Bull, save for enraging John, and for fear of what was to be done with the body. To be sure Tempestoso Bullyrook swore "he would eat it, for the general good, and make no bones of it," but he said many things he did not always do, and swore more. There were still great doubts. The old gentlewoman's friends told that she was shockingly alarmed. "Great doubts," said Heckelpins; and Old Bags next "doubted," which looked so like doubting till doomsday, that Billy saw no hope for himself. And so they snapped and worried away, and every minute the scouts came in with woful tidings; Peg, Pat, Tom, Madam's admirer the Paisley weaver, all were at it! The COVENANT had been as a spell to raise Peg's blood; besides, as she honestly owned, she had set her heart on having a husband. "I have now monstrous doubts," quoth Swaggerer; Braggadocio owned that he feared Greysteel must have his way. "I too have now great doubts," quoth the Raw Duckling. "I have none!" shouted Hookey; and snatching the bolster from his henchman, he lets it fly in the face of the learned clerk of Oxenforde for a few good reasons of his own. Cowardly curs!" he cried, " send for Gaffer or for Beelzebub, if ye list, and hear ye my parting words,-May John Bull henceforth use That Most Mighty and Potent Mule, as That Most Mighty and Potent Ass has hitherto used him. There's my departing legacy,-trudge Billy—” The Dons swelled like the Baltic in a north-easter; but little cared Hookey, he was off like a whirlwind; and Bill's wenches, Jenny Driver, Soldier's Joy, and the rest, that night sung the song of Willow, meant for poor innocent Mrs. Bull. "He'll never enter John's hall again," said the wenches; "this is the last the ungrateful wretches will see of the brave Hookey!" But not three nights were over when the old itching came on him, and back he was in the teeth of the Squire. Some thought the devil and the wenches had driven Atty off the hooks before this. Certain it is, he has not been the same man for a long time back as in his days of cock-fighting. Bill Boswain, I may tell you, had no great relish for the spot of work left for him to finish after this fine kick-up; nor yet for laying all the imps Hookey had madly raised. Yet necessity has no law, and sadly down in the mouth he sends for Greysteel, secretly wishing him far enough. It was clear that Gaffer was John's man, and John's only. New days at the hall now; but back comes Greysteel, as soon and no sooner, than properly and respectfully invited; "as pokerish as ever," Jenny Driver said, who hung over the bannisters, swearing she would heave the slop-pail over his pate, if Bill brought him back to the place, But of what passed in the Steward's room at this time, I can only relate a few particulars; though some got a cold, and a buzzing in their ears that day, with which they ring till now. "What sneezing is that behind?" quoth Gaffer. "My wife's tortoiseshell kitten in the cupboard," answers Bill. "Her sneezing betokens change of weather-don't it-eh, Gaff? Scotch Joe would grudge her keep in John's house,-that's a kitten catches no mice-ha! ha! ha!" cried Bill; and as a joke usually puts the maker of it in good humour with himself at any rate, Greysteel thought this was the time to mention Madam's passport or certificate. Bill looked glum. "This confounded whitloe of mine! My wenches say I write such a crabbed hand, there is no good of it. You must get her back in some way, Gaff. I shall make the tailor write to all my cousins to make way for her, with a pox! For I must own I don't much like her now-my wife never did :-women sharp, Gaff The "Whatever is done must be done quickly," said Greysteel, firmly. "Madam must be in or I must be out. For what am I sent? Squire will be fobbed off no longer." My wenches don't think, fobbed off,' a handsome word for Master Bull to use to me," said Bill. "It a'n't a genteel phrase."-"Sorry for it," said Gaffer, taking up his hat. "We think it rather a vulgar trick in you Gaff to be going about every where in this hoity-toity fashion, with that long scraggy Broom in your hand, like an old scavenger, though we thought it funny enough at first. They say, too, you consort o' nights with Brummagem Tom, and Tims !-won't do Gaff. My wenches and varlets don't admire it. You must give 'em up, and take counsel of Hookey-rare fellow Hookey-my wenches all in love with him-all dance to his fiddle-a "If you please I am not jolly night as often as he comes the way." here to talk of Master Arthur O'Bradley, of whom I never spoke otherwise than with becoming respect, but of Madam's passport and the Squire's business, to which you must surely now have made up your mind since you have sent for me." "Lord, Gaff, you are so crusty!" And wife what must poor Bill glanced hastily round. "To be sure, as my be, must be. That Most Mighty and Potent Prince, I'll be hanged if I remember his long yarn of a name; but hark ye"-And here Bill lowered "Enough said," his voice to a whisper-" He comes in John's mercy." "Madam and her replied Greysteel, slightly raising his eyebrows. friends have sense and generosity, they won't abuse confidence-but what noise is this?" But vain it were to describe the face, to which Greysteel feared to lift his eye. My friend George Cruickshank for that, to all the world, and the Isle of Wight! says, "Our frying-pan at its old work. Be