“Back water!” cried the man with the light—“I see him—here ye are.” The magistrate grasped the side of the boat, and said— “Now, my lads, take in the woman.” Maud was lifted into the boat, and Sir Frederick himself clambered after her. “Fifty guineas, my brave fellows,” he cried, “if we get to shore in time to recover this poor creature.” “Fif—fif—fifty?” ejaculated the man with the light. “Yes—fifty guineas.” “Pull, you devils!” he shrieked out to the rowers. “Pull—pull.” The men bent all their energies to the task, and in less than three minutes more the keel of the boat grated on the shore. Wet and cold as he was, Sir Frederick Hartleton seized the inanimate and light form of Maud, as if she had been an infant, and springing from the boat, he ran to a public-house called “The King’s Bounty,” that was celebrated at the time and declaring who he was, had poor Maud immediately properly attended to, while he himself ran to a surgeon, and procured his instant services to restore her if possible to consciousness. CHAPTER XXXIX. The Smith’s Anger.—A Drunken Tour through Westminster in the Olden Time.—The Watch.—A Scene at the Chequers.—The Determination. When Britton fled in sudden fright from the low wall by Millbank, he took his rout up Abingdon-street, and turning into the first house of entertainment he saw, he ordered a quantity of brandy that made the landlady stare again; but when he lifted the measure to his mouth, and then after a dead silence of about a minute, laid it down empty, the aforesaid landlady’s eyes became much larger than before, and she looked again and again in the measure, as if she imagined the brandy might still be only lurking in some corner, and would suddenly make its appearance again. When Britton then struck his own head, which he did with his clenched fist, the landlady gave a great jump, and exclaimed,— “Bless us, and save us!” “I am a fool! An ass!” cried Britton. “To be scared by a shadow—curses! What’s to pay, woman? Don’t stand staring at me!” “You—you’ve had a—pint, sir,” gasped the alarmed landlady. “Take your money out of that, and be quick,” cried Britton, throwing down a guinea, the ring of which on a little bit of marble, which the landlady kept behind the bar door, being quite satisfactory, she turned round to hand her customer his change, but to her surprise he was gone. Half maddened by rage and drink together, Britton now rushed back to where he had left Maud; but both she and Sir Frederick, from the pace at which they had immediately left the place, were out of sight and hearing; muttering, therefore, imprecations on his own head, the smith returned towards Westminster in a fit mood for anything.