stay, though my friend only speaks of
one.'

'No, no, my lord; you are too good, you are too kind; but your life is
of far too much importance to the nation in these portentous times, to
be placed upon a level with one so useless and so poor as mine. A great
cause, my lord, a mighty cause, depends on you. You are its leader and
its champion, its advanced guard and its van. It is the cause of our
altars and our homes, our country and our faith. Let ME sleep on a
chair--the carpet--anywhere. No one will repine if I take cold or fever.
Let John Grueby pass the night beneath the open sky--no one will
repine for HIM. But forty thousand men of this our island in the wave
(exclusive of women and children) rivet their eyes and thoughts on Lord
George Gordon; and every day, from the rising up of the sun to the going
down of the same, pray for his health and vigour. My lord,' said the
speaker, rising in his stirrups, 'it is a glorious cause, and must not
be forgotten. My lord, it is a mighty cause, and must not be endangered.
My lord, it is a holy cause, and must not be deserted.'

'It IS a holy cause,' exclaimed his lordship, lifting up his hat with
great solemnity. 'Amen.'

'John Grueby,' said the long-winded gentleman, in a tone of mild
reproof, 'his lordship said Amen.'

'I heard my lord, sir,' said the man, sitting like a statue on his
horse.

'And do not YOU say Amen, likewise?'

To which John Grueby made no reply at all, but sat looking straight
before him.

'You surprise me, Grueby,' said the gentleman. 'At a crisis like the
present, when Queen Elizabeth, that maiden monarch, weeps within
her tomb, and Bloody Mary, with a brow of gloom and shadow, stalks
triumphant--'

'Oh, sir,' cied the man, gruffly, 'where's the use of talking of Bloody
Mary, under such circumstances as the present, when my lord's wet
through, and tired with hard riding? Let's either go on to London, sir,
or put up at once; or that unfort'nate Bloody Mary will have more to
answer for--and she's done a deal more harm in her grave than she ever
did in her lifetime, I believe.'

By this time Mr Willet, who had never beard so many words spoken
together at one time, or delivered with such volubility and emphasis as
by the long-winded gentleman; and whose brain, being wholly unable to
sustain or compass them, had quite given itself up for lost; recovered
so far as to observe that there was ample accommodation at the Maypole
for all the party: go