The usurper
has but small dealing with any of the gentry. There are always men
staying there, fellows of a kind with whom no gentleman would
consort, and they say there is much drinking and wild going on. As
Captain Charles specially bade me, I have done all that I could to
gather news of Nicholson. Till of late I have heard nothing of him.
He disappeared altogether from these parts, just after your honour
went away. News once came here from one who knew him, and who had
gone up to London on a visit to a kinsman, that he had met him
there, dressed up in a garb in no way according with his former
position, but ruffling it at a tavern frequented by loose blades,
spending his money freely, and drinking and dicing with the best of
them.
"A week since he was seen down here, in a very sorry state, looking
as if luck had gone altogether against him. Benjamin Haddock, who
lives, as you know, close to the gate of Lynnwood, told me that he
saw one pass along the road, just as it was dusk, whom he could
swear was that varlet Nicholson. He went to the door and looked
after him to make sure, and saw him enter the gate. Next day
Nicholson was in Lancaster. He was spending money freely there, and
rode off on a good horse, which looked ill assorted with his
garments, though he purchased some of better fashion in the town.
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