n had
passed.

The harmony of the day, however, had nearly, at one time, been
interrupted by the appearance of the radical on the ground, with two
or three of his disciples. He soon got engaged in argument in the very
thick of the throng, above which I could hear his voice, and now and
then see his meagre hand, half a mile out of the sleeve, elevated in
the air in violent gesticulation, and flourishing a pamphlet by way of
truncheon. He was decrying these idle nonsensical amusements in time
of public distress, when it was every one's business to think of other
matters, and to be miserable. The honest village logicians could make
no stand against him, especially as he was seconded by his proselytes;
when, to their great joy, Master Simon and the general came drifting
down into the field of action. I saw that Master Simon was for making
off, as soon as he found himself in the neighbourhood of this
fire-ship; but the general was too loyal to suffer such talk in his
hearing, and thought, no doubt, that a look and a word from a
gentleman would be sufficient to shut up so shabby an orator. The
latter, however, was no respecter of persons, but rather seemed to
exult in having such important antagonists. He talked with greater
volubility than ever, and soon drowned them in declamation on the
subject of taxes, poor's rates, and the national debt. Master Simon
endeavoured to brush along in his usual excursive manner, which had
always answered amazingly well with the villagers; but the radical was
one of those pestilent fellows that pin a man down to facts; and,
indeed, he had two or three pamphlets in his pocket, to support every
thing he advanced by printed documents. The general, too, found
himself betrayed into a more serious action than his dignity could
brook; and looked like a mighty Dutch Indiaman, grievously peppered by
a petty privateer. It was in vain that he swelled and looked big, and
talked large, and endeavoured to make up by pomp of manner for poverty
of matter; every home-thrust of the radical made him wheeze like a
bellows, and seemed to let a volume of wind out of him.

In a word, the two worthies from the Hall were completely dumbfounded,
and this too in the presence of several of Master Simon's staunch
admirers, who had always looked up to him as infallible. I do not know
how he and the general would have managed to draw their forces
decently from the field, had there not been a match at grinning
through a