The life and adventures of C.D, the dashing highwayman. By the author of 'Dick Clinton,' 'Ned Scarlet,' etc

Front matter

CjCuX --*-.*~t *' AvVtcLOt 'EXTRAORDINARY VOLUME , as it comprises all the essence com THER BOCKS OF INFORMATION e hittierto Der u printed. OXDERFUL

BOOK 18 AS FOLLOWS

.- E WITHIN G YOU WANT TO KNOW ; OB, ACTS FOR THE PEOPLE. ."«.? — Civh, gilt — Price $1. — Sent free of Postage. its, will give you correct information on every po9- .. _r hu^rd or thought of! It tells you how to cook a dinend, or cut an acquaintance — to gel up a dinner party, ards, at ckess, or any other popuh -—whether Eiish yourself in life according to the rules of etiquette, — to get ... entree for the dinner table, or arrange a plain dinner — to sola. ..,//.:. — to start, business — to wake money — to ataste — to con j duct a courtship — to tie any kind of a knot — to get married — to give an evening j jiurty lo yow friends — to behave tvell in company — to keep house pronierly — to I dance — to make ornamental va&es, by the now art of Porchotnanie or Wax work and j other fancy employments for the lollies: to establish, acquaintances according to | the rules of etiquette — to enj'mf an hour at curious puzzles and ariihm questions — to do up a neat parcel — to relieve the invalid- — to acquaint yourself with the , is in literature, laiv and medicine — in short, to do every useful thing fruit can be thought of or imagined, whether at home or abroad, or among your friends, or in your business, or on your farm,, or in your garden, or ata. public meeting, or at a private assembly, lt contains tables as all Weights and Meas ures ; Interest Tables from $1 to $10,000 at six and seven per cent., besides innumerable Tables on Interesting and Curious Subjects.

Chapter I

the speaker;., the windows of which all openedwide on to the terrace we have men tioned, was one of a size and appointments rarely to be met with. A feast! a marriage feast! was spread in this hall, for a hall it was, rich in all the emblazon ry of Gothic taste. The ceiling was fes tooned with flowers. The mirrors were nearly hidden by the rich floral gifts of a glorious autumn. The fruits of all ages and of all climes were piled up on the lable in receptacles of massive silver. — Richly embossed covers yet kept the cu rious eye -from the secrets of the rare and dainty dishes that were beneath them. — Wine. ! nothing as yet but wine, had be gun to flow freely at that festive board upon the occasion of the marriage of the owner of all the taste, and of all the wealth that met the eye on every hand.

But if at the back of that terrace, with its slim marble balustrades, and its statues, and its vases, and its flowers, there were much of art to attract the attention and to fill the imagination with agreeable as sociations, in what language shall we paint the glorious space of hill and vale that nature had spread out in front of it? By successions of marble steps, you might descend from the terrace to tlie gardens, and from the gardens you might wander into the meadows — from the meadows to the pleasant hills, and to the little village of Hampton, from the spire of whose humble and unpretending little church came ihat gush of melody wliich had so quickly interrupted the speaker, who, from the style of his discourse, appeared to enter so heart aud soul into the scene EF MARRIAGE FEAST. — THE UNHIDDEN GUIST.

AN UNEXPECTED ARRIVAL. " The harvest moon ! How bright and beautiful it gilds yon distant vale ; — and Sr..?, the little streamlet, in the hollow, is a sheet of molten gold. There's not a tree — a flower — a blade of grass, that is not tinctured by the wondrous beauty of the radiant orb. More wine ! more wine. We can look at the moon,. and watch the wedding party, and drink a health to the bright-eyed bride yet before the bells peal out the news of the — " Before the speaker could complete the sentence, a burst of melody from the bells bf old Hampton Church, made the air vocal with gleesome sounds. The scene was, iu good truth, a joyous one. — He whn liid spoken so bravely and enthu siastically of the harvest moon, was one of a group of some twenty persons of both sexes, who stood upon a raised ter race at the back of one of those pleasure taverns which are so popular in the neighborhood of London.

