“I remember—­I recollect,” said his lordship, somewhat confused.  “I perceive you are too much attached to your old friends to accept any benefit from their successor.”

“Far from it, my lord; I am grateful for the benefits which I decline, and I wish I could pay you for offering them, better than what I am now about to say.”  The Lord Keeper looked at her in some surprise, but said not a word.  “My lord,” she continued, in an impressive and solemn tone, “take care what you do; you are on the brink of a precipice.”

“Indeed?” said the Lord Keeper, his mind reverting to the political circumstances of the country.  “Has anything come to your knowledge—­any plot or conspiracy?”

“No, my lord; those who traffic in such commodities do not call to their councils the old, blind, and infirm.  My warning is of another kind.  You have driven matters hard with the house of Ravenswood.  Believe a true tale:  they are a fierce house, and there is danger in dealing with men when they become desperate.”

“Tush,” answered the Keeper; “what has been between us has been the work of the law, not my doing; and to the law they must look, if they would impugn my proceedings.”

“Ay, but they may think otherwise, and take the law into their own hand, when they fail of other means of redress.”

“What mean you?” said the Lord Keeper.  “Young Ravenswood would not have recourse to personal violence?”

“God forbid I should say so!  I know nothing of the youth but what is honourable and open.  Honourable and open, said I?  I should have added, free, generous, noble.  But he is still a Ravenswood, and may bide his time.  Remember the fate of Sir George Lockhart.”

The Lord Keeper started as she called to his recollection a tragedy so deep and so recent.  The old woman proceeded:  “Chiesley, who did the deed, was a relative of Lord Ravenswood.  In the hall of Ravenswood, in my presence and in that of others, he avowed publicly his determination to do the cruelty which he afterwards committed.  I could not keep silence, though to speak it ill became my station.  ’You are devising a dreadful crime,’ I said, ’for which you must reckon before the judgment seat.’  Never shall I forget his look, as he replied, ’I must reckon then for many things, and will reckon for this also.’  Therefore I may well say, beware of pressing a desperate man with the hand of authority.  There is blood of Chiesley in the veins of Ravenswood, and one drop of it were enough to fire him in the circumstances in which he is placed.  I say, beware of him.”