was determined to punish Goldingham for the rebuff he had experienced from him at Lord Trevanian's. Whatever might be the motive, he had resolved not to spare Reuben Apsley; and thinking he might as well affect a tone of indignant surprise at the very idea of his corruptibility, he took the pipe from his mouth, and with one of his blustering looks, exclaimed : "In my hands, Sir? What, do you take me for one of the Voltores and Carbaccios of the mobile? for a sordid Sheriff Bethel? Is the Lord High Chancellor of England a likely person, think you, to compound treason paramount? the crimen læsæ majestatis, to dip his hand in Judas's bag, or the Devil's budget, to betray the King, his master, by taking ransom-money from his rebellious subjects?"

"Such things have been done, my Lord!" said Goldingham, striking his cane upon the ground, and fixing his large suspecting eye upon the Chancellor.

"Have they so?" retorted the undaunted Jeffreys, staring fiercely in return : "have a care, Sir! have a care! Dicere est agere!

To

talk treason is to commit it. This is libellous matter: point me out such a rogue, and even if he be one of the ribs and rampires of the state, I will trounce him-scour him! serve him as I did the kidnapping Mayor of Bristol, whom I brought to the bar t'other day, in his scarlet robes and furs, and made him plead like a common criminal! Are you aware, Mr. Goldberry-you who dare to fling out these random charges against constituted authority, that you are yourself liable to punishment for attempting to bribe one of his Majesty's Judges ?"

"I don't know what punishment can be inflicted upon him who offers a bribe, my Lord; but I do know what is deserved by the man who takes one-hem! But why need we term it a bribe? Call it an offering to the King, for prevailing upon him to exercise his noblest attribute—that of mercy!"

"There is no mercy for audacious rebels, and brutal beastly traitors! The Scotch prelates have prayed that Providence would give to his Majesty, whom God long preserve! the

hearts of his subjects, and the heads of his enemies and it is my business to see that the latter part of the wish be fulfilled, so far as depends upon me. Your nephew is a doomed man; if we spare him, we shall have murdered all the others. I shall give immediate orders for his trial; and I only regret that we have not his friend Fludyer in the same limbo, that they might both be hanged on one gallows, as high as Haman's!"

Unable to divest himself of the belief that every objection was finally to be conquered by money, and that all these menaces were only held out in terrorem, to extort a heavier sum from his pocket; Goldingham, who was quite prepared to make any sacrifice, at last exclaimed, "My Lord! my Lord! if you will only mention what you consider a fair equivalent for my poor boy's life, I will endeavour to meet your wishes!"

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My wishes, Sir! I have no wishes on the subject, except that he should be hanged without delay; and that shall be cared for presently.

Post est occasio calva: we will seize

time by the forelock. If he wants to busy his numskull about any more rebellions, he must first take it down from the lintel of your halldoor for there shall his head most assuredly be nailed before many days have gone over it."

"So, please your Lordship, I am willing to make a heavy sacrifice-if even ten thou

"Not a hundred thousand! Good Lord! Good Lord! do we sit behind the great seal that we may fly in the face of Magna Charta and sell Justice? Begone, Sir; you have had your answer, and I have no time to be pelted and pestered with your insulting offers. Quit the room, Sir; and hark ye, Mr. Goldberry, learn to keep your tongue within your teeth, or you may chance to wear a stone doublet your self. Away, Sir, away! I will not hear a syllable more."

Resuming the perusal of his papers, he repeatedly and impatiently motioned with one arm to the door, as if eager to get rid of his vi sitant; and Goldingham, sturdy and intrepid

as he usually was, felt so astounded at the total failure of his mission, so overcome at the prospect of Reuben's fate, which now seemed inevitable, that he walked out of the room, silent, bewildered, and sorrow-stricken. What farther could be attempted on behalf of his unfortunate nephew it was beyond his imagination to conceive. Where money, the most irresistible of all agents, had proved so completely unavailing, he despaired of all human aid; and with a heavy heart prepared to return into Dorsetshire, and convey to Reuben the doleful tidings that he would soon have to expiate his indiscretion by a public execution.

Little as he might be disposed to sympathize with the complaints and forebodings of the nation, at a time when his mind was too full of his own distress to allow much room for popular grievances, still he could not altogether shut his ears against the universal discontent; and every thing that he heard or saw added dismay to the grief by which he was already afflicted. Upon passing the Monument on Fish-street-hill, he had observed that the