Behind them was a house that rather merited the name of a mansion, although amid all its magnifi cence, the style of architecture was de cidedly cottage. The turrets — pinnacles — deep embayed windows, and general aspect of one portion of the buildh'rg, be spoke the G-othic taste. Indeed, to look at the incongruous pilo, it would seem as though some half-score of cottages of gentility had been, by some process, suddenly engrafted upon an old baronial ball. The apartment immediately behind DUVAL. 4 "Lights! The cry was raised again. course of a few momenl ing doors opened at the ferthf - V oJ the room und several servants appear ed bearing silVCT candelabra, in which .'. ere wax lights. " The bells have stopped," said a voice. " Ay," cried another, " one of tl.em has broken down, 1 the whole sot.

I thought the old belfry would not stand such a peaL" "It's ominous I" said a thi i J. " Ve ry," said the stranger at the win dow, who, now that the lights, having recovered from the flaring occasioned by their passage into the room, began to cast a steady glare around them, advanced in to the centre of the apartment. All eyes were naturally bent upon him. The stranger could well bear that scrutiny. — Tall and slim of figure, with remarkably small feet, and the most feminine looking hands that could at all look manly, he stood in an attitude that a sculptor might have sighed in vain to animate his mar ble with — so fine, so airy, aud so grace ful was it. His eyes were of the dark and sparkling hazel which is so rarely to be met with, and his long silken lashes might have been a proud appendage for a court beauty.

His coal black hair, in stead of being, according to the barba rous fashion of the time, confined in a peruke, flowed down his back and shoul ders in massive folds rather than curls. — His dress was a rich one, and might well have graced a wedding guest. At his side hung a sword with a jewelled hilt, but the sparkle of its gems was nothing to be compared to the brilliancy of the rings that adorned his fingers, and the diamond that held together the folds of a long laced cravat. The age of this ap parition, for such to the bewildered guests he almost seemed to be, of manly grace did not appear to be above twen ty-two. " Gentlemen," he said, slightly bowing, "accept my apologies for being rather late at these festivities." Ar_d all this icauty was lighted by the sweet harvest moon, that slowly topped a hill and lookc i upon the green earth, as thou, never been upon its surface aught but love and virtue.

" Truly," cried another of the throng upon the balcony, which consisted for the most part of young men. "Tidy, the old bells make a merry din. I did not think there was so much hfe iu them." " A toast — a toast I" cried another. " Have wilh you, then," cried the whole party. " Have with you, and let it be a bumper whatever it is." ' "Ay, a bumper! a bumper! Now, friends all ; let us drink to many a jovial meeting beneath this roof, even though Sir Felix Moffat be going to give 'it a young mistress." "A young mistress is better than an old one," cried another of the somewhat disorderly assemblage. " She will not object to a little harmless merriment, I'll be bound, and so that we keep the flavor of our cigars from the drawing-room, there will be no fault found." " The toast I the toast ! Let us have the toast I" " Then here's health, long life, and tol eration to Lady Felix Mofl'at."

"Hold!" cried a voice. There was something in the tone aud manner of the pronunciation of the word that suspended every man's uplifted glass, aud all eyes were directed to one of the open windows, in the centre of which stood a tall figure, that,, in the dim and dusky twilight, particularly as its back was towards the bright and glowing moon, could only be so far distinguished as to be seen to be the form of a man. During the stillness that prevailed, for a space of time that might have been sufficient for one to count six in, slowly the church bells rang clearly aud distinctly, and then came a sudden jarring sound, and the gay strain abruptly ceased. " Lights I lights !" cried one. The sound of that one voice seemed.to have a magic in its tones, for it at once awakened to animation every person there present, and the cry for lights came from every throat.