off, Gaffer; and excuse me, but I'll be hanged if I care to see your face again, or your Broom either." But before he went, Greysteel said he hoped Bill would come down in his Sunday suit, to visit John, and Madam, and Mrs. Bull. Whatever the bar-maid of the Black Bear might say, ay, or Jenny Driver either, John and Madam were his best friends, and would be happy to see him and his wife abroad in their calash, and freely forgive all that had passed." There was now a great scratching and squeaking, as if of rats behind the plaster. Bill looked flurriedly round," Not sure if he could come wasn't clean shirt dry; his wife had her great wash, one of these days," Greysteel thought these poor excuses, and though he had heard of poor Bill's sansculloterie, he was too delicate to notice that "It a'n't good for misfortune. Bill said never a word of it himself. my health to be gadding about in these high breezes. Can't go to Templebar's any way-a'n't genteel; nor to the Steel's* hops neither ;-vulgar hops the Steel's, my wenches say, only two tallow candles and one blind fiddler-ha! ha! ha! that true, Gaff?" Greysteel, who was a discreet man, said nothing; but certain it is, that Bill never looked near John's hall, nor shewed the least civility to either Madam or Mrs. Bull, which was a pity, as the Squire was most willing to make it all up, and shake hands the first minute they met. John readily forgave all incivilities offered to himself, but he would suffer no disrespect to be shewn to his wife or to Madam his best friend. And now for the pen of old blind John, one of her truest worshippers, to describe her final triumphant entry. And of all the days in the year * The contempt cast on the Whig parties-not party, need not be insisted upon. when should this fall out but upon the 4th of June, anno domini, 1832, when the larks were up and abroad in heaven, and the Broom waving its golden blossoms on every slope; and when down upon his marrowbones, with a rope about his neck, will he nill he, comes, That Mighty and most Potent Prince, Rufus Gules d'Argent d'Or Gryphon Weveril Rustre Rampant Flory Bendsinister Wellrind Saliant Waterboujet Maximus Gustavus Heptarch Oligarch Tudor Plantagenet Clorcsa Adolphus Rusty Fusty, without a single friend to console or sustain him in his most woful plight; and forever and a day, forswears all claim to intermeddle with the Squire's affairs, or enter his door, or have his babies nursed there, save with John's good leave; consents to have all his rotten tenements demolished, all his howlet corners exposed to the light of day, and if need were, to do penance in a white sheet for his former sins. Had you but seen then the pitiful figure he made with his chopfallen lantern jaws! the teeth chattering in them! Fighting Winchey, Orator Mansie, and Old Hecklepins, fit to kick him, and Pat capering away at the Irish jig; and Scotch Peg clapping her hands, till " Over the hills and far away" rang again, to her heartfelt joy. The Schoolmaster was seen abroad that day-all his holyday flock about him; and the village bells were ringing; and there were wakes, and Maypoles, and dances, and garlands of oak and roses and laurel, and of Peg's Own bonny broom." A bullock roasted whole, and lots of pudding and Devonshire junket for the boys and girls; and for the old ones a smack of the jolly black jack, till their beards wagged. Such a day, they said, "had not been seen in Squire Bull's manor for one hundred and forty and four years." [1688.] You may guess that Madam's old friends were not forgotten in the toasts drank in the hall that day, far or near, dead or alive; but her heart ached for a time, and tears filled the Squire's eyes, while Peg wept outright, to think of those who had loved Madam well, and perished for her sake, and who would proudly have enjoyed this day of her triumph, over whom the green turf was laid in far New Holland, or over whom the salt wave rolled. This part of it was very touching, I assure you; still it did not damp their joy. John in particular was perfectly happy, strolling about the lawn, overlooking the long dinner tables, and the sports, with Mrs. Bull, sweet creature! on one arm, and Madam who, though comely, was somewhat sterner-browed, on the other. Honest, open, good soul! not a thought of malice did his kind heart harbour this day. All he wished was to see every neighbour as happy as himself, and to have poor Bill along him; who dined at home on soure croute, which his wenches told him was much genteeler pasttime than guzzling the Squire's beef and ale. Every one to his liking," sighed Bill, when his wife went out; and he cast a longing look towards the lawn, it is said, on which Hookey drew down the window blind. ** **** ** ** Both Pat and Peg had still some small matters of their own to settle. Pat left his to Dan, but Peg spoke to John herself. She was prepared to start for the moors with the first of the moonlight, and had already stripped off her hose and shoon; so she pulls John's sleeve. "Hark a word in your ear, brother John; we have been ower lang strangers, though I hope we'll ne'er be so again: especially in seasons of family trouble, such as that ye have just weathered, though I'm at sea yet. It might not be mensefu' in you to meddle or make in my present matrimonial dispositions, who am come to the years of discretion myself, and maybe my proud spirit might ill brook it: there's a respect to be shewn even amang near kindred. But you have now a wife who is a crown of glory to ye; who being of my own sex, might say a good word for me when it's most wanted; and this is my case. Our two Gabbie Geordies,* for we have a brace o' such moorcocks, the greater is our blessing!