after this little explanatory conversation between ben and sir richard blunt, the reader will probably guess that todd's evil fortune had actually carried him to that very house in norfolk street, strand, occupied by the hardman family, to which he, sir richard, talked of going to, to give instructions to his officer, and in which resided the identical julia, that ben had carried home, beer and all, in the shower, and to whom his large heart had become so deeply attached.

todd could hardly have fairly expected to be way-laid by such a conjunction of events; and certainly when he laid himself down so comfortably and easily in the bed at the lodging-house for the luxury of a few hours' sleep, for which, if sleep he could, he had paid the moderate price of three guineas, he little dreamt that his enemies were rallying, as it were, around that house, and that in a short time their voices would be actually within his hearing.

truly it seemed as though there were henceforth to be no peace in this world for todd; although, by circumstances little short of absolutely miraculous, he did continue to avoid absolute capture, near as he was to it at times.

the great fatigue he had undergone, combined with the little refreshment he had taken at the public-house in hollywell street, induced a feeling of sleep in todd's frame; and after he had lain in the bed at the lodging-house for about a quarter of an hour, and found the house perfectly still, and that the bed was very comfortable, he pulled the clothes nearly right over his face, and fell fast asleep.

nothing but sheer fatigue could have given todd so unbroken a repose as he now enjoyed. it was for an hour or more quite undisturbed by any images calculated to give him uneasiness; and then he began—for there was some noise in the house—to dream that he was hunted through the streets of london by an infuriate mob; and by one of those changes incidental to dreams, when the reason sleeps and imagination ascends the mental throne, he thought that the heads of all the mob were armed with horns, like those of cattle, and that they come raging after him with a determination to toss him.

this was not a dream upon which any one was likely to be very still for any length of time, and todd groaned in his sleep, and tossed his arms to and fro, and more than once uttered the word—"mercy!—mercy!"

suddenly he started wide awake as a knock came at the door and roused him. todd blessed that knock at the moment; for by waking him it had rescued him from the dream of terrors that had been vexing his brain.

he sat up in bed, and for a moment or two could hardly collect his scattered senses sufficiently to assure himself that it was all a dream, and that he was in the lodging-house in norfolk street; but the brain rapidly recovers from such temporary confusions; and todd, with a long breath of immense relief, gasped out—

"it was, after all, but a dream—only a dream! oh, god! but it was horrible!"

he fell back upon the pillow again; but sleep did not again come to him, and he began to feel a vague kind of curiosity to know who it was that had knocked at the door; and yet, he told himself, that it could not matter to him, for that in a house like that, of course, there must be plenty of people coming and going, and that, although the persons who kept it might control noises within the house, they could not possibly have any influence upon the knocker.

"oh, it's all right," said todd. "it's all right. i will sleep again—i must sleep again; for it yet wants hours and hours to the night, when i may, at least, make the attempt to get off from—from england for ever!"

a faint sort of doze—it could not be called a sleep—was coming over todd, when he suddenly heard the sound of voices; and he was startled wide awake by hearing his own name pronounced. yes, he clearly heard some one say—"todd!"

in a moment he sat up in bed, and intently listened. he held his breath, and he shook again, as his imagination began to picture to him a thousand dangers.

there were footsteps upon the staircase, and in a few moments he heard persons go into the next room—that is to say, the front one to that in which he lay, the room that he had paid for a few weeks' occupation of, and which was only divided from that in which he lay by a pair of folding-doors, that he knew were just upon the latch, and might, at any moment, be opened to discover him.

he then heard a female voice say—

"i do wish you would be quiet, mr. ben."

"ah," said another voice, "keep him in order, julia, for he has been quite raving about your beauty as we came along the street, i can tell you. do you think the servant will be able to find your father?"

"oh yes, sir richard. if ma were at home she could have said at once where he was; but martha will find him, i dare say."

todd threw the bed-clothes right over his head. it was no other than sir richard blunt who was in the front-room of that diabolical lodging-house, and todd looked upon himself as all but in custody. his sense of hearing seemed to be preternaturally acute, and although the bed-clothes covered up his ears, and he could not be said to be exactly in his usual state, inasmuch as terror had half deprived him of his reasoning powers, yet he heard plainly, and with what might be called a perfect distinctness, every word that was spoken in the front room.

perhaps, even in the condemned cell of newgate, todd did not suffer such terrors as he was now assailed with in that lodging, where he thought he was so safe, and which he had, as he fancied, managed so cleverly.

"will you be quiet, ben!" said the girl's voice again.

"make him—make him, julia," said sir richard.

"lor bless your little bits of eyes," said ben. "do now come and sit in my lap, and i'll tell you such a lively story of how the leopard we have got at the tower lost a bit off the end of his tail?"

"i don't want to hear it."

"you don't want to hear it? come—come, my lambkin of a julia—when shall we be married? oh, do name the day your ben will be done for for life. i want it over."

"well, i'm sure," said julia, "if you think you will be done for, you had better not think of it any more, mr. benjamin."

"it won't bear thinking of, my dear. it's like a cold bath in january: you had better shut yer eyes and tumble in."

"upon my word, ben," said sir richard, laughing, "you are anything but gallant; and if i were julia, i would not have you."

"not have me? lord, yes, she'll have me. only look at me."

"ah," said julia, "you think, because you are a great monster of a fellow, that anybody would have you; but i can tell you that a husband half your size would be just as well, and i only wonder, after you have made all the neighbours laugh at me, that i have a word to say to such a mountain of a man, that i do, you wretch!"

