t their own door, where
stood Mr. Hayes, in his nightcap, ready to receive them, and astounded
at the splendour of the equipage in which his wife returned to him.

CHAPTER XI. OF SOME DOMESTIC QUARRELS, AND THE CONSEQUENCE THEREOF.

An ingenious magazine-writer, who lived in the time of Mr. Brock and the
Duke of Marlborough, compared the latter gentleman's conduct in battle,
when he

"In peaceful thought the field of death surveyed,
To fainting squadrons lent the timely aid;
Inspired repulsed battalions to engage,
And taught the doubtful battle where to rage"--

Mr. Joseph Addison, I say, compared the Duke of Marlborough to an angel,
who is sent by Divine command to chastise a guilty people--

"And pleased his Master's orders to perform,
Rides on the whirlwind, and directs the storm."

The first four of these novel lines touch off the Duke's disposition
and genius to a tittle. He had a love for such scenes of strife: in the
midst of them his spirit rose calm and supreme, soaring (like an
angel or not, but anyway the compliment is a very pretty one) on the
battle-clouds majestic, and causing to ebb or to flow the mighty tide of
war.

But as this famous simile might apply with equal propriety--to a bad
angel as to a good one, it may in like manner be employed to illustrate
small quarrels as well as great--a little family squabble, in which two
or three people are engaged, as well as a vast national dispute, argued
on each side by the roaring throats of five hundred angry cannon. The
poet means, in fact, that the Duke of Marlborough had an immense genius
for mischief.

Our friend Brock, or Wood (whose actions we love to illustrate by the
very handsomest similes), possessed this genius in common with his
Grace; and was never so happy, or seen to so much advantage, as when he
was employed in setting people by the ears. His spirits, usually dull,
then rose into the utmost gaiety and good-humour. When the doubtful
battle flagged, he by his art would instantly restore it. When, for
instance, Tom's repulsed battalions of rhetoric fled from his mamma's
fire, a few words of apt sneer or encouragement on Wood's part would
bring the fight round again; or when Mr. Hayes's fainting squadrons of
abuse broke upon the stubborn squares of Tom's bristling obstinacy, it
was Wood's delight to rally the former, and bring him once more to the
charge. A great share had this man in making t