“Mistress Amabel will make her appearance in a few minutes,” he said to Leonard.  “Our master is with her, and is getting all ready for her departure.  I have not come unprovided with medicine,” he added to Doctor Hodges.  “I have got a bottle of plague-water in one pocket, and a phial of vinegar in the other.  Besides these, I have a small pot of Mayerne’s electuary in my bag, another of the grand antipestilential confection, and a fourth of the infallible antidote which I bought of the celebrated Greek physician, Doctor Constantine Rhodocanaceis, at his shop near the Three-Kings Inn, in Southampton-buildings.  I dare say you have heard of him?”

“I have heard of the quack,” replied Hodges.  “His end was a just retribution for the tricks he practised on his dupes.  In spite of his infallible antidote, he was carried off by the scourge.  But what else have you got?”

“Only a few trifles,” replied Blaize, with a chap-fallen look.  “Patience has made me a pomander-ball composed of angelica, rue, zedoary, camphor, wax, and laudanum, which I have hung round my neck with a string.  Then I have got a good-sized box of rufuses, and have swallowed three of them preparatory to the journey.”

“A proper precaution,” observed Hodges, with a smile.

“This is not all,” replied Blaize.  “By my mother’s advice, I have eaten twenty leaves of rue, two roasted figs, and two pickled walnuts for breakfast, washing them down with an ale posset, with pimpernel seethed in it.”

“Indeed!” exclaimed Hodges.  “You must be in a pretty condition for a journey.  But how could you bear to part with your mother and Patience?”

“The parting from Patience was heart-breaking,” replied Blaize, taking out his handkerchief, and applying it to his eyes.  “We sat up half the night together, and I felt so much overcome that I began to waver in my resolution of departing.  I am glad I did not give way now,” he added, in a more sprightly tone.  “Fresh air and bright sunshine are very different things from the close rooms in that dark house.”

“You must not forget that you were there free from the contagion,” rejoined Hodges; “while you are here exposed to its assaults.”

“True,” replied Blaize; “that makes a vast difference.  I almost wish I was back again.”

“It is too late to think of returning,” said Hodges.  “Mount your horse, and I will assist Nizza into the pillion.”

By the time that Blaize, who was but an indifferent horseman, had got into the saddle, and Nizza had taken her place behind him, the window opened, and Mr. Bloundel appeared at it.