next town till the
Monday; but it was understood by everybody that he intended if
possible to spend his Saturday and Sunday in the bosom of his family.
Trigger, however, had magnificent ideas. "I believe we shall carry
them into the middle of next week," he said, "if they choose to
go on with it." Trigger thoroughly enjoyed the petition; and even
Griffenbottom, who was no longer troubled by gout, and was not now
obliged to walk about the borough, did not seem to dislike it. But to
poor Sir Thomas it was indeed a purgatory.

The sitting members were of course accused, both as regarded
themselves and their agents, of every crime known in electioneering
tactics. Votes had been personated. Votes had been bought. Votes
had been obtained by undue influence on the part of masters and
landlords, and there had been treating of the most pernicious and
corrupt description. As to the personating of votes, that according
to Mr. Trigger, had been merely introduced as a pleasant commencing
fiction common in Parliamentary petitions. There had been nothing
of the kind, and nobody supposed that there had, and it did not
signify. Of undue influence,--what purists choose to call undue
influence,--there had of course been plenty. It was not likely that
masters paying thousands a year in wages were going to let these men
vote against themselves. But this influence was so much a matter
of course that it could not be proved to the injury of the sitting
members. Such at least was Mr. Trigger's opinion. Mr. Spicer might
have been a little imprudent with his men; but no case could be
brought up in which a man had been injured. Undue influence at
Percycross was--"gammon." So said Mr. Trigger, and Jacky Joram agreed
with Mr. Trigger. Serjeant Burnaby rubbed his hands, and would give
no opinion till he had heard the evidence. That votes had been bought
during the day of the election there was no doubt on earth. On this
matter great secrecy prevailed, and Sir Thomas could not get a word
spoken in his own hearing. It was admitted, however, that votes had
been bought. There were a dozen men, perhaps more than a dozen,
who would prove that one Glump had paid them ten shillings a piece
between one and two on the day of the election. There was a general
belief that perhaps over a hundred had been bought at that rate. But
Trigger was ready to swear that he did not know whence Glump had got
the money, and Glump himself was,--nobody knew where Glump was, b