, through the agency of
that scoundrel London lawyer, to make him sign such documents that
everything that can be willed away will be made over to him. We must,
to-morrow, proceed in a body to the Hall, and take the villains by
surprise. I will now return home and prepare some necessary documents.
As this is a criminal matter, I will also take care to have the
attendance of an upright and clear-seeing magistrate, who will proceed
with us--not certainly later than ten o'clock to morrow."

He then took his leave, with an air of much importance, and more
alacrity than I could have expected from a man of his years.

When Pigtop and myself were left alone, neither the first nor the second
nor'-wester of brandy-and-water could arouse him from his sullen mood.
He told me frankly, and in his own sea-slang, that he could not
disintegrate the idea of a lawyer from that of the devil, and that he
was assured that neither I nor my cause would prosper if I permitted the
interference of a land-shark. I was even obliged to assume a little the
authority of a master, in order to subdue his murmurings: to convince
his judgment I did not try--in which forbearance I displayed much
wisdom. We each retired to our respective room, with less of cordiality
than we had ever displayed since our unexpected reunion.

I had no sooner got to bed than I determined, by a violent effort, to
sleep. I had always a ready soporific at hand. It was a repeating and
re-repeating of a pious little ode by a late fashionable poet. It
seldom failed to produce somnolency at about the twelfth or thirteenth
repetition. I would recommend a similar prescription to the sleepless;
and I can assure them that there is much verse lately printed, and by
people who plume themselves no little upon it, that need not be gone
over more than twice at furthest; excepting the person may have Saint
Vitus dance, and then a third time may be necessary. I would specify
some of these works, were it at all necessary; but the afflicted have
only to ask, at random, for the last published volume of poems, or to
take up an annual, either old or new, and they may be _dosed_ without
the perpetration of a pun.

Three times had I slept by the means of my ode, and three times had I
awaked by some horrible dream, that fled my memory with my slumbers. I
could draw no omen from it, for my mind could not bring it out
sufficiently distinct to fix a single idea upon it. However, as I found