Bullcock, nothing daunted, but looking like a fiend at all of us, swore there was not an honest man among the gentlemen of England, nor would be till all lords and parsons were put an end to. He then mounted his horse and proceeded to Newbury, to lay his case before a provincial counsel, a Mr. Snarl, who said there was excellent ground for a petition to the Chancellor to dismiss Heartfree for malversation in his office.

To finish this part of the story, Mr. Willoughby was prosecuted by Bullcock at the Sessions, and fined a shilling; and the patriotic prosecutor having asked for his expenses, was refused; which certainly did not lessen his gall, or improve his good will towards everybody above him; while those below him, who hated him for his oppression as Overseer of the poor, triumphed in seeing him prosecuted in his turn, and convicted of false accounts. For this he was properly sent for six months to the County Gaol, by the King's Bench.

The incidents I have related made the morning in which they occurred one of the most interesting, as well as amusing, I ever passed. The good sense and clearness of Heartfree, added much to the esteem I had conceived for him; and his several hobbies, which he rode as well as he

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did his real horses, only rendered him more agreeable.

I must not omit that he requested Willoughby to dine with him, to meet his old friend Broadbent; and our quartette at dinner was all the better for the adventure of the morning.

SECTION V.

HAPPINESS OF A WANDERER.

"A good traveller is something at the latter end of a dinner." ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL.

OUR conversation after dinner naturally turned upon Willoughby's (to us) strange way of life. But he defended it by saying-" Every man to what his own genius or feelings lead him to follow."

"That is a sentiment," said I, "which many a man of genius has rued; at least, so said my father, who had no genius, but a great deal of

sense."

"A lesson," said Willoughby, "which you have no doubt followed yourself."

I own I felt a little embarrassed, though Willoughby was too ignorant of my life and habits, as well as too good-natured, to criticise them.

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I think your rambling life must be at least entertaining," said Heartfree.

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To no one but myself," replied Willoughby'; though, for myself, I am so carelessly consti

tuted, that with a little imagination, I can draw entertainment out of a straw."

"A happy turn," said Heartfree; “and, no doubt, you have profited by it. Were you ever abroad?"

Yes! at the glorious age of five-and-twenty ; when I cared not what country I was in, how I travelled, or whether I went a hundred miles or one in a day."

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"I suppose you were well furnished with letters of introduction," said his friend Broadbent.

"Not one! But with money in my pocket, and at that agę, I trusted to myself and to chance for happiness."

"And did you find it?"

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Often; though in different colours: sometimes brilliant, sometimes sombre. Sometimes, indeed, not often, I was a little checked; but, for the most part, happy."

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Pray what may have been your brilliant colours?" said Broadbent.

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Why, once I confessed a Nun, who took me for a Bishop."

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Confessed a Nun! who took you for a Bishop!" exclaimed the Vicar.

"Yes! it was during that revolution in France, when the Convents were all dissolved, that a poor

girl was turned into the street, with not more than

a night cap for her portion. There she might have starved, but for a poor old Aubergiste of the ancien régime, who shared her bread and water with her. I had put up at the auberge in one of my foot peregrinations, such as I have lately been upon. The Nun was not only starving, but ill, and thought herself dying; and the greatest unhappiness was that she could not be confessed; since both she and the Aubergiste thought there was no salvation for her, except through a priest of the old school. Hearing her story, and tolerably well furnished at the time, I sent her a couple of gold Louis. They were astounded, and laying their heads together, resolved I could be nothing short of a Bishop in disguise, endeavouring to escape; and they implored I would save the poor Nun, by confessing and giving her absolution."

"Not at first; but they went on their knees; and the Nun said she already felt the claws of the devil, from which confession alone could relieve her; so at last I complied."

"No doubt the result was curious."

"The result was that I found her an innocent, simple young creature, who had been trepanned from her father, a German Protestant of Hesse Darmstadt, and converted and professed in a low