fter thy great
complaints; really thy motions, Nic., are pretty vigorous for a
consumptive man. As for thy worldly affairs, Nic., if it can do thee
any service, I freely make over to thee this profitable lawsuit, and
I desire all these gentlemen to bear witness to this my act and deed.
Yours be all the gain, as mine has been the charges. I have brought
it to bear finely: however, all I have laid out upon it goes for
nothing--thou shalt have it with all its appurtenances; I ask nothing
but leave to go home."

NIC. FROG.--The counsel are fee'd, and all things prepared for a trial;
thou shalt be forced to stand the issue; it shall be pleaded in thy
name as well as mine. Go home if thou canst; the gates are shut, the
turnpikes locked, and the roads barricaded.*

* Difficulty of the march of part of the army to Dunkirk.

JOHN BULL.--Even these very ways, Nic., that thou toldest me were as
open to me as thyself, if I can't pass with my own equipage, what can I
expect for my goods and wagons? I am denied passage through those very
grounds that I have purchased with my own money. However, I am glad I
have made the experiment; it may serve me in some stead.

John Bull was so overjoyed that he was going to take possession of
Ecclesdown, that nothing could vex him. "Nic.," quoth he, "I am just
a-going to leave thee; cast a kind look upon me at parting."

Nic. looked sour and glum, and would not open his mouth.

JOHN BULL.--I wish thee all the success that thy heart can desire, and
that these honest gentlemen of the long robe may have their belly full
of law.

Nic. could stand it no longer, but flung out of the room with disdain,
and beckoned the lawyers to follow him.

JOHN BULL.--B'ye, b'ye, Nic,; not one poor smile at parting? won't you
shake your day-day, Nic? b'ye, Nic.--With that John marched out of the
common road, across the country, to take possession of Ecclesdown.

CHAPTER XXII. Of the great joy that John expressed when he got
possession of Ecclesdown.*

* Dunkirk.

When John had got into his castle he seemed like Ulysses upon his plank
after he had been well soused in salt water, who, as Homer says, was as
glad as a judge going to sit down to dinner after hearing a long cause
upon the bench. I daresay John Bull's joy was equal to that of either
of the two; he skipped from room to room, ran up-stairs and down-stairs,
from the kitchen to the garrets, and from the garrets to the kitchen;
he peep