The stranger who had cried " hold," still preserved his same attitude in the window where he looked like some dim portrait set in as dim a No one could help returning the salute^ "The fact it," said the stranger, in the most fascinating manner possible, "a Uttle affair on the road, detained me.'1 He took from his pocket, a richly. chased gold repeater, and made it strike the hour. frame. THE DASHING IIIUH WAYMAN. 5 "Seven! — Really, gentlemen, you will hardly forgive me for being a whole hour oehind my time. But business must be attended to." " It is so." " Very well. If my information re specting these espousals be correct, the parties, in order to satisfy the scruples upon both sides* are to be married according to the forms of both churches. — • At the little church yonder by the Pro testant minister, and at the Catliolio chapel attached to this house, by tho Catholic priest."

" You are right, sir." " 'Tis well. I hope, then, before we talk of Lady Moffat, we can afford to wait till both the ceremonies are per formed, which appear to be thought necessary to make her such." " Oh, a mere quibble." " Indeed, sir ! — there's many a slip be tween the cup and the lip." " Well, sir, we will not quarrel about such a trifle. Let the toast be deferred The idea of the elegant and sumptuous ly-dressed personage before them having anything to do with business, wa3 too out-of-the-way, andraised a smile upon the lips of some of the party. One only hud the boldness to say — " Sir, I regret I have not the pleasure of knowing you." " So do I, sir, from my soul," said the stranger. This was a sort of answer, coming from such a personage, too, that it was by no means an easy matter to make a rejoin der to.

The young man who had spoken bit his lip and was silent. " A fragrant and delightful evening," said the stranger, taking from his pocket a snuff-box set with brilliants, and slight ly smelling it " That may be, sir," said he whose toast and sentiment had been so singu larly interrupted. " That may be, sir ; — but perhaps you will allow me, for my own private satisfaction, to ask you who you are ? ' " Certainly, sir, certainly." "Well, sir?" "Extremely well, I thank you. I never felt better in all my life." The stranger, with an easy grace, re clined upon one of the gorgeous couches with which the apartment was amply pro vided. A general titter ran through the room at the expense of the discomfited toast-proposer, who had evidently met with his superior in badinage. " Sir," he said, " this shall not suffice ; I am as fond of a joke as any man, but you interrupted my toast, and for that I insist upon a reason."

" Insist ! My dear sir, you shall have one without the necessity of insisting at all upon it. What was your toast, now ?" until the ceremony is over. Then you will pledge it" " With all my heart, sir." " Agreed." "And as you wished to know how I came here, I can only inform you that I am here upon the urgent request of him who has most right to be present at the nuptials of Mary Dundas." " That is sufficient, sir. You mean the bridegroom ?" " Of course." A loud hurrah ! now proclaimed the arrival of the wedding party within the gates of the Oaks, as the little estate waa called, which could boast of a mansion of such beauty and character. At this moment an individual made his appearance up the step3 from the garden to the tarrace, and thence iuto the room. This was no other than the parish beadle of Hampton, who, in full official costume, had run on before, and the moment he reached one of the windows, he cried — " Gentlemen and ladies — leastways, la dies and gentlemen, Sir Felix has giv'd me a guinea to run and denounce to you all, that the Rev. Mr. Nicholas Flummer ly didn't come to the church, and that the wedding ain't a wedding."

" Not a wedding ? Why, we heard the bells." " The -health of Lady Felix Moffat." " Ah, there it is. There is no Lady Moffat. Allow me *o put a question or two to you, sir, in all courtesey ?" " Say on, sir." " Well, is it not true that Sir Felix Moffat is a Catholic ?" " Very true, but the ringers ringed 'em without being told — then one on 'em breaks down; but as to the wedding not being a wedding, that ain't neither hers nor there, for the ceremony in the Catho- Quite true, sir." " Then, sir, is not Mary Dundas, whom he is about to do the high honor of calling his, a Protestant '_"' lie sort of «:ay is to be done first, and then when the Rer. Mr. Nicholas Flum mCTly does come, they will go back to the church and finish off, you see, gentle men ; but what Sir Felix wanted me all for to say to you all was, not to make no remarks to the wirgin bride about it."

