was there No honour among thieves? But, to come to the point, it fell out in this wise. Patriots must live, even in prison; and Mr Mudflint, being sorely pressed, wrote a letter to his "Dear Woodlouse," asking for the amount of subscriptions received up to that date. He received, in return, a most friendly note, addressed "My dear Mudflint," full of civilities and friendly anxieties-hoping the air of the Castle agreed with him—assuring him how he was missed from the Liberal circle, and that he would be welcomed with open arms if ever he got out-andenclosing a nicely drawn out debtor and creditor account!! headed "The Rev. Smirk Mudflint and Barnabas Bloodsuck, Esq., in account with Cephas Woodlouse," in which every farthing of the above sum of £3, 13s. 5ąd. was faithfully set down to the credit side, to be sure; but, alas !-on the DEBIT side stood the following! "To Advertising lists of Subscriptions in Y. S. (three To Circulars, Hand-bills, &c, (as per order,) £3 15 6 2 13 9 0 4 3 £6 13 6 3 13 5 By cash, amount of Subscriptions received, Balance due to C. W., £300 On perusing the above document, so pregnant with perfidy and extortion, Mr Mudflint put it into his pocket, and, slipping off to his sleeping-room, closed the door, took off his garters, and, with very deadly intentions towards himself, was tying them together-casting a ghastly glance, occasionally, at a great hook in the wall, which he could just reach by standing on a stool-when he was discovered, and removed with his hands fastened behind him, "to the strong room," where he was firmly attached to a heavy wooden bench, and left to his meditations. Solitude and reflection restored the afflicted captive to something like composure and resignation; and after meditating long and deeply on the selfishness and worthlessness of worldly friendship, his thoughts gradually turned towards a better place—a haven of rest-viz. the Insolvent Debtors' Court. The effect of this infamous treatment upon his fellow-captive, Bloodsuck, was quite different. Having sworn one single prodigious oath, he enclosed the above account, and sent it off to his father, in the following pithy letter: "York Castle, 29th Dec. 18-. "DEAR FATHER,-Read the enclosed! and then sell up Woodlouse. Your dutiful Son, B. BLOODSUCK, Jun.” The old gentleman, on reading this laconic epistle, and its enclosure, immediately issued execution against Woodlouse, on a cognovit of his for £150, which he had given to the firm of Bloodsuck and Son for the balance of a bill of theirs for defending him unsuccessfully against an action for an infamous libel. Nobody would bid any thing for his moribund "Stingo;" he had no other effects; and was immediately taken in execution, and sent to York Castle, where he, Bloodsuck, and Mudflint, whenever they met, could hardly be restrained from tearing one another's eyes out. 'Tis thus that reptiles of this sort prey upon each other!— To "begin nothing of which you have not well considered the end," is a saying, the propriety of which every one recognises when he hears it enunciated, but no one thinks of in the conduct of actual life; and what follows, will illustrate the truth of my reflection. It seemed a capital notion of Mudflint's to send forth such a splendid list of sham subscribers, and it was natural enough for Mr Bloodsuck to assent to it, and Mr Woodlouse to become the party to it which he did-but who could have foreseen the consequences? A quarrel among rogues is almost always attended with ugly and unexpected consequences to themselves. Now, here was a mortal feud between Mr Woodlouse on the one side, and Messrs Mudflint and Bloodsuck on the other; and in due time they all applied, as a matter of course, for relief under the Insolvent Debtor's Act. Before they got to the question concerning the nature of the debt-viz. the penalties in an action for the odious offence of bribery—in the case of Mr Mudflint, he had to encounter a very serious and truly unexpected obstacle-viz. he had given in, with the minutest accuracy, the items of the subscription, amounting to £3, 13s. 5d., but had observed the most mysterious and (as he might have supposed) politic silence concerning the greater sum of £650, and which had been brought under the notice of the creditors of Messrs Mudflint and Bloodsuck by Mr Woodlouse. On the newspaper acknowledging the receipt of that large sum being produced in court, Mr Mudflint made very light of the matter, simply smiling and shrugging his shoulders; but when Mr Woodlouse was called as a witness, you may guess the consternation of Mr Mudflint, on hearing him swear that he had certainly never himself received the money, but had no doubt of Mr Mudflint having done so-which, in fact, had always been his impression; for when Mr Mudflint had furnished him with the list, which he handed up to court, in Mudflint's handwriting, he inserted it in his paper as a matter of course-taking it to be a bonâ fide and matter-of-fact transaction. The evident consternation of Mudflint satisfied all who heard him of his villainy, and of the truth and honesty of Wood louse, who stuck to this new version