"laugh!" cried ben, "why, my duck, what do they laugh at? i should like to catch them laughing."

"why, you know, you wretch, that that day it rained as if cats and dogs were coming down, you took me up as if i had been a baby, you did, and carried me home, and me with a jug of porter in my right hand, and the change out of a shilling in my left, so that i could not help myself a bit, and all the street laughing. oh, i hate you!"

"she hates me!" said ben. "oh!"

"but she don't mean it, ben," said sir richard.

"do you think she doesn't, sir?"

"i am sure of it. do you, now, julia?"

"yes, sir richard, indeed i do, really now, for he is quite a horrid monster, and i only wonder they don't put him in one of the cages at the tower along with the other wild beasts, and make a show of him. that's all that he is fit for."

"oh, you aggravating darling," said ben, making a dart at julia, and catching her up in his arms as you would some little child. "how can you go on so to your ben?"

"murder!" cried julia.

"oh, if you are going to have a fight for it," said sir richard, "i will go and wait down stairs, julia."

bang came a knock at the street-door.

"oh, ben, there's ma or pa," said julia. "let me down directly. do ben—oh, pray do. let me down, ben."

"do yer love your ben?"

"anything you like, only let me down."

"very good. there yer is, then, agin on yer little mites of feet. lor bless you, sir richard, that girl loves the very ground as i walks on, she does, and she has comed over me with her fascinations in such a way as never was known. ain't she a nice 'un?—sleek and shiny, with a capital mane. but you should see her at feeding-time, sir richard, how nice she does it—quite delicate and pretty; and you should see her—"

the door of the room opened, and hardman, the officer, made his appearance.

"your humble servant, sir richard. i hope i have not kept you waiting long? i was only in the neighbourhood."

"no, hardman, thank you, it's all right. i have not been here above a quarter of an hour."

"i am glad of that, sir. how do you do, mr. ben?"

"pretty well," said ben, "only a little hungry and thirsty, that's all; but don't trouble yourself about that, mr. hardman; i always do get hungry when i look at julia."

"i hope, mr. ben, that don't mean that you will dine off her some day when you are married?"

"oh, lor, no. bless her heart, no. she loves me more and more, mr. hardman."

"i am glad to hear it, ben—very glad to hear it. but i presume, sir richard, that you have some orders for me?"

"why, yes, hardman. there's that rascal todd, you know, still continues to elude us. what i want you to do is, to take charge entirely on the river, and to make what arrangements you like at the various quays and landing-places, and with all the watermen, so that he shall not have a chance of escaping in that way."

"certainly, sir; i will set about it directly."

"do so, hardman. expense in this case is of no object, for the secretary of state will guarantee all that; but of course i don't wish you to be extravagant on that account."

"i quite understand you, sir richard, and will do my best."

"that i am sure you will, hardman; and now i will go. i shall feel no peace of mind until that man is dead, or in the cell again at newgate."

todd popped his head out from under the clothes, and making the most hideous face, he shook one of his clenched fists in the direction of the front room. it would have been some satisfaction to him to have given a loud howl of rage but he dared not venture upon it; so he was forced to content himself with the pantomime of passion instead of its vocal expression.

"i do hope, sir, we shall soon have him," said hardman. "it seems to me to be next thing to impossible he should escape us for long. do you think he has any money, sir?"

"he cannot have much, for all he has, if any, must be but the produce of depredation since his escape from newgate. he certainly has not extensive means, hardman."

"then he must fall into our hands, sir. julia, is that your mother just arrived, do you think?"

"yes, pa, it is ma's step. she has been out to get something or another, but i don't know what, as i was out myself all the morning; but it is ma, i know."

mrs. hardman came into the room, looking very red and flushed, and with a large basket on her arm. she looked from one to the other of the assembled guests with surprise and horror.

"what's the matter?" said her husband. "why wife, you look panic-stricken. what has happened?"

"oh, gracious! where's the gentleman?"

"the gentleman?" cried everybody.

"yes, the lodger. the highly respectable gentleman who took the first-floor only a couple of hours ago. oh, gracious, where is he? and a capital lodger too, who paid in advance, and didn't mind extras at all."

"but what lodger, mother?" said julia.

"oh, mum, i forgot—i forgot," said martha, suddenly coming into the room, "i forgot to tell miss julia, mum, that an old gentleman had taken the first floor, mum, and gone to bed in the next room."

"in bed in the next room?" said sir richard blunt.

"i am lost!" thought todd. "i am lost now, i am quite lost! and the only thing i can do is to kill as many of them as possible, and then blow my own brains out."

"do you mean to say, ma," said julia, "that there's a gentleman asleep in the next room in the bed?"

"lor!" said ben, "you don't mean to say that, mrs. hardman?"

"he may be in bed, but if he is asleep," said sir richard, "he is a remarkable man; of course if we had had the least idea of such a thing, we should not have come up here; but here we were shown by the servant."

"oh, yes, it's all that frightful martha's fault. i'll—i'll kill—no—i'll discharge that odious hussy without a character, and leave her to drown herself! for heaven's sake go down stairs all of you, and i'll go and speak to the old gentleman, and apologise to him."

"let me go," said ben, "and roll on him on the bed, and if that don't settle him i don't know what will."

"shall i apologise to him?" said sir richard.

todd nearly fainted when he heard this proposition; but when mrs. hardman rejected it, and insisted upon going herself, he felt quite a gush of gratitude towards her, and breathed a little more freely once again.