I have already
told you I am willing to let him pursue his present career undisturbed
for a time, in order to make his fall the greater. I hold him in my
hand, and can crush him when I please."
"Then do not defer your purpose, Sir Giles," said Sir Francis; "or I
must take my own means of setting myself right with him. I cannot
consent to sit down calmly under the provocation I have endured."
"And what will be the momentary gratification afforded by his death--if
such you meditate," returned Sir Giles, "in comparison with hurling him
down from the point he has gained, stripping him of all his honours, and
of such wealth as he may have acquired, and plunging him into the Fleet
Prison, where he will die by inches, and where you yourself may feast
your eyes on his slow agonies? That is true revenge; and you are but a
novice in the art of vengeance if you think your plan equal to mine. It
is for this--and this only--that I have spared him so long. I have
suffered him to puff himself up with pride and insolence, till he is
ready to burst. But his day of reckoning is at hand, and then he shall
pay off the long arrears he owes us."
"Well, Sir Giles, I am willing to leave the matter with you," said Sir
Francis; "but it is hard to be publicly insulted, and have injurious
epithets applied to you, and not obtain immediate redress."
"I grant you it is so," rejoined Sir Giles; "but you well know you are
no match for him at the sword.
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