of the affair manfully. But this opened quite a new view of his position to Mr Bloodsuck; who, on finding that he must needs adopt either Mudflint's or Woodlouse's account of the matter, began to reflect upon the disagreeable effect it would have, thereafter, upon the connexion and character of the respectable firm of Bloodsuck and Son, for him to appear to have been a party to such a shocking fraud upon the public, as a sham list of subscribers, and to so large an amount. He therefore swore stoutly that he, too, had always been under the impression that Mr Mudflint had received the £650!! and very much regretted to find that that gentleman must have been appropriating so large a sum to himself, instead of being now ready to divide it between their respective creditors. This tallied with Woodlouse's account of the matter; and infinitely disgusted was that gentleman at finding himself so cleverly outwitted by Bloodsuck. On this Mudflint turned with fury upon Bloodsuck, and he upon Mudflint, who abused Woodlouse; and eventually the commissioners, unable to believe iny of them, remanded them all, as a pack of rogues, till the next court day; addressing a very stern warning to Mr Mud flint, concerning the serious consequences of his persisting in fraudulently concealing his property from his creditors. By the time of his being next brought up, the persecuted Mudflint had bethought himself of a bold mode of corroborating the truth of his explanation of that accursed first list of subscribers -viz. summoning Sir Harkaway Rotgut Wildfire as a witness in his behalf; whom he confidently asked whether, for all his name appeared in the subscription list, he had really ever given one farthing of the £50 there mentioned? Now, had our friend Mudflint been a long-headed man, he would not have taken this step; for Sir Harkaway could never be supposed capable of bringing himself to admit that he had been a party to such a dirty deceit upon the public as he was now charged with. On a careful consideration of the circumstances, therefore, Sir Harkaway, having an eye solely to his own credit, first said, with a somewhat haughty, but at the same time embarrassed air, that he was not in the habit of allowing his name to appear in such lists without his having actually paid the sum named; then, on being pressed, he swore that he thought he must have paid it; then, that he had very little doubt on the subject; then, that he had no doubt on the matter at all; then, that he knew that in point of fact he had advanced the money; and finally, he then recollected all the circumstances most distinctly!-On this complete confirmation of the roguery of Mudflint, he was instantly reprimanded severely, and remanded indefinitely; the whole court believing that he had appropriated to his own use every farthing of the £650, defrauding even his fellowprisoner, Mr Bloodsuck. It was a good while before Mudflint recovered from the effects of this astounding conduct of Sir Harkaway. When his wits had returned to him, he felt certain that, somewhere or other, he had a letter from Sir Harkaway which would satisfy every body of the very peculiarly unpleasant position in which the worthy baronet had placed himself. And sure enough, on desiring his wife to institute a rigorous search among his papers, she succeeded in discovering the following remarkable document, which she at once forwarded to her disconsolate husband : that "SIR, "View-Hallo Hall, 27th Dec. 18-. "I have a considerable regard for your services to liberty, (civil and religious,) and am willing to serve you in the way you wish. You may put me down, therefore, in the list for any thing you please, as my name carries weight in the county-but, of course, you know better than to kill your decoy duck." Sir, your obedient servant, "The REV. S. MUDFLINT, &c., &c." "H. R. WILDFIRE. This unfortunate letter, in the first frenzy of his rage and exultation, Mudflint instantly forwarded, with a statement of facts, to the editor of the True Blue newspaper, which carried it into every corner of the county on the very next morning; and undoubtedly gave thereby a heavy blow and a great discouragement to the Liberal cause all over Yorkshire; for Sir Harkaway had always been looked upon as one of its very staunchest and most powerful supporters. CHAPTER XII. VERY shortly after Messrs Mudflint and Bloodsuck had gone to pay this, their long-expected visit, to the governor of York Castle, Mr Parkinson required possession of the residence of each of them, in Yatton, to be delivered up to him on behalf of Lord Drelincourt, allowing a week's time for the removal of the few effects of each; after which period had elapsed, the premises in question were completely cleared of every thing belonging to their late odious occupants-who, in all human probability, would, infinitely to the delight of Dr Tatham and all the better sort of the inhabitants, never again be there seen or heard of. In a similar manner another crying nuisance—viz., the public-house known by the name of The Toper's Arms-was got rid of; it having been resolved upon by Lord Drelincourt, that there should |