Crabtree, who was in the House of Commons, rose to move that the accusation should be voted frivolous and vexatious. This produced a short debate, which might have been longer, had not Evelyn shewed the ridicule of the whole proceeding so forcibly, and at the same time so good-humouredly, that it dropt. The conversation then subsided into a discussion of the cases that had occurred in court, mixed with excursions into the game and militia laws, sporting, and other topics of the same laudable nature.

Foreign politics were of course not forgotten, for there had been a partial discourse at the upper end of the table, in which the retreat of Buonaparte to Elba was discussed. Sir Marmaduke, who was staunch for government, said it was all over with him; that he at first had been for putting him to death, but that it was better to let him live in disgrace, in a place where he might always be seized if

necessary.

"That's just what my newspaper says," observed a Mr. Placid, who sat near him, and who was a gentleman remarkable for his great deference to all his superiors, particularly his wife.

Now Sir Marmaduke valued himself on his large estate, and not a little, when among his brother squires, upon his seat in parliament; and he besides looked down upon Placid, not merely because he had not half his number of acres, but because he was

a timid, subtle man, who lived almost entirely at home.

Not liking the observation, therefore, he rather roughly answered, "Sir, it is my own opinion. I think for myself, and don't gather my notions from newspapers.

"Nor I," said Placid, "only it is wonderful how all the newspaper says comes right."

"No newspaper knows any thing at all about the matter," observed Sir Marmaduke, in a tone of sovereign contempt (but so as to make it uncertain whether he meant it for Placid or the newspaper), "that is, except as government chooses to tell them."

"So I suppose," ventured Placid, who seemed afraid, yet resolved to try his strength in a public conversation. "I am sure I cannot pretend to know things as you do, Sir Marmaduke.”

"Why no," continued the baronet, relaxing, "there you are right; I am what you may call at the fountain-head, and see the minister every day in the house, and speak to him too whenever I wish it; and I told him the last time I saw him, that I thought the Emperor of Russia was a great deal too managnimous, and courted popularity too much, like one of us members, I said, and that the French would soon presume upon it."

"Dear me," exclaimed Placid, "that's all in the newspapers, too."

The baronet looked ferocious, and damned the newspapers; when Placid, in a humble tone, asked his opinion of the value of Elba; adding, that he heard it was remarkably strong.

"Why look you, sir," said the baronet, half angry, half pleased with the conceit that had just struck him, “what signifies a strong island against an English ship of the line? and as for its fertility, I am a fox-hunter, though you, I believe, never saw a hound in your life—and I should be glad to know if there are any good fox whins in the whole island of Elba? and if there are not, pray what is its value? answer me that!"

Placid, drawing in, protested he knew nothing about the matter.

"So I thought," cried Sir Marmaduke, “and therefore I think we had better talk of something we all of us understand."

The tone in which this was uttered, was quite hint enough for Placid to discover he had gone too far. He had satisfied his ambition in venturing to talk to Sir Marmaduke in public, and by no means wished to offend him. He was in fact one of those beings, sometimes to be met with, who have much awkward shyness but no real modesty; whose vanity is perpetually pushing them beyond their place, into which they are made to shrink in a moment, when

the silly flattery by which they hope to succeed is refused or repelled.

Sir Marmaduke then turned to Tremaine, for whom he had some respect, on account of his large property, but chiefly as an old member of parliament, and very familiarly asked him why they had seen nothing of him that winter at St. Stephen's.

Tremaine was annoyed at the suddenness of a question, by no means agreeable in itself; he had set upon tenter-hooks during the whole conversation, which gave him no liking for his overbearing neighbour, and he shrank from the interrogation with a disgust very little concealed.

Evelyn, however, interposed, and said,

"It is not every one, Sir Marmaduke, who has a constitution that can bear late nights, and hot houses, like you.”

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Why true! I never miss a division," remarked the baronet, complacently.

"And what have you got by it?" asked Dr. Juniper, who had hitherto been silent.

"That's neither here nor there," answered Sir Marmaduke, nodding significantly.

"Mr. Tremaine has not had good health, and has lately been detained here, upon very particular business, in which he hopes you may, for you can, help him," said Dr. Evelyn.

"As how?" asked the baronet, with an air of dignity. Evelyn then begged to change places with Tremaine, and detailed in a few words the interest Tremaine had in the inclosure, and the assistance which Sir Marmaduke's consent and support would give him.

"And why does not he ask it himself?" demanded the baronet, loud enough for the party to hear him.

"He is a reserved man," said Evelyn, " and is at present not in good health."

"He is on the wrong side," observed the baronet, “and calls himself a Whig-now I call myself a Whig, too, but it is an old one, for I am for the King, and for Hanover, and you know at the beginning of the French revolution—”

Evelyn trembled, for he was in the jaws of a gulph from which he knew he should not soon escape, when luckily louder voices, and disputes growing warmer and warmer, close by them, for that time saved him.

The baronet, however, who really respected Evelyn, exclusive of his being on the same side in politics, and all the country interests (no small ingredient), finding that his own advantage or disadvantage was not at all concerned in it, promised that consent to the doctor for his friend, which he certainly would have refused to his friend himself.