and bad sent his excuse by an iti- || sinated in Switzerland by three Irish nerant musician. Honest Padrig ruffians, who hoped to obtain patronthought of his ancient romances; but age by their crime. he saw mischief and danger lurking. Lady Lisle was accused of shelin his supposed good fortune. The tering two of Monmouth's partisans year 1688 had caused the removal after his defeat at Sedgemoor, and of James II. and the agents of his after a shameful trial was sentenced cruelty or his folly were flying in all to death by Judge Jefferies, notwithdirections. The confusion, the in- standing the opinion three times extrigues, and the secret enmities of pressed by the jury in favour of her two parties suddenly changing places, innocence. Her miserable descendwere felt even in this remote district; ant found a refuge in the bounty of and the friends of the Prince of the poor schoolmaster, who sheltered Orange, scarcely yet King of Eng- him from that year to the present, land, were starting out of their con intending him for his successor, and cealment, to retaliate the hatred of calling him, with harmless affectation their enemies. Therefore the vicar of pomp, his usher. Padrig could of Padrig's parish feared that the not conceal from Lisle, wlio had been giver of the gold was some eminent absent on a journey when the advenfugitive, who had contrived to leave ture occurred, the contents of his this recompence for the disguise | iron pot, which still remained depowhich he obtained by acting the part | sited under his hearth-stone. Lisle ofthe Greek poet's mendicant. When beheld it eagerly, and an evil spirit the schoolmaster reflected on the entered his thoughts. The judges singular fluency with which his un- were expected in a few days to hold known visitor had spoken a classic the county sessions, and he might language, on the style of his features, obtain this wealth, and perhaps obwhich were evidently altered by art, tain patronage, by removing his beneand on the rich tokens left behind, factor. The means were easy. Pahe was of the same opinion; but his drig in the simplicity of his heart had friend's advice to keep the matter se- often told, that Jefferies, whose name cret cost him some severe struggles. has gained such dreadful immortaliHis gleeful heart ached with its ful- ty, had been, when an obscure boy ness, and he could not forbear mut- five years old, his favourite and most tering some hints of his good luck promising pupil; and being secretamong his pupils, and sometimes tak- I ly proud that a chancellor and chief ing his pot to the casement to inspect justice had sprung from his school, his treasures. The consequences he had been often heard to say, that were not slow in their coming. There he could not believe Jefferies wholly lived with Padrig under his roof, as without some good inclinations. Now a kind of inmate and assistant, a | it was strongly suspected that this young man named Lisle, grandson distinguished culprit was endeavourof that unhappy lady whose misfor- | ing to escape from the Welsh coast, tunes have a place in history. — and lurking about in disguise till he She was widow of a man who had could find an opportunity. Lisle enjoyed Cromwell's favour, and hav- || had shrewdness enough to see the ing fled at the Restoration, was assas- | possibility that he might have visited

a kind of innamed Lisle, grandforing to escape

his old friend and tutor, and perhaps ral question, and those who knew have received aid from him. He the bent of public affairs, had but yielded to temptation, and rising at little hopes of his acquittal. Besides, midnight, took the pot from its place the spirit of the new government of interment, and speeded to the was yet untried; and though Chief inn where he knew one of the crown Justice Herbert and his colleagues lawyers had stopped to spend the were dispossessed of power, their night. Serjeant Bellasise was a po- successors might be equally blind and litician too wary to miss any occasion riotous in their new authority. The of manifesting zeal for the new go- day of Padrig's trial assembled a vernment. He heard the informer's crowd as anxious as any that ever story, and was shewn the hoarding- filled a court, even in those times of pot, from which Lisle had taken all sacrifice and peril. Had he been except the coins, medals, and a seal- one of the five hermits once sanctiring, of which he did not know the fied in Wales, he could not have value. “ Fellow," said the serjeant, been more respectfully greeted by " this is not all; bring me the rest, or the spectators, nor could his appearI shall know what to think of your ance have been more venerably siminformation." Lisle was taken by ple. His long surcoat of brown surprise, but he had to deal with a camblet belted round his waist, his craftier and cooler politician than leathern sandals, and the thick gray himself. Seeing that he hesitated, hair which fell on each side of his the crown lawyer added, “You your face down to his shoulders, shewing self are an accomplice in secreting a his broad forehead and large mild eye, traitor. Shew me the rest of the gave him the aspect of a St. Kentibribe, or my servants shall take you gern, or his favourite Hermit Mark, into custody." The informer was the chronicler of Wales. But the taken in a trap he had not foreseen, judges were strangers, and the leadand, after a long demur, found him-ing counsel of the crown was a man self forced to resign the pot and all new to his office and to this remote its contents to Serjeant Bellasise, who district. His countenance promised promised, upon this condition, to little, for the abundant flow of his preserve him from all hazard, and hair was even beyond the ordinary ensure a due reward for his loyalty. fashion of the times, and indicated

