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Stop there! stop there!" interposed the Mayor-" Clerk! take down his words; he swears that his father is a man! We shall catch him in some more lies presently. Lord! Lord! what a brazen young-Hick !—it is !— His face is all over gallows, quite gibbety, every feature's got a hanging look—I smoked him directly. Waiter! bring me a pipe. I should like to smoke a pipe of tobacco, drink a pipe of port, and then-Hick !"

"Will your Worship listen to my defence ?" "No-I won't hear a word till you drink off your heel-taps, fill a bumper, and push round the bottle. It's no use saying any thing; you must be hung, you know; so, take him to prison! take him to prison! for I'm getting a little bit boozy and sleepy. La! you comical dog, I knew your father, a worthy fellow as ever-but you shouldn't say he was a man. What's the toast ?-not a drop more-fill your glasses-Hick!-Good night, Tom! I'm offI'm just going to The Mayor's dull

grapy eyes, which had for some time past been

gradually disappearing, at length closed; his whole figure relaxed; he sunk slowly back in his arm-chair; his head dropped on one side; loud snore, a and was so fast asleep in

he

gave

a single moment, as to remain undisturbed by the laughter and jeering of the noisy assemblage that surrounded him.

The landlord of the inn, acting as spokesman for the party, now proposed that they should conduct their prisoner to the gaol, that he might be secured until his examination could be resumed on the following morning, when the Mayor would be in fitter plight for the purpose, and the ladies, who had identified some of the stolen property, might be summoned to attend. This proposition being seconded by the constable, was carried unanimously, and Walter, in spite of his indignant protestations of innocence, and his earnest entreaties that he might be secured for the night in a room of the inn, instead of being consigned to the public prison, was rudely dragged away, hurried to the gaol, and committed to a strong cell, furnished with

a miserable pallet, where, after having indulged his solitary and supperless meditations, sometimes disposed to be prodigiously angry and indignant, and sometimes rather prone to laugh at the oddity of his adventure, he made a virtue of necessity, threw himself upon his sorry bed, and, being not a little fatigued by his long journey, soon slept as soundly as any individual in the town of Westbury, not even excepting the worshipful and wine-full Mayor.

CHAPTER VI.

And how do you hold her wit, Sir? I hold her wit! The strength of all the Guard cannot hold it, if they were tied to it; she would blow them out of the kingdom. They talk of Jupiter; he is but a squib-cracker to her.

PHILASTER.

ON the following morning, Walter, experiencing much more civility from the gaoler than had been evinced by the constable and his coadjutors the night before, was not only provided with a comfortable breakfast, but allowed the attendance of the prison barber, by whose assistance he made his toilet in the best manner that circumstances would permit, knowing how much might depend on his personal

appearance in the expected examination. This was not long delayed. The officers, attended by a rabblement of boys and idle townspeople, came at an early hour to take him again before the Mayor, who, having slept off the effects of his intemperance, now assumed a most grave, burly, and consequential air, as if determined to repair his overnight's deficiencies, by being doubly magisterial in the morning. If a most swaggering peruke could have atoned for an empty head, and a solemn pomposity have made amends for the absence of every judicial attribute, our functionary might have passed muster as a competent Justice. The spectacles which he now wore redeemed, in some degree, the character of his coarse face, by concealing the piggish expression of his small leaden eyes; but when he opened his mouth nothing could disguise the fact of his being a vulgar blockhead.

Of these particulars, however, the prisoner took little notice, his attention being arrested by the unexpected appearance of two ladies,