Page:Paul Clifford Vol 2.djvu/270

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262
PAUL CLIFFORD.

CHAPTER X.


Outlaw.—Stand, Sir, and throw us that you have about you?
Val.—Ruffians, forego that rude uncivil touch!
The Two Gentlemen of Verona.


On leaving the scene in which he had been so unwelcome a guest, Clifford hastened to the little inn where he had left his horse. He mounted and returned to Bath. His thoughts were absent, and he unconsciously suffered the horse to direct its course whither it pleased. This was naturally towards the nearest halting-place which the animal remembered; and this halting-place was at that illustrious tavern in the suburbs of the town, in which we have before commemorated Clifford's re-election to the dignity of chief. It was a house of long established reputation; and here news of