account of the additional plea it would afford the Vulture Company for resisting payment of the policy. How, indeed, could they be expected to pay a sum of such magnitude, to a person whose title to receive it was disputed by another claimant? The document alluded to was a CAVEAT, and ran thus:

"Let nothing be done in the goods of Dame Mary Stratton, late of Warkleigh, in the parish of Warkleigh, in the county of York, deceased, unknown to Obadiah Pounce, proctor for John Thomas, having interest."

Now, the reader will observe that this "John Thomas" is, like the "John Doe" of the common lawyers, a mere man of straw; so that this peremptory, but mysterious mandate, would afford an enquirer no information as to either the name of the party intending to resist the grant of administration, or the grounds of such resistance. Mr Gammon, however, very naturally concluded that the move was made on the behalf of Mr Aubrey, and that the ground of his opposition was the alleged will of Lady Stratton. To be prepared for such an encounter, when the time arrived, he noted down very carefully the important admissions which had been made to him by Mr Parkinson; and having, for a while, disposed of this affair, he betook himself to the great conspiracy case, which I have already mentioned; and, in bringing which to a successful issue, he unquestionably exhibited great ability, and deserved the compliments paid him on the occasion by the counsel, whose labours he had, by his lucid arrangement, materially abbreviated and lightened. This matter also over, and fairly off his mind, he addressed himself to an affair, then pending, of great importance to himself personally-viz. a certain cause of Wigley v. Gammon; which, together with the three other special jury causes in which the same person was plaintiff, was to come on for trial at York early in the second week of the assizes, which were to commence in a few days' time. As already intimated, Mr Subtle had been retained for the plaintiff in all the actions, together with Mr Sterling and Mr Crystal; and, as Mr Quicksilver had become Lord Blossom and Box, Mr Gammon was sorely perplexed for a leader-his junior, of course, being Mr Lynx. He had retained a Mr Wilmington to lead for the other three defendants-a man of unquestionable ability, experienced, acute, dexterous, witty, and eloquent, and exceedingly

well qualified to conduct such a case as Mr Gammon's: but that gentleman got exceedingly nervous about the matter as the day of battle drew near-and, at length, resolved on taking down special Sir Charles Wolstenholme. Now, I do not see why he should have thought it necessary to go to so enormous an expense when such able assistance could be had upon the circuitbut, however, down went that eminent personage. Their consultation was gloomy; Sir Charles acknowledging that he felt great apprehension as to the result, from the witnesses that were likely to be produced on the other side.

"It's a pity that we haven't the Yatton election committee to deal with, Mr Gammon!" said Sir Charles with a sly sarcastic "We've rather a different tribunal to go before now

smile. eh?"

Mr Gammon smiled-how miserably!-shook his head, and shrugged his shoulders. "We manage these matters rather differently in a court of law!" continued Sir Charles with a fearful significance !

When the important morning of the trial arrived, there was a special jury sworn, consisting of gentlemen of the county-of unquestionable integrity and independence—above all suspicion. Mr Subtle opened a shockingly clear and strong case, to be sure; and what was worse, he proved it, and so as to carry conviction to the minds of all in court. Sir Charles felt his opponent's case to be impregnable; and, in spite of several acute and most severe cross-examinations, and a masterly speech, the stern and upright judge who tried the case, summed up dead against the defendant, with many grave remarks on the profligate and systematic manner in which it appeared the offences had been committed. After a brief consultation, the jury returned into court with a verdict for the plaintiff, in the sum of £2500; that is, for five penalties of £500! A similar result ensued in the two following cases of Wigley v. Mudflint, and Wigley v. Bloodsuck; both of whom seemed completely stupified at a result so totally different from that which they had been led to expect from the very different view of things which had been taken by the election committee. As for Mudflint, from what quarter under heaven he was to get the means of satisfying that truly diabolical verdict, he could not conjecture; and his face became

several shades sallower as soon as he had heard his doom pronounced; but Bloodsuck, who had turned quite white, whispered in his ear, that of course Mr Titmouse would see them harmless

"Oh Lord!" however, muttered Mudflint, in a cold perspiration" I should like to hear Mr Gammon recommending him to do so, under circumstances!"

