"In course not, sir,” replied Grab readily; but he was a good deal disappointed at so abrupt a close to his exactions. Mr Runnington sat down and began to write. "You had better send off to the office, and see if there's any thing else there," he added, (meaning that Grab should search, as he was bound to do, for any other writs against Mr Aubrey which might be lodged with the sheriff, before discharging his prisoner out of custody.)

"You don't apprehend any thing there, do you?" enquired Mr Runnington, rather seriously, without taking his eye from the paper on which he was writing.

"Heaven only knows! But I think not,” replied Aubrey.

The following was the undertaking given by Mr Runnington, and which operated as an instant release of his oppressed and truly persecuted client :—

"We hereby undertake to procure the execution of a good and sufficient bail-bond herein, for the above-named defendant, in due time.

"To Mr GRAB,

"Officer to the Sheriff of Middlesex.

"RUNNINGTON & Co. "Defendant's Attorneys.

With this document lying before them, and awaiting the messenger's return from the sheriff's office, Mr Runnington and Mr Aubrey conversed together anxiously on the subject of Messrs Quirk, Gammon, and Snap's bill. Mr Aubrey was sufficiently acquainted with the general course of practice to be aware, that beyond requiring him to put in bail to the action, (special bail, as it is called,) no effectual step could be taken against him for several months to come; i. e. till Michaelmas term in the ensuing November, however eager and active the plaintiffs might be so that he had an interval of at least four months, in which, as the phrase is, "to turn himself about," and endeavour to discover some mode of extricating himself from his present serious dilemma. After reminding Mr Aubrey that

*

* The non-professional reader is informed that this is now very far otherwise; legal proceedings have been recently prodigiously accelerated.

VOL. III.

R

neither a peer of the realm, nor a member of parliament, nor an attorney, could become bail for him, Mr Runnington requested the names of two or three confidential friends to whom he might apply to become security for Mr Aubrey: and as he should be at any time able to exonerate them from liability, by surrendering his person to his creditors, he felt no hesitation in applying to them to perform for him this act of kindness. "By the way," said Mr Runnington, in the course of their conversation, and with apparent carelessness, "could I say a word or two to you on a little matter of business? And will Mrs Aubrey excuse us for a moment?" turning towards her. She bowed, and they withdrew for a moment into the adjoining bed-room.

"Put this into your pocket," said Mr Runnington, taking out the day's newspaper; "and when you have an opportunity, read the account of what took place yesterday in the Court of King's Bench. It startled me not a little, I can tell you; and the reason of my not having been at the office when your messenger arrived was, that I had not returned from Vivian Street, whither, and to the Temple, I had gone in search of you. For heaven's sake don't alarm Mrs Aubrey, or Miss Aubrey; but, if any thing occurs to you, do not lose one moment in putting yourself into communication with us. If possible, I will call at Vivian Street this evening." With this they returned to the sitting-room, nothing in their appearance calculated to alarm Mrs Aubrey, or even attract her attention.

Shortly afterwards Grab entered the room.

"All right, sir!" said he to Mr Runnington; and added, turning to Mr Aubrey, "you're no longer in my custody, sir; and I hope you won't be, in a hurry, again!"

"Oh, Charles! thank God!-Let us not stay another moment!" exclaimed Mrs Aubrey, joyously starting up, and putting on her bonnet. "Oh, let us get once more into the open street! -the sweet fresh air!-Kate will go wild with joy to see us again!—Oh, dear Mr Runnington! how can we sufficiently thank you?" she added, turning towards him enthusiastically. Within a few minutes' time they had quitted that dismal scene; they were again apparently free. On first stepping into the bright cheering sunlight, and bustling noisy street, it had a sort of freshness-of novelty-to them. Now they were free to go

whithersoever they chose!-Oh, blessed LIBERTY!—let an Englishman lose thee for but an hour, to become aware of thy value!—It seemed to the Aubreys, as if ten times the real interval had elapsed between their entering and quitting the scene of his incarceration. With what exhilarated spirits they hastened homeward! as if a millstone were no longer suspended from their necks. But Mr Aubrey suddenly bethought himself of the newspaper given him by Mr Runnington; and it cost him, indeed, a great effort to assume a cheerfulness so foreign to his feelings.

