; »he's bloody!«
    »It's in his nature I know,« muttered the locksmith, »it's cruel to ask him,
but I must have help. Barnaby - good Barnaby - dear Barnaby - if you know this
gentleman, for the sake of his life and everybody's life that loves him, help me
to raise him and lay him down.«
    »Cover him then, wrap him close - don't let me see it - smell it - hear the
word. Don't speak the word - don't!«
    »No, no, I'll not. There, you see he's covered now. Gently. Well done, well
done!«
    They placed him in the carriage with great ease, for Barnaby was strong and
active, but all the time they were so occupied he shivered from head to foot,
and evidently experienced an ecstasy of terror.
    This accomplished, and the wounded man being covered with Varden's own
great-coat which he took off for the purpose, they proceeded onward at a brisk
pace: Barnaby gaily counting the stars upon his fingers, and Gabriel inwardly
congratulating himself upon having an adventure now, which would silence Mrs.
Varden on the subject of the Maypole, for that night, or there was no faith in
woman.
 

                                   Chapter IV

In the venerable suburb - it was a suburb once - of Clerkenwell, towards that
part of its confines which is nearest to the Charter House, and in one of those
cool, shady streets, of which a few, widely scattered and dispersed, yet remain
in such old parts of the metropolis, - each tenement quietly vegetating like an
ancient citizen who long ago retired from business, and dozing on in its
infirmity until in course of time it tumbles down, and is replaced by some
extravagant young heir, flaunting in stucco and ornamental work, and all the
vanities of modern days, - in this quarter, and in a street of this description,
the business of the present chapter lies.
    At the time of which it treats, though only six-and-sixty years ago, a very
large part of what is London now had no existence. Even in the brains of the
wildest speculators, there had sprung up no long rows of streets connecting
Highgate with Whitechapel, no assemblages of palaces in the swampy levels, nor
little cities in the open fields. Although this part of town was then, as now,
parcelled out in streets, and plentifully peopled, it wore a different aspect.
There were gardens to many of