"All that I have told you about the loss of my property is quite true," said Markham; "and I have now but little more than a bare two hundred a-year to live upon." "Well, I will be generous and let you off easy," said the Resurrection Man. "You shall give me for the present----" "For the present!" repeated Markham, all the terror of his mind again betraying itself; "if I make any arrangement with you at all, it would be upon the express condition that you would never molest me more." "Be it so," said the Resurrection Man, whom the promise cost nothing, and who knew that there was nothing to bind him to its implicit performance; "give me five hundred pounds, and I will never seek you out again." "Five hundred pounds!" exclaimed Richard: "I cannot command the money!" "Not a mag less will I take," said the extortioner with a determined air and voice. "I really cannot comply with the proposal--I have not the money--I do not know where to get it. Why do you persecute me in this way? what harm have I ever done to you? why should you seek to ruin me, and to annihilate all my hopes of again establishing myself in an honourable position in society? Tell me--by what right, by what law, do you now endeavour to extort--vilely, infamously extort--this money from me?" No pen could describe--no painter depict the singular expression of countenance which the Resurrection Man wore as these words fell upon his ears. He knew not whether to burst out into a fit of laughter, or to utter a volley of imprecations against his former companion in Newgate; and so, not to be wrong by doing one and omitting the other, he did both. His ironical and ferocious laugh fell horribly upon the ears of Markham, who was at the same time assailed by such a string of oaths and blasphemies, that he trembled. "You want to know by what law and right I demand money of you," cried the wretch, when he had indulged in this out-pouring of laughter and imprecations to his heart's content: "well--I will tell you. My law is that practised by all the world--_the oppression of the weak by the strong_; and my right is also that of universal practice--_the right of him who takes what will not dare to be refused_. Now, then, you understand me; and if not, hear my resolution." "Speak," said Richard, now thoroughly cooled and disarmed; "and let me know the worst at once." "You have confirmed my suspicion that you are courting the young girl I saw you walking with: you have confirmed that suspicion by your manner and your words. Now, I require five hundred pounds; and if you are anxious that your fair one should remain in ignorance of your Old Bailey adventures, you had better comply with my terms." "I positively declare that I have not the money," said Richard. "Make it." "But how?" "Borrow it of the young lady's father or mother, or uncle, or aunt." "Never--impossible!"