to present himself within the walls of so good a subject, and so staunch a Tory as his ho nourable friend, the Lord Trevanian. To turn the attention of the company from this retractation, somewhat humiliating to one who had declared that he never ate his own words, he adroitly started another topic, and the conversation proceeded for a little while without any fresh ebullition from his irascible Lordship. This calm, however, was not doomed to con tinue. Some trifling difference of opinion hav ing arisen between the Squire and Sir Carroll Crockatt, the latter proposed referring it to the decision of Sir Ambrose Jessop. Whoop! that will never do," cried the Squire; "do you remember when he went a-hunting with us, and we came to Maplested Copse, round which the road winds on either side, and then joins again? sink me! if he didn't stand so long boggling which party to follow, and what road to take, that he was fairly thrown out. 'Sblood! that will be the way with him now,we shall get no decision from him,-for Sir Ambrose a regular Trimmer."

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Jeffreys, whose decisive character led him to detest those that wavered in their politics, invariably took fire at the very mention of this word:-" A Trimmer!" he exclaimed, "I have heard much of such a monster, but never saw one;-lean forward, Mr. Trimmer,-put forth your head, that I may know what such a creature is like;"-which taunts he followed up by one of his usual blustering invectives against all sneaking, milk-and-water politicians. Poor Sir Ambrose, almost frightened out of his wits, could only beg leave most solemnly to assure his Lordship, that he was of the same politics with the President of his Majesty's Council, the Marquess of Halifax; a defence, unfortunately, which rather aggravated than appeased his Lordship's wrath, for putting his thumbs in his girdle, he exclaimed, swaggeringly, "Tell me of my Lord Halifax !-tell me of a louse!"

Even Jeffreys himself seemed to be aware that there was some little indecorum in the phrase, and that, considering the company he was in, he had been exercising the rough side

of his tongue rather too freely, for he assumed a more pleasant look and tone, and exerting the conversational powers which he possessed in considerable perfection, he quickly restored a comparative degree of harmony and good-humour to the company.

But an unlucky incident was destined once more to expose his choleric and hectoring temperament. Mention was casually made of one Hewlings, whom he had lately condemned to death, and whose case had excited considerable notice; when Jeffreys declared that the rebel's two sisters had made him ten minutes later than he should otherwise have been, for they had hung upon the wheels of his coach, imploring for their brother's life, and would not suffer him to proceed until he had ordered the coachman to lash them off with his whip. Honest Timothy, who happened to be standing behind him, and was scandalized at, such a cruęl office being imposed upon a brother of the whip, could not help. muttering,-"By my troggs! had I been your coachman, I would

have sent the lash in at the window, and not towards the wheels."

Enough of this speech was caught by Jeffreys to throw him into a towering passion, as with a torrent of abusive epithets he asked Timothy whose knave he was.

'Nobody's!" said Timothy, with a knowing wink, as if he were not to be entrapped into an admission of the epithet. One of the other servants, however, mentioned that he was Mr. Goldingham's coachman, a piece of information which seemed to revive all his Lordship's suspicions, for he fiercely exclaimed, “Ay, ay! I see how it is-like master like man. Scoundrel, villain, rascally, stinking old traitor! What? you knew nothing, I warrant, of your young master's joining the rebels, and have not helped to conceal him since; eh, ha?”

"No, my Lord, neither one nor t'other, and I'll swear it on the Bible," said Timothy firmly.

Swear it, saucy knave! and what then? If your conscience is as large as your beard, you will swear any thing."

"Nay, my Lord," replied Timothy, "if you go about to measure consciences by beards, there be some people have none at all."

The sly, yet sheepish expression with which he fixed his eyes upon the Judge's chin, and the half-suppressed snigger and jerk of the left shoulder, that accompanied his speech, were almost irresistibly ludicrous; and yet no one dared to laugh, except the Squire, who bawled out," Whoop! sink me, my Lord, but he had you there-haugh! haugh! haugh!"

Jeffreys's fury, inflamed by this sally, now fell upon Timothy in a Billingsgate strain, with which we dare not sully our pages, and the other servants, in obedience to the joint commands of Lord Trevanian and Goldingham, hurried him out of the room, the old man exclaiming, as they dragged him along, "Lash the poor young ladies over the arm. Shame! shame!" while Jeffreys kept pouring after him from the flood-gates of his scurrility, a continued stream of ranting and virulent abuse.

Once more did the Judge, as if conscious that he had betrayed too much intemperance