" Oh, certainly not — certainly not." This communication, with its caution, was not made a whit too soon, if it were intended to be effective, for the bridal was seen approaching the terrace at the moment that the beadle ceased to speak. The first couple that put in an appearance in the room, and came within the full blaze of its numerous wax-lights, con sisted of a superanuated old beau, whose attire was a ludicrous burlesque upon the fashion of the day, and a female of the most awful dimensions. The female — we wish we could call her lady — was one blaze of satins and jewels, and thc turban upon her head was a most triumphant structure indeed. This was no other than Airs. Dundas, the mother of Mary, who was to be the bride of Sir Felix. The elderly beau, upon whose arm she leant, was a certain Major Lumbley.

Mrs. Dundas was speaking loudly and rapidly, partly addressing her discourse to those who followed her, and who con sisted of some ladies and gentlemen, of no particular mark or likelihood, and partly to the occupants ofthe large room, towards which the whole of the partv seemed to be making its way as quickly as possible. " It's not the least consequence," cried Mrs. Dundas. " Of course everything will go on in a comfortable, easy way, and it will be quite time enough when Dr. Flummerly does come to go back to the church, and do that part of the wedding. There's no harm done." AU this was intended to polish over the flaw in the proceedings contingent upon the non-arrival of the Protestant divine at the little church, and everybody understood it as such. Almost immediately, now, all eyes were fixed upon the bride and bridegroom as they entered the, room together.

A more remarkable con trast than they presented could not have been found. Sir Felix Moffat was a man about fifty years of age, but a long life of dissipation had left its traces upon his form and face. He looked, in fact, just what he was, an old debauchee. He was attired in a splendid suit of blue velvet. and upon his shrivelled fingers he wore jewels that would have bought a German principality. And now let us glance upon the fair young creature by his side, whose arm hung, rather than clasped his. This was Mary Dundas. Her age was sixteen only, and yet, by the intrigues of one who should have been her next friend under God, she was brought to the sacri fice — to be the victim of such a man as Sir Felix. The beauty of Mary was of that character wliich can scarcely be de scribed ; it was rather the beauty of ex pression than of features, and yet a mone fascinating creature was never fashioned.

Her hair was a glossy auburn, her eyes blue, her complexion purity itself. She shuddered as she entered the room, in which now about forty people were col lected. " All's right," said Mrs. Dundas. " The first marriage can take place here, and by tben, no doubt, the Rev. Dr. Flum merly will have arrived. How are you, my chick ?" " Sir Felix," said a servant, " the Cath olic priest, Father Loftus, has not come yet." Sir Felix Moffat dropped the fair hand that he had been holding in his own, and drew himself bolt upright, and cried — " What is the meaning of all this? Can we get no clergyman, Catholic or Pro testant, to do his duty ?" There was a slight inclination to laugh upon the part of the younger portion of the company. The released Mary sunk upon a chair, the deep arms and high back of which shielded her from most of the company, and wept alone.

" One would think, added Sir Felix, speaking with bitterness. " One would think, that if one was not aware that Claude Duval had been shot through the head by a gentleman last night, that he had stopped both the Reverend gentle men." " Claude Duval shot ?" said several. "Yes," added Sir Felix. "He has kept the neighborhood in terror for some time, but I have been credibly informed to-day that last night he was shot by one whom he tried to stop." " Did he die ea3y, sir ?" said the strang er, who had before excited the curiosity of Sir Felix's guests. "Sir?" said Sir Felix, grandly. " I ask, did he die easy ?" "Sir, I neither know nor care whetebe/ nighwaymen die easy or uneasy. I only know that I have been uncommonly un easy since he robbed me of my gold re peater, and my snuff-box set with bril liants, only last week, in my own park.

