Page:Waverley Novels, vol. 23 (1831).djvu/28

 nisi Ajax.'

No one but thyself could have gulled thee; and thou hast gulled the whole brotherhood of the Rosy Cross besides--none so deep in the mystery as thou. But hark thee in thine ear: had the seasoning which spiced Sussex's broth wrought more surely, I would have thought better of the chemical science thou dost boast so highly."

"Thou art an hardened villain, Varney," replied Alasco; "many will do those things who dare not speak of them."

"And many speak of them who dare not do them," answered Varney. "But be not wroth--I will not quarrel with thee. If I did, I were fain to live on eggs for a month, that I might feed without fear. Tell me at once, how came thine art to fail thee at this great emergency?"

"The Earl of Sussex's horoscope intimates," replied the astrologer, "that the sign of the ascendant being in combustion--"

"Away with your gibberish," replied Varney; "thinkest thou it is the patron thou speakest with?"

"I crave your pardon," replied the old man, "and swear to you I know but one medicine that could have saved the Earl's life; and as no man living in England knows that antidote save myself--moreover, as the ingredients, one of them in particular, are scarce possible to be come by, I must needs suppose his escape was owing to such a constitution of lungs and vital parts as was never before bound up in a body of clay."

"There was some talk of a quack who waited on him," said Varney, after a moment's reflection. "