Duke listened, overcome with grief and confusion. Here then was a
second forgery close upon the heels of the first. His first indignant impulse
was to pronounce it a forgery, but he controlled his feelings with a great
effort!

`Let me see the draft?'

The young man presented it to him. He looked over it and saw that it was
the counterpart of the one he held for five thousand pounds. He sighed deeply
and remained some moments in troubled thought, deliberating whether he
had not best at once to declare it forged and let justice take its course. But
parental feeling-the memory of his son's dead and wronged mother prevailed.

`I hope it is all right, your grace,' said the young man eying him very
closely.

`Yes—yes,' answered the Duke recovering himself; `quite right! I was
thinking if I had sufficient funds at command. Due to day! So it is I see by
the date! Can you call to-morrow.'

`Does your grace intend to pay it?' demanded the young Jew severely.

`No, sir,' responded the Duke acting from the angry impulse of the moment.
`It is a forgery; sir; and thus I destroy the proofs of my son's guilt.' As he
spoke he tore the draft in pieces and cast them at his feet. To his surprise the
young man remained perfectly calm, and his countenance as unmoved as if
nothing had occurred. The Duke surveyed his handsome and singularly
serene face a few seconds in silence and wonder.

`You are not surprised?'

`No, your grace. I knew that it was a forgery when I brought it.'

`Then what kept you from arresting the author of it?' asked the Duke
trembling lest it had been done.

`That I might, if possible, induce your grace to pay it and save him.'

`This was humane and considerate in your father,' answered the Duke.

`We knew you were attached to your son, and that any public exposure
would be likely to grieve you; and that you would pay the amount before you
would see him in Newgate! We could prosecute still, but do not desire to do
so, unless encouraged by your grace!'

`I have no desire to prosecute him?'

`Then why does your grace hold in your possession a similar forged draft
for five thousand pounds?'

`How did you learn this?' demanded the Duke, rising from his chair and
advancing a step towards him with a look of astonishment and alarm.

`From his own mouth. In a word, your grace, the truth is as follows:
Your son acknowledged the draft just destroyed to be a forgery and that he
could not pay it. My father threatened to arrest him. They spoke aside

[figure description] Page 040.[end figure description]

together then, for some time, and he told my father of the draft you held; and
finally by some arrangements between them, to which I am not a party, it was
decided by my father (on what considerations I am not at liberty to devulge)
that if you would surrender the forged draft you hold he would not prosecute.'

`And you have come for this paper?'

`I have, your grace.'

`This is a very extraordinary arrangement! What can your father want of it?'

`It is your son who wishes to get it into his own hands again, my lord! It
is the only forged paper out that involves himself, and he cannot rest until it is
in his possession.'