Yes, in my own park, sir !" "Uncommonly impudent that," said the stranger. " Yes, sir, and I can truly say that I have not been so vexed since by anything as by the non-appearance of the two cler gymen, whose good offices were required to unite me to the loveliest and most "Not dead! Not dead !'' was all that Mary replied, as she clutched the ring tightly. " Not dead— not dead !" " What does she mean ?" said Sir Fe lix. " Seize that man," said one of the guests. It was the one who had been interrupted in his toast by the stranger, and who had from that time kept an ob servant eye upon him. " Seize that man ; I saw him make some communication to the bride." "Did you, sir?" said the stranger, step ping a pace back. "Ay, did I. Do you know him, Sir Felix ?" amiable of her sex." The old roue leered offensively upon Mary, and then he muttered to him self— , " I suppose thi3 puppy has been invi ted by Mrs. Dundas. my troublesome mother-in-law that is to be."

" Not I." " Nor you, Mrs. Dundas ?" " Gracious Heaven, no!" " Then he i3 an intruder here. Per- Mrs. Dundas looked at the stranger through her eye-glass, and muttered— "I wonder at Sir Felix asking so young and good-looking a man here to day." Mrs. Dundas then took Sir Felix aside, and, laying her hand upon his arm, she said — haps a " "Beware!" said the stranger, as he stepped nearer to the window at wliich he had entered. "Beware, sir, how you finish a sentence with a word you may find it best to swallow again, and yet necessary to do so. I know I am an un bidden guest I never avowed myself aught else." " Speak to me" cried Mary, rising. " Speak to me, be you whom you may, and tell me he is not dead." " My dear Sir Felix, be assured that all will be well, and that the less you show any sort of disappointment, the better.

Only recollect the trouble I have had in breaking down the spirit of that girl." She pointed to Mary. "Never mind, madam," said Sir Felix, coarsely and sarcastically. nYou shall have your thousand pounds a year for the job." " He lives !" " Oh, joy, joy ! Then I say to all here, that I am sold to this man, whom I ab hor, and to whom, although presented by my mother, and assured of the death of one I truly loved, I believed I never should have found strength in the Dres ence of God to pledge my faith to." " This is madness I" said Sir Felix. Mrs. Dundas bit her lip, and then said — 1 Well, well, make as much bustle as you can and get your dinner over. The wedding can be done after that, when both the parsons will, I dare say, be in the way." During this brief dialogue, the myste rious stranger sauntered up to the chair m which Mary sat, and as he passed it, he dropped a small ring in her lap.

The moment her eyes fell upon it, she uttered a piercing shriek, and then cried — " Not dead— not dead !" " It is villainy !" said the mother ; and then pointing to the stranger, she added, " Look, girl, if you have eyes. Yon man is a head tailer than the drowned sailor you fancied loved you." "Yes, yes," added Mary, as though answering her own thoughts rather than anything another said to her. " Yes, I am strong now. They told me he was dead — that the ring and he to whom I gave it as a token of my love, had gone together to the depths of the ocean ; but it is not so." There was a general scene of confusion m the banqueting room ; on the instant Mrs. Dundas made her way to Mary, and with angry gestures, cried — " What is this — what is the meaning cf this childishness t" " It is not so !" cried the stranger, with a voice that sounded through the apart ment like the sound of a trumpet " It is not so."

" My heart told me it was not ; bos my mother wrung from me a slow con sent to give my life, for my life it would have been, that she might pass her re maining years in luxury. It was a cheat. He lives ! he lives I" " Oh, yes— yes." Still upon her knees aud grasping the arm of her defender, she presented the weapon at two lackeys who had been ordered to go round and seize the stranger from behind. They shrank back I The swordsman who had sought to pro fit by the opportunity ofthe attach I coin the rear had dashed forward, and the blades of the weapons borne by him and the stranger clashed together. "Beware," said the latter. " Tamper with me another moment, and your death be on your own head." " Yield, robber, for I take you to be no better." " Yes," said the stranger. " He lives and loves as he ever loved.

