"I shall consult Mr. Blackwell, and I'll let you know." And Beaufort walked tremulously back to his carriage. "Go to his lawyer!" growled Lilburne. "Yes, if his lawyer can help him to defraud men lawfully, he'll defraud them fast enough. That will be the respectable way of doing it! Um!--This may be an ugly business for me--the paper found here--if the girl can depose to what she heard, and she must have heard something.--No, I think the laws of real property will hardly allow her evidence; and if they do--Um!--My granddaughter--is it possible!--And Gawtrey rescued her mother, my child, from her own mother's vices! I thought my liking to that girl different from any other I have ever felt: it was pure--it _was!_--it was pity--affection. And I must never see her again--must forget the whole thing! And I sin growing old--and I am childless--and alone!" He paused, almost with a groan: and then the expression of his face changing to rage, he cried out, "The man threatened me, and I was a coward! What to do?--Nothing! The defensive is my line. I shall play no more.--I attack no one. Who will accuse Lord Lilburne? Still, Robert is a fool. I must not leave him to himself. Ho! there! Dykeman!--the carriage! I shall go to London." Fortunate, no doubt, it was for Philip that Mr. Beaufort was not Lord Lilburne. For all history teaches us--public and private history-- conquerors--statesmen--sharp hypocrites and brave designers--yes, they all teach us how mighty one man of great intellect and no scruple is against the justice of millions! The One Man moves--the Mass is inert. Justice sits on a throne. Roguery never rests,--Activity is the lever of Archimedes. CHAPTER XVI. "Quam inulta injusta ac prava fiunt moribus."--TULL. [How many unjust and vicious actions are perpetrated under the name of morals.] "Volat ambiguis Mobilis alis Hera."--SENECA. [The hour flies moving with doubtful wings.] Mr. Robert Beaufort sought Mr. Blackwell, and long, rambling, and disjointed was his narrative. Mr. Blackwell, after some consideration, proposed to _set about doing_ the very things that Lilburne had proposed at once to do. But the lawyer expressed himself legally and covertly, so that it did not seem to the sober sense of Mr. Beaufort at all the same plan. He was not the least alarmed at what Mr. Blackwell proposed, though so shocked at what Lilburne dictated. Blackwell would go the next day into Wales--he would find out Mr. Jones--he would sound him! Nothing was more common with people of the nicest honour, than just to get a witness out of the way! Done in election petitions, for instance, every day. "True," said Mr. Beaufort, much relieved.