with uplifted voices as couriers from the late scene of action. Our military guise aided the delusion; and like Pisistratus of old, by the help of our arms and our chariot and a little brass, we made our triumphant entry into the city, taking captive the minds of the gaping and credulous crowd, who cheered our approach as a god-send and a peace-offering to an all-agog and besideitself city; thus realizing the probability of a story which seemed almost too much even for the gullet of the historian of Halicarnassus. So true is it that the romance of real life is often more extraordinary than that of fiction.

Pushing our way through the anxious crowds that greeted our approach, Blake instantly sought out the Lord Mayor; informed him that we had been sent off by Lord Wellington at the moment of victory; that in the hurry of our departure we had unfortunately lost the despatches, but thought better to proceed home at any rate with the intelligence; that we had forwarded a representation to Downing Street of the same effect; and that we had now lost not a moment to inform the first magistrate of the first city of the world, of the glorious success of the British arms, which without doubt would at length terminate the war, so ruinous to the trading interests of Britain, and by the restoration of peace extend the commerce of this country, and of this city in particular, to the utmost limits of the earth.

'In this train did my companion run on for nearly ten minutes. Tears ran down the cheeks of the excellent little functionary. His feelings so overpowered him that it was some time before he could do more than wring the hands of both of us in the most fervent and affec

tionate manner. At length, when he had so far recovered himself as to be able to send for the Town-clerk,

he dictated a general announcement of the victory to be posted up at the Mansion House, and then began to make more particular inquiries of the nature of the action.

"I was beginning a round-about description, when Blake overwhelmed His Lordship's inquiries by a concatenation of military terms that equally astonished and delighted him, while I continued to throw in occasional wreaths of smoke and thundering of cannons, convinced that the more indistinct the idea of the battle could be conveyed, the truer it would be to reality. The pressure from without to get at further information now became so importunate that the worthy magistrate deemed it the easiest course to make us face the full tide of inquiry on 'Change. It was in vain we protested against the crowd, and pleaded our fatigues; the tears in the eyes of the bewildered little man began to flow again at our refusal; and out of sheer consideration to his feelings we agreed to accompany him to the great focus of the trade of the world.

"Our appearance in the streets was again a signal for a loud and general cheering. The Tower guns, silent till now, at length gave out their thunder, the bells that pealed faintly in the morning now tripled their bobs and their majors, business for the morning and variegated lamps for the evening were equally suspended, the funds rose like a spring-tide, and the whole commerce of London was at the command of our breath. We might have made our fortunes in ten minutes; gunpowder was to be given away; pipeclay fell fifty per cent.; the correspondents from Spain who wrote their despatches up four pair of stairs in Grub Street were driven to desperation; tin laurel leaves and transparencies of Victory and Britannia sold for their weight in

gold; and so confident did the people feel that the continent of Europe would now be open to them, that in the course of half an hour there was not a French dialogue book to be bought eastward of Temple Bar.

“All this was very flattering, but some little uneasiness remained on my part. I had a maternal uncle of the name of Greaves, one of the most eminent osteocopropolists, or wholesale dealers in bone-manure of his day, and knowing his punctual attendance in the city, I lay for some time under the most awful apprehensions of crossing his path; fortunately, however, having fallen in with his head clerk on our way to the Exchange, I learnt that he was not at his office that morning, and would probably not be there in the course of the day.

"Thus far satisfied, under the escort of the Mayor we forced our way to London's great mart, and here new perplexities assailed me. While Blake paced up and down the arcade of the Exchange, with the Governor of the Bank on one arm, and Mr. Levi Goshen-the Rothschild of the day-curvetting round the other, half anticipating his steps that he might catch the meaning of his looks as well as his words, and thus regulate his stock purchases by an eighth or sixteenth more or less, I walked behind with that sort of second-hand courage which arises from despair, rather encouraging the number of querists than attempting to avoid or to answer their questions.

"Underwriters, ships'-husbands, first-rate slopsellers, stock-jobbers stock-brokers and bulls and bears, what time they heard the sound of this most musical news, thronged round me in such numbers that I could scarcely keep up with my more resolute companion ahead.

"I could tell by the occasional waving of his hand, his elevated tone, and the buzz of satisfaction which ran through his listeners, that he was relating feats of valour and high emprize in no way discreditable to the most glorious achievements of British arms. Occasionally some of the crowd, attracted by the applause which followed his more communicative relations, hastened to catch the last words of his eloquent declamations, and returned to have the commencement of the exploit filled up by myself. This was shaky business for my nerves. I feared lest the discrepancies of our ill-concocted story would at once come out, and the consequences of our discovery at that moment no one could have answered for.

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66 And he fell,' concluded Blake, with an extra flourish of the arm, still calling on his men to victory!" "Who?-who fell?' cried a thousand voices in a breath. I remembered that we had determined to kill gallantly a Captain Graham and three Ensign Smiths.

96

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"Poor Graham!' was my reply; he died at the head' What' Colonel Graham?-gallant Graham of the Blues?' No, no,-he who led'-' The charge at Exactly.' I thought this a capital hit, as it seemed to be a sort of chance confirmation of my story. "What Graham? Geordie Graham?' cried a fat jovial looking man in the crowd ;--and he fainted away in the arms of some seven of his neighbours.

"The fall of so great a man (for he was six feet three in his hessians, and stout in proportion) instantly attracted the attention of Blake's group, and even Mr. Goshen turned round to ask who the shentleman' might be. It proved to be the senior partner of the

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respectable firm of Graham, Grab, and Co., whose son, as a dapper young stockbroker informed us, was a Colonel of the 73rd regiment.

"As they hurried away the poor merchant to the pump which stood (does it still stand?) in the centre of the court at the rear of the equestrian statue,-perceiving that I was unwittingly the cause of his affliction, I endeavoured to rectify his spirits and my mistake by the most energetic disclaimers; but it was in vain; his ear was deaf to my assurances, and nothing but cold water could convince him of the truth. By the powerful machinery of the pump-handle the good citizen's senses were at length restored. It was sometime before he would fully believe that it was indeed a mistake; and when, after my repeated affirmations, the pleasure which beamed in the poor man's eye convinced me that he was undeceived, I own that I felt some qualms of conscience for having trifled, though unintentionally, with feelings so sacred and so warm; but when he at length rose from the step on which he had been seated, and heartily shook me by the right hand, while he wrung the wet out of his capacious neckcloth with the other, I confess that the ridiculous predominated over the pathetic, and I gladly turned away to hide the gurglings of laughter which had well nigh choked me.

"We would now too willingly have availed ourselves of the confusion which this event occasioned to have made a safe retreat; but our right honourable friend seized us both by the arm, and marched off in triumph with us to the Mansion House, where he requested the honour of our company to dinner in the Egyptian hall.

"So wonderfully quick had been our passage from Oporto, that not a few of the many inquiries put to us had been concerning the merchant vessels which had