conveyance under the table to slip
a short note into Lewis's hand, which Lewis as slyly put into John's
pocket, with a pinch or a jog to warn him what he was about. John had
the curiosity to retire into a corner to peruse those billets doux* of
Nic.'s, wherein he found that Nic. had used great freedoms both with his
interest and reputation. One contained these words: "Dear Lewis, thou
seest clearly that this blockhead can never bring his matters to bear.
Let thee and me talk to-night by ourselves at the 'Rose,' and I'll give
thee satisfaction." Another was thus expressed: "Friend Lewis, has thy
sense quite forsaken thee to make Bull such offers? Hold fast, part with
nothing, and I will give thee a better bargain, I'll warrant thee!"

* Some offers of the Dutch at that time, in order to get the
negotiation into their hands.

In some of his billets he told Lewis "That John Bull was under his
guardianship; that the best part of his servants were at his command;
that he could have John gagged and bound whenever he pleased by the
people of his own family." In all these epistles, blockhead, dunce,
ass, coxcomb, were the best epithets he gave poor John. In others he
threatened,* "That he, Esquire South, and the rest of the tradesmen,
would lay Lewis down upon his back and beat out his teeth if he did not
retire immediately and break up the Meeting."

* Threatening that the allies would carry on the war without
the help of the English.

I fancy I need not tell my reader that John often changed colour as he
read, and that his fingers itched to give Nic. a good slap on the chops,
but he wisely moderated his choleric temper. *"I saved this fellow,"
quoth he, "from the gallows when he ran away from his last master,
because I thought he was harshly treated; but the rogue was no sooner
safe under my protection than he began to lie, pilfer, and steal like
the devil. When I first set him up in a warm house he had hardly put up
his sign when he began to debauch my best customers from me. *Then it
was his constant practice to rob my fish-ponds, not only to feed his
family, but to trade with the fishmongers. I connived at the fellow till
he began to tell me that they were his as much as mine. In my manor of
*Eastcheap, because it lay at some distance from my constant inspection,
he broke down my fences, robbed my orchards, and beat my servants."

* Complaints against the Dutch for encroachment in trade,