While, however, they are thus walking homeward, intending, in the event of Mrs Aubrey becoming fatigued, to take a shilling drive on their way, let me, in order to enable the reader to appreciate the paragraph to which Mr Runnington had called Aubrey's attention, turn for a while from the virtuous and afflicted couple, to trace the leading movements of that master-spirit of evil, Mr Gammon; for which purpose, it will be necessary to take up the history from the evening of the day in which Mr Aubrey had called at Mr Gammon's chambers, to forbid him visiting any longer at Vivian Street. By that time, Mr Gammon had thoroughly thought out his plan of operations. What had passed between him and Miss Aubrey and her brother, had satisfied him that the time for calling into action all his forces had arrived; and the exact end he proposed to himself was to plunge Mr Aubrey at once into apparently inextricable and hopeless difficultyinto total ruin-so as to render them all more accessible to Mr Gammon's advances, and to force Miss Aubrey into entertaining his addresses, as the sole means of effecting her brother's liberation. For this purpose, it would be necessary to make him debtor to so large an amount as would preclude the interference of even the most liberally disposed of his friends. Those might very probably, go as far as fifteen hundred pounds on his behalf, who could not be brought to think of nearly twelve thousand pounds -it being borne in mind, that one alone of Mr Aubrey's friends, Lord De la Zouch, was already liable, on his behalf, to some eleven thousand pounds, which would become payable on the ensuing 24th of January. But the mask was not yet to be thrown off: Gammon resolved to appear the firm friend of Mr Aubrey to the last; deprecating vehemently, and striving to avert from him,

the very proceedings which he was all the while, with secret skill and vigour, urging on against him. He determined, therefore, to recall Titmouse's attention to the two promissory notes for £5000 each; to pretend reluctance to allow them to be put in suit, and yet give him clearly to understand that he might do so, without giving mortal offence to Gammon.

At the moment of the reader's being reintroduced to Mr Gammon, that gentleman was sitting, about nine o'clock in the evening, at his chambers, beside a table, on which were placed a lustrous lamp, a number of papers, and coffee. In one hand he held the rough draft of his rent-charge, which had that day been sent to him by Mr Frankpledge, and he was occasionally making pencil memoranda on the margin as he went along. He would sometimes pause in his task, as if his thoughts wandered to other subjects; his countenance looked harassed, his ample brow seemed laden with anxiety. Certainly, great as was his energy, clear as was his head, and accustomed as he was to the despatch of business of even the most difficult and varied description, all his powers were at that moment taxed to their very uttermost stretch, as a hasty glance round the room will satisfy the reader. On the sofa lay several piles of loose papers. First, there were the draft briefs-and voluminous they were-which he was now preparing, or rather settling, in the following actions for bribery penalties, coming on for trial at the ensuing Yorkshire Assizes:

All these serious actions were being pushed forward with great vigour, at the instance of Lord De la Zouch, who had, moreover, directed them all to be made special jury causes.

Secondly, a monstrous mass of papers, also lying on the sofa, contained the heterogeneous elements, out of which it required a head as clear as Gammon's to draw up a brief for the defence in a very complicated case of conspiracy,-" The KING V. MID

*i. e." Special Jury."

DLETON, SNAKE, and OTHERS,”—and which was coming on for trial at the ensuing King's Bench sittings for London; it having been removed, on account of its great difficulty and importance, by certiorari from the Old Bailey. It ought to have been by this time prepared; yet Mr Gammon had scarcely even looked at the papers, though the credit of their office was at stake, as the case had attracted a large share of public attention.

Thirdly, there were scattered about complete masses of papers connected with the various joint-stock companies in which Mr Gammon was concerned, either openly or secretly—either professionally or as a shareholder; the management of many of them requiring infinite vigilance and tact. These matters, however, and many others which had accumulated upon him, till the bare thoughts of them oppressed and distracted him, he had altogether neglected, occupied as he was by the absorbing pursuit of Miss Aubrey, and the consummation of his schemes and purposes respecting Titmouse and the Yatton property. As if all this had not been sufficient, there was yet another of a totally different description. Gammon was writing a series of very popular and powerful attacks in the Sunday Flash, upon a certain Tory ex-Minister-in fact, endeavours to write him down —and this with the privity, and even occasional assistance, of one whom Gammon intended, in due time, to make great use of, as soon as his lordship should have sufficiently committed himself; viz. my Lord Blossom and Box. Now, Gammon had for three weeks running disappointed the numerous readers of the Sunday Flash, during which period, also, he had been almost baited to death upon the subject by old Quirk, the chief proprietor of the paper; and that very evening, the odious VIPER, its editor, had been there, as it were, writhing and hissing about him till he had given a positive pledge to prepare an article against the ensuing Saturday. All these things put together, were enough for one strong-headed man to bear up against, and Gammon felt very nearly overwhelmed; and the reader will think it very excusable in Mr Gammon, that he felt such difficulty in commanding his thoughts even to the interesting task of settling the draft of his own rent-charge on the Yatton property. He was not quite satisfied with the way in which Frankpledge had tinkered up the "consideration" shadowed forth in Gammon's