the mere ruin of friend Alan's. The whole thing, besides, gave me

a look of running with the hare and hunting with the hounds that

was little to my fancy. I determined, therefore, to be done at

once with Mr. Stewart and the whole Jacobitical side of my

business, and to profit for that purpose by the guidance of the

porter at my side. But it chanced I had scarce given him the

address, when there came a sprinkle of rain--nothing to hurt, only

for my new clothes--and we took shelter under a pend at the head of

a close or alley.

Being strange to what I saw, I stepped a little farther in. The

narrow paved way descended swiftly. Prodigious tall houses sprang

upon each side and bulged out, one storey beyond another, as they

rose. At the top only a ribbon of sky showed in. By what I could

spy in the windows, and by the respectable persons that passed out

and in, I saw the houses to be very well occupied; and the whole

appearance of the place interested me like a tale.

I was still gazing, when there came a sudden brisk tramp of feet in

time and clash of steel behind me. Turning quickly, I was aware of

a party of armed soldiers, and, in their midst, a tall man in a

great coat. He walked with a stoop that was like a piece of

courtesy, genteel and insinuating: he waved his hands plausibly as

he went, and his face was sly and handsome. I thought his eye took

me in, but could not meet it. This procession went by to a door in

the close, which a serving-man in a fine livery set open; and two

of the soldier-lads carried the prisoner within, the rest lingering

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