I know him, and a better — a truer heart never yet beat in human bosom than in that of Gil bert Rushton." "Yes." shrieked Mary, with hysterical joy. " That is his name !" and then, as if to deprecate any scorn at the mention of it in such a place, she drew herself up proudly, and added — " I love him !" By this time several of Sir Felix Mof fat's dissolute guests, finding that the stranger was the cause of the breaking up of the feast to which they had looked forward with so much satisfaction, drew their swords, aud made a rush in a body towards him, to make him a prisoner. That individual, however, was not so easily to be thrown off his guard. The bright blade he wore by his side per formed a circle round him like a flash of light, and two of his foes shrank back bleeding. " Down with him !

Down with him !" cried those who were in the back ground. Ladies fainted. Mr3. Dundas screamed and clung to Sir Felix, as though her an nuity were compromised in the grasp by which she held him. Some of the rich ornaments of the room were upset and broken, and by the din of voices it would seem as if every one had something to At this moment he made a furious thrust at the breast of the stranger, w]*o easily parried it, but by so doing, the sword's point touched Mary on the arm. inflicting a slight wound. She uttered a cry, and before the echo of it could die away, there leapt through the open win dow a young man in a slight undress na val uniform. He had a cutlass in his hand, and with one blow he sent the ag gressor of the stranger and of Mary sense less and bleeding to the floor. " Well done, Gilbert," said the stranger.

" Are the horses quite ready ?" "Quite." " Gilbert — my Gilbert!" screamed Ma ry, and in another moment she was in his arms. "Flee," said the stranger, "I will fol low." " No — no," said Mary. " Come with us — they will kill you 1 Come with us now." say. . It was in the midst of thi3 tumult that Mary rushed between the swords of the combatants, and clung to the stranger's left arm, exclaiming — " Take me to him ! You tell me that he lives, aud I will trust to you. Take me ta him. Let us go— oh, let us go at once. What arm will dare to stay us? He live=>, you say, my Gilbert?" " I swear it, lady, by the God above U3." "Fear nothing," he replied, in a voice that sounded like a strain of music. — " Fear nothing, all will be well. I will follow directly. Flee, Gilbert, flee ; there are those here who would take your life."

The young sailor caught Mary in his arms, and as though her weight were nothing, he dashed down the steps of the terrace into the garden ; in his right hand he still waved his cutlass, crying — '■ Let any one who may be weary of his life, stop me and mine!" " Who are you ? - Fiend ! monster ! speak !' Give rne a name that I may ap pend my maledictions to," cried Sir Fe lix, stiU writhing in the grasp of Mrs. Dundas. " I will have you prosecuted — transported — hanged. 1 will spend thou sands, but I will have my revenge upon '•' Now for it !" cried one of the stranger's opponents, and as he spoke he made i rush forward. At the same instant Mary cried — " They attack you from the terrace ! Turn and save yourself!" The stranger plunged his hand into his breast, and drew forth a pistol, and handed it to Mary, saying — :'j Dare you frighten them with this ?" yon.

Speak, who are you ? Will none seize him ?" ■ " Oh, how shall I thank you ?" said Mary. No one seemed exactly disposed to risk a personal encounter with a mah who possessed such prowess, but a pistol was fired at him. All looked to see the effect, but there he stood as before, one soot on the terrace, and one upon the window-lead. " By mounting and fleeing from this spot at once. Remember, at your age, that your mother has a legal power over you, wliich she will not fail to exert, if once she car. sind an opportunity. A panic just now possesses those who would pursue you ; but that will pass away." " It will," said Gilbert, " and the pirates are too many for us. Come, my Mary, let us be off." " A bad shot," he said. " I sliall not forget who fired it ; and now, Sir Felix Moffat, let me explain to you the una voidable absence of your two clergymen.