part which his father had truly undertaken, under certain conditions, to act in his favour. From this instance of dishonest concealment they did not, it is true, clearly contemplate any certain advantage; being, as was said, governed only by a blind and selfish policy, bent on communicating nothing which it was consistent with their interest to conceal, and resolved to profit by any inadvertence or weakness their own vigilance and audacity might extort from their captive.
It is a painful consideration, how far these wretches were guided in the mode of their proceeding by a mean spirit of low malice, arising from disappointed cupidity, against one on whose resources they had too liberally calculated, if not for their present indemnity, at least for their future profit. Far be it the decision to what extent a petty desire might actuate them to feast their eyes on the misfortunes of their betters.
Certain it is, that most if not all of their hopes were for this time thrown into abeyance by the unexpected, and, as it were, magical effect, with which (as is shown in a former chapter), the sound of Sir Aubrey's name and a glance at his well-known seal had operated, in connection with their appearance, on the already irritated nerves of their
