Page:The Mysterious Warning - Parsons (1796, volume 1).djvu/254

 "How came you to be with him?" asked Ferdinand.

"Why, Sir, it is now better than nine years ago since I had been reduced by sickness and the rheumatism, to be unable to work for my bread, and lived by the charity of the village, which was little enough; so one day a farmer, who now and then gave me milk, said to me, Francis, if you would like to have a good bed, plenty of milk and eggs, and neither labour or trouble, I can get it for you; so, Sir, my heart leaped for joy, for many a day I had nothing, because my rheumatism would not let me walk; so I said, I should be heartily obliged to him. He then told me the Gentleman in the Castle, whom we had often heard of, and all the village was afeared to come near the place; so he said, this Gentleman wanted an old man to be with him, whom he would treat kindly, if he could bear confinement. At first, Sir, I was dashed, and much afeared; but the farmer said he was a very quiet good sort of a Gentleman, and I might live very