You, who sent me to a den where sordid cruelty, worthy of yourself, runs wanton, and youthful misery stalks precocious; where the lightness of childhood shrinks into the heaviness of age, and its every promise blights, and withers as it grows.

I call Heaven to witness,' said Nicholas, looking eagerly round, 'that I have seen all this, and that he knows it.' 'Refute these calumnies,' said Kate, 'and be more patient, so that you may give them no advantage.

Tell us what you really did, and show that they are untrue.' 'Of what do they--or of what does he--accuse me ?' said Nicholas.
'First, of attacking your master, and being within an ace of qualifying yourself to be tried for murder,' interposed Ralph.

'I speak plainly, young man, bluster as you will.' 'I interfered,' said Nicholas, 'to save a miserable creature from the vilest cruelty.

In so doing, I inflicted such punishment upon a wretch as he will not readily forget, though far less than he deserved from me.