Transcriber's Notes: 1. Page scan source: http://www.archive.org/details/impendingswordno02yate (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign) THE IMPENDING SWORD. LONDON: ROBSON AND SONS, PRINTERS, PANCRAS ROAD, N.W. THE IMPENDING SWORD. A Novel. BY EDMUND YATES, AUTHOR OF 'BLACK SHEEP,' 'THE ROCK AHEAD,' 'THE YELLOW FLAG,' ETC. ETC. 'Put we our quarrel to the will of Heaven, Who, when He sees the hours ripe on earth, Will rain hot vengeance on the offenders' heads.' SHAKESPEARE. IN THREE VOLUMES. VOL. II. LONDON: TINSLEY BROTHERS, 8 CATHERINE ST. STRAND. 1874. [_The right of translation, dramatic adaptation, and reproduction is reserved._] CONTENTS OF VOL. II. Book the Second. THE CRIME. CHAP. I. DOWN TO LIVERPOOL. II. TRAPPED. III. HELEN'S JOURNAL. IV. 'SCOT FREE.' V. A BLAZE OF TRIUMPH. VI. STARTLING NEWS. VII. ONLY TOO TRUE. VIII. THORNTON CAREY. Book the Second. THE CRIME. CHAPTER I. DOWN TO LIVERPOOL. Bryan Duval had not forgotten his promise to Miss Montressor. Early in the morning of that eventful day, when she and Mr. Dolby had parted so strangely, and before she had even yet shaken off the extra slumber occasioned by the fatigue of the Richmond dinner, the fair actress had received a letter from her _entrepreneur_ which ran thus: 'My dear Clara,--The business which I feared might possibly have detained me has been smoothed over, and we positively sail on Saturday, in the Cuba. We shall go down to Liverpool by the twelve o'clock train, on Friday, stop the night at the Adelphi, and have plenty of time to see our traps--and what with music scores, promptbooks, and costumes, I have a tolerable amount of luggage--comfortably on board one of the first tenders which will be despatched to the ship. I think we shall be a pleasant party. I have concluded engagements with Mrs. Regan, for old women and heavies, with Skrymshire for first low comedy, and with Cooington for walking gentleman and utility. He is a nice-looking young fellow, can make-up very fairly, and will, consequently, make an excellent foil for me; all the other people I can get over there, but these are absolutely necessary. Cooington will be especially valuable. You are young, and your ideas of the dreadful are, probably, vague, but when you have once seen an American _jeune premier_, with his peculiar style of hair and costume, they will immediately become definite.