When he was in affliction and I in prosperity, I was neither unwilling, nor altogether unable, to show myself such.

Well, the tables are turned--the times are changed.

A peaceful and unoffending man might have expected from a neighbour, now powerful in his turn, such protection, when walking in the paths of the law, as all men, subjects of the same realm, have a right to expect even from perfect strangers.
What chances?
I pursue, with the warrant of the King and law, a murderess, bearing on her hand the blood of my near connection, and I had, in such a case, a right to call on every liege subject to render assistance to the execution.

My late friendly neighbour, bound, as a man and a magistrate, to give ready assistance to a legal action--bound, as a grateful and obliged friend, to respect my rights and my person--thrusts himself betwixt me--me, the avenger of blood--and my lawful captive; beats me to the earth, at once endangering my life, and, in mere human eyes, sullying mine honour; and under his protection, the Midianitish woman reaches, like a sea-eagle, the nest which she hath made in the wave-surrounded rocks, and remains there till gold, duly administered at Court, wipes out all memory of her crime, and baffles the vengeance due to the memory of the best and bravest of men .-- But," he added, apostrophising the portrait of Christian, "thou art not yet forgotten, my fair-haired William! The vengeance which dogs thy murderess is slow,--but it is sure!" There was a pause of some moments, which Julian Peveril, willing to hear to what conclusion Major Bridgenorth was finally to arrive, did not care to interrupt.

Accordingly, in a few minutes, the latter proceeded.--"These things," he said, "I recall not in bitterness, so far as they are personal to me--I recall them not in spite of heart, though they have been the means of banishing me from my place of residence, where my fathers dwelt, and where my earthly comforts lie interred.