-misleared rogues baith, or I wrang them, to me and mine, especially in this affair of my matrimonial dispositions ;-they would without a word have seen me buckled till the next Mirk Monday to that crawling mass o' corruption Borrowstoun, or to that gilligapus, the cock-laird, a noted dicer, if not a dyvour; and thought me even ower bold to complain of my luck in marriage. But now that I'm likely, as the Book says, to have my reproach taken away among women, and to be courted for the first time in my own house in a wiselike, respectfu', mensefu' manner, what think you of them that will hear of nothing in the shape of man for Peg under six feet two!t-the new statute measure o' the Geordies-Feint a hair shorter, it seems, will do, with my great walth in tocher-gude, † for a strapping hizzie like myself.” "And what makes you so angry at that, Peg," cried John laughing; " is not that a high compliment to you, lass." "A compliment, John !-ye are a simple man still. It's allenarly to bubble me out o' a husband a'thegither! that's what it is! De'il come ower their soople snouts for't. Never a word, as ye may remember, though I believe ye are ay taken up mostly with your ain family affairs”—said Peg, dryly—“ never a word of the scrimp stature of the auld gudeman, I got the name o': for what was it but a name? though a Droich, a Pech, a Trow, scantly four feet by five. Now has not that a queer look? But ye will tell your mettlesome wife (and I am sure to get poor Pat's good word) to speak up for me when my back is at the wall; and say that if I get a man to my mind, and aboon all of my ain waling, I'm no sae preceese and pernicketty about his inches. Now mind this; and I may do so as much for you again, brother John. The King's errand has erenow lain i' the cadger's road." "You speak like the lass of sense, Peg, all the world knows you for ; and my wife shall speak for you, were it her dying speech." But Peg was crossed in what she called her "matrimonial dispositions" again after this, and in a wilder rage than ever; for what does her Loudon Geordie, but insist that she should marry no husband who did not, when in town, keep a riding elephant !§ On hearing this, Peg was neither to hold nor to bind. "An elephant !" she shouted, "will neither colt, nag, mare, gelding, mule, nor cuddy serve the turn?" And off she sends a caddie to Mrs. Bull and Gaffer, who soon took up the cause, and put an end to this new device to mar her marriage; about the framers of which Peg hinted that she had her own suspicions, though it was all fathered on Loudon Geordie. This was the first time that ever John and his sister Peg drew cor * Sir George Clerk and Sir George Murray. Query? +Those who first disclaimed all change in the representation of Scotland, at last insisted that sixty-two members were the least number that could be accepted! The increased wealth of Scotland was next insisted upon, as the measure of increase of members. The old forty-five. § This probably typifies the clause for raising the qualification of candidates for boroughs to L.300 a-year in landed property, which threw Peg into such a fury when the Scotch Bill was on the eve of passing; a mysterious affair, of which the blame was fathered on Sir George Clerk, though there were shrewd suspicions at that time in Scotland, that certain Whigs should have divided it with him. dially together. It is to be hoped it may not be the last, for blessed, as Brummagem Tom said, is family UNION; a truth illustrated in those LATE REMARKABLE PASSAGES IN THE LIFE OF JOHN BULL, ESQUIRE, and which may be farther evidenced before this play is played out, between the Steels and Rustys. The latter knaves insist that the bringing in of Madam is but the beginning of sorrow; and the fault will not be theirs if they fail to make it so. From which, and from all their wicked and villainous devices! MAY WE BE PRESERVED! AMEN. MEET ME TO-NIGHT. BY CAPTAIN CALDER CAMPBELL. MEET me to-night! when in the sky is gleaming And pace the treadmill of the stagnant spirit, Have crumbled into nothingness, and freed The panting intellect that would inherit Such liberty as soaring spirits need! Meet me to-night! Our converse shall be taken From the rich stores of thought which night flings forth; And thy sweet voice shall, in my heart, awaken Glory shall be above us,-clear stars o'er us The winds that whistle to the leaves that dance- And we shall talk of mysteries that darken Around the path of man till light breaks in, And from the page of truth bright knowledge win; Of human learning, and its various ranges, Where sophisms dazzle, or where facts convince; Till strengthen'd by the woes from which we wince. Meet me to-night! Our musings shall be given Alas! how many in the book of Heaven, Detecting falsehood, not discovering truth, By dull-eyed sophists, while their sight they blind In wilful madness to such facts as noted, Would scatter sunshine on the darken'd mind! Meet me to-night! There is around thee breathing That, like the healthful honeysuckle, wreathing |