Not many hours after, Padrig was more coxcombry than wisdom. The taken from his quiet abode, and lodg- accused and accuser were both in ed in the town-gaol on a charge of court, and the murmur which would high treason. If any thing could have attended the latter was hushed have comforted him for the treache- by fear. Few, very few of Padrig's ry of his adopted guest, it would friends ventured to think of testifyhave been the affectionate lamenta ing in his favour, lest the friends of a tions of his little flock of pupils, who fallen man should involve themselves followed him from the school he had in danger. Padrig stood alone, left to ruled thirty years to his place of con- Providence and innocence, in which finement, as if it had been a tri- i he trusted; and his eye did not lose its umphal procession. Padrig's story firm fixture when the crown lawyer had become a subject of very gene- l rose. There was a pause of deep

fear and expectation till he addressed || things were done, not by Jefferies, the court.

Il but by men more wicked than he : “ My lord, you have heard the yet which of these is a greater cruindictment of this man. I have per- elty than the accusation lodged tomitted it to be read, though the in- day against a helpless old man by structions in my hand are to with his guest and his pensioner? He is draw the prosecution. I permitted accused of having sheltered a disit, I say, because it is fitting that graced and proscribed judge, bethey who dragged him to this bar, cause he loved him when a child. and the people who have held him Would this be a fault even if it were in reverence till now, should be shewn true? Perhaps he did not know the to justice, and witness its dispensa- | unhappy man he befriended; and it tion. You have heard this gray- | is certain, by the public frankness of headed old man accused of abetting his communication, that he did not the escape of a refugee, because a know that the gold was attainted. few pieces of gold were found in his These medals and this ring are known possession, and because he was once to have belonged to Jefferies; but a teacher of grammar to Jefferies. pure as the soul of infancy might You are surprised at the name! Who have been his motive for leaving ever thought of befriending Jeffe- them with Padrig. There must have ries? He has had his flatterers and been some good in his heart when his advocates when he sat upon the || he dared to return to his first friend. bench as Chief Justice and Chan-It must have been punishment enough cellor, and held his sovereign's com- to return to that school and that mission with such as Kirk, who in-house poor and more despised than stigated and besotted him. But he || when he left it. Let us remember had no friends; and those who had how high be stood, and from whence not courage to remonstrate against he fell. Those who sit in his place his violence, will have enough now to-day will remember, that he fell to shew him the bitterness of his dis because he judged too rashly, and grace, when he is weak and desolate. | did not think his king strong enough No, my lord, in this land, and in this to shew mercy to his enemies. Let year, we need not be afraid to find our first act be wiser than his. I places of refuge open to Jefferies: might tear my brief, and close the he has neither brother nor father, | prosecution; but I appeal to this wife nor children; he has liere only court, and expect to hear the prihunters and enemies. If he was || soner acquitted; and that you may here, who is there in this court that be assured how little his accuser dewould not be ready to mock him now serves belief, I am empowered to as much as they once feared him? || tell you, that Jefferies the criminal, They would bid him go and ask who, as he pretends, was conveyed mercy from the woman whose bro- | away by Padrig's means, is at this ther perished before her eyes after | very moment before his judges; and she had sold herself to save him, or that this paltry jar of coins, which from the mother of that unhappy tempted the accusation, was brought soldier whose speed was matched to me as a bribe to forward it. If it with the speed of a war-horse. These had been so offered even to Jefferies,