Poor Woodlouse was more fortunate-somehow or another he contrived to creep and wriggle out of the danger! Whether from his utter insignificance, or from the circumstance of the destructive verdicts against Gammon, Mudflint, and Bloodsuck having satiated the avenger, I know not; but the case was not pressed very strongly against him, and the jury took a most merciful view of the evidence. But, alas! what a shock this gave to the Liberal cause in Yatton! How were the mighty fallen! As soon after this melancholy result as Messrs Mudflint and Bloodsuck had recovered their presence of mind sufficiently to discuss the matter together, they were clearly of opinion-were those brethren in distress-that Mr Titmouse was bound, both in law and honour, to indemnify them against the consequences of acts done solely on his behalf, and at his implied request. They made the thing very clear, indeed, to Mr Gammon, who listened to them with marked interest and attention, and undertook "to endeavour to satisfy" Mr Titmouse of the justice of their claims; secretly resolving, also, not to lose sight of his own: nay, in fact, he made sure of satisfying Mr Titmouse on that score. But the personal liability which, in the first instance, he had thus incurred, to an extent of upwards of £3000, supposing him, by any accident, to fail in re-couping himself out of the assets of Mr Titmouse, was not the only unfortunate consequence of this serious miscarriage. Such a verdict as had passed against Mr Gammon, places a man in a very awkward and nasty position before the public, and renders it rather difficult for him to set himself right again. 'Tis really a serious thing to stand convicted of the offence of bribery; it makes a man look very sheepish, indeed, ever after, especially in political life. 'Tis such a beam in a man's own eye, to be pulled out before he can see the mote in his neighbour's!—and Mr Gammon felt this. Then, again, he had received a pledge from

a very eminent member of the government, to be performed in the event of his being able to secure the seat for Yatton on a general election, (which was considered not unlikely to happen within a few months;) but this accursed verdict was likely to prove a most serious obstacle in the way of his advancement, and his chagrin and vexation may be easily imagined. He conceived a wonderful hatred of the supposed instigator of these unprincipled and vindictive proceedings, Lord De la Zouch-who seemed to have put them up like four birds to be shot at, and brought down, one by one, as his lordship chose! As soon as these four melancholy causes above mentioned were over— _Gammon considering himself bound, on the score of bare decency, to remain till his fellow-sufferers had been disposed of—he went off to Yatton, to see how matters were going on there.

Alas! what a state of things existed there! Good old Yatton and all about it seemed wofully changed for the worse, since the departure of the excellent Aubreys and the accession of Mr Titmouse. The local superintendence of his interests had been entrusted by Gammon to the Messrs Bloodsuck, who had found their business, in consequence, so much increasing, as to require the establishment of Mr Barnabas Bloodsuck at Yatton, while his father remained at Grilston; their partnership, however, continuing. He had, accordingly, run up a thin slip of a place at the end of the village furthest from the park gates, and within a few yards of the house in which old blind Bess had ended her days. He was the first attorney that had ever lived in Yatton. There was a particularly impudent and priggish air about his residence. The door was painted a staring mahogany colour, and bore a bright brass plate, with the words " MESSRS BLOODSUCK & SON, ATTORNEYS AND SOLICITORS"-words that shot terror into the heart of many a passer-by, especially the tenants of Mr Titmouse. At the moment, for instance, of Mr Gammon's arrival at Yatton, on the present occasion, actions for rent, and other matters, were actually pending against fourteen of the poorer tenants!! 'Twas all up with them as soon as the Messrs Bloodsuck were fairly fastened upon them. Let them be a day or two in arrear with their rent, a cognovit, or warrant of attorney--for the sake of the costs it produced-was instantly proposed; and, if the expensive security were demurred to by

VOL. III.

X

the poor souls, by that night's post went up instructions to town for writs to be sent down by return! If some of the more resolute questioned the propriety of a distress made upon them with cruel precipitancy, they found themselves immediately involved in a replevin suit, from whose expensive intricacies they were at length glad to escape terrified, on any terms. Then actions of trespass, and so forth, were commenced upon the most frivolous pretexts. Old and convenient rights of way were suddenly disputed, and made the subjects of expensive lawsuits. Many of the former quiet inhabitants of the village had been forced out of it, their places being supplied by persons of a very different description; and a bad state of feeling, chiefly arising out of political rancour, had, for instance, just given rise to three actions-two of assault and one of slander-from that once peaceful little village, and which had been tried at those very assizes! Poor Miss Aubrey's village school, alas! had been transmogrified into a chapel for Mr Mudflint, where he rallied round him every Sunday an excited throng of ignorant and disaffected people, and regaled them with seditious and blasphemous harangues. 'Twould have made your hair stand on end to hear the language in which he spoke of the sacred mysteries of the Christian religion-it would have filled you with disgust and indignation to hear his attacks upon the Church of England and its ministers, and in particular upon dear little exemplary unoffending old Dr Tatham, whom he described as "battening upon cant, hypocrisy, and extortion." Strange and melancholy to relate, this novel mode of procedure on the part of Mr Mudflint for a while succeeded. In vain did the white-haired and learned vicar preach his very best sermons, and in his very best manner—he beheld his church thinning, while the chapel of Mr Mudflint was filled. And, while he was about the village in the zealous, and vigilant, and affectionate discharge of his pastoral duties, he perceived symptoms, now and then, of a grievously altered manner towards him, on the part of those who had once hailed his approach and his ministrations with a kind of joyful reverence and cordiality. Mudflint had also, in furtherance of his purpose of bitter hostility, in concert with his worthy coadjutors the Bloodsucks, stirred up two or three persons in the parish to resist the Doctor's claim to tithe, and to offer harass