Page:Paul Clifford Vol 2.djvu/206

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198
PAUL CLIFFORD.

that settled on Brandon's face as he regarded this seemingly worthless trinket. After a moment's gaze, he uttered an inarticulate exclamation, and thrusting it into his pocket, renewed his search. He found one or two trifles of a similar nature; one was an ill-done miniature set in silver, and bearing at the back sundry half effaced letters, which Brandon construed at once (though no other eye could) into "Sir John de Brandon, 1635, Ætat. 28;" the other was a seal stamped with the noble crest of the house of Brandon, 'A bull's head ducally crowned and armed Or.' As soon as Brandon had possessed himself of these treasures, and arrived at the conviction that the place held no more, he assured the conscientious Swoppem of his regard for that person's safety, rewarded him munificently, and went his way to Bow-street for a warrant against the witness who had commended him to the pawnbroker. On his road thither, a new resolution occurred to him, "Why make all public," he muttered to himself, "if it can be avoided? and it may be avoided!" He paused a