he would have thrown it back as I | the audacity to personate him. In

quiries were made at the village inn, The pleader was answered by a and they were informed, that the shout of applause. When he began stranger, calling himself Bellasise, to speak, his voice was low and had arrived there alone on horseback hoarse; but as he advanced, it be- only a few hours before the treacame vigorous; and his eyes, start- cherous informer came to seek him. ing from their dark hollows, sparkled How he went from the town, or with the fire of eloquence. The new which way he travelled, was not very judges were touched by his appeal, diligently traced by those who had and by the opportunity of gaining heard his daring defence of an innofavour by a popular verdict. Padrig 1 cent man. Ever bold and eccentric, was unanimously acquitted; the jar mingling invincible courage with perof gold, which his unexpected advo-tinacious obstinacy, Jefferies had recate had thrown upon the table at turned to London, expecting, and court, was restored to him undimi-justly judging, that he would be least nished. His miserable accuser stole sought in the midst of his enemies. out of the people's reach ; but when But by lingering too long in the Padrig went to thank the public pro- street to hear music, of which he was secutor for his lenity, he was no where passionately fond, he was discovered to be found. The pleader had never and conveyed to the Tower. There been seen since he left the court; he expiated some of his errors by a and in a few hours the real Serjeant | long imprisonment, and died without Bellasise arrived in great trepidation, any consolation except the blessing declaring that he had been detained of the poor schoolmaster of St. Daby indisposition upon the road. None vid's. He chose the bottle for his of the judges knew him personally, executioner, and never had recourse and they all avouched, that no man to it without drinking health to the but Jefferies himself could have had ll judges of the western assize in 1689.

THE LOITERER.

No. XV. “ I CANNOT help envying you,", shame upon his indolence. He has said my friend, Peter Plodwell, to no idea of any occupations but bodime the other day." Why so?"— ly ones; and as he knows that I have " Because you are a professed idler, none, he regards me with astonishand yet you seem happy."

ment; for, judging by his own feelings, It would have been of no use to he looks upon a happy idle man as talk to Peter of that sort of idleness || a sort of rara avis. which is rather of the body than of During thirty-five years that he the mind; he would not have under- || was a merchant, he followed his bustood that a man may be ideally verysiness with an industry and attention busy while he strolls through the so unremitting, that he was never Green Park, or lounges over his once known to be a single day absent breakfast-table, till all his friends cry from his counting-house. He had · Vol. VI. No. XXXI.

no idea of your modern merchants, || of it, congratulating himself in the who were to be found every where warmest manner, that he had nothing but where their business called them; more in this world to wish for. Not it was time enough, he always said, hearing from him for some time, I for people in business to begin enjoy- | wrote to know how he was going on; ing themselves when they could af. and received for answer, that he had ford to leave off trade; and for many not yet got quite settled, but that he a weary year Peter feasted his ima- only wanted to get things arranged gination with the idea of the delici | about him as he wished, to be the ous days that were in store for him, happiest man in the world. when he should have nothing to do Six months afterwards came anoþut enjoy himself.

ther letter: he had found more to · Though he had lived always within do than he imagined, and had expethe sound of Bow-bell, he thought rienced a good deal of vexation from that the country was the only place the stupidity and ignorance of those for felicity, and he determined to about him, but he had made them retire thither as soon as he had amass- know he would be obeyed; matters ed enough to be comfortable. While were now in train, and he had no a young man, his desires were mo- | doubt, that in a very short time he derate enough; but as he grew older, should have every thing to his mind. there was first one thing, and then My next intelligence was, that he was another, that he should like to have. gone to spend the winter at a faIn short, his retreat was delayed from shionable watering-place. " I find, year to year, and I never recollect my dear Nevermove," wrote he to meeting him without hearing heavy me," that I have been somewhat complaints of the drudgery of busi- mistaken in my views. A country ness, the roguery of mankind, and life is not what I thought it was; the the difficulty an honest man had to squires don't suit me at all. Nolive in the busy metropolis, mixed thing like neighbourhood, as I had with aspirations after rural peace and | imagined it, in a social unceremonious tranquillity, and hearty wishes that way. As to the common people, he was surrounded by innocent rus there is no dealing with them at all. tics, in the midst of whom he should Between ourselves, they are a lost live like one of the ancient patriarchs, | race; ten times more roguish than · tempering the authority of a master | the same class in London, and as with the love of a father, and looked stupid as the devil into the bargain. up to by them with a sort of religi- Never could I get them to undervus respect. These waking dreams stand my new method of ploughing, kept up his spirits for year after | or any of my other improvements in year; and perhaps he never was half husbandry. Then they were so cursso happy as while he was assuring edly insolent. One fellow told me his friends, that he was the most mi- ||

| to my face, that I knew nothing of serable dog in existence, and should pruning and planting; and good reabe so till his wishes were realized. son why, because as how I was no

Well, at last the day came. He more nor a Cockney. So, in short, bought a very fine property in I have left the house to the care of shire; went down to take possession my servants, and I am determined