tance
for his diffidence, and forced him to wash it away in another potation.
With many a wry face of grateful humility, he left the room, and we then
proceeded to pass the bottle with the suicidal determination of defeated
Romans. You may imagine that we were not long in arriving at the
devoutly wished for consummation of comfortable inebriety; and with our
eyes reeling, our cheeks burning, and our brave spirits full ripe for
a quarrel, we sallied out at eleven o'clock, vowing death, dread, and
destruction to all the sober portion of his majesty's subjects.

We came to a dead halt in Arlington-street, which, as it was the
quietest spot in the neighbourhood, we deemed a fitting place for the
arrangement of our forces. Dartmore, Staunton, (a tall, thin, well
formed, silly youth,) and myself, marched first, and the remaining
three followed. We gave each other the most judicious admonitions as
to propriety of conduct, and then, with a shout that alarmed the whole
street, we renewed our way. We passed on safely enough till we got to
Charing-Cross, having only been thrice upbraided by the watchmen, and
once threatened by two carmen of prodigious size, to whose wives or
sweethearts we had, to our infinite peril, made some gentle overtures.
When, however, we had just passed the Opera Colonnade, we were accosted
by a bevy of buxom Cyprians, as merry and as drunk as ourselves. We
halted for a few minutes in the midst of the kennel, to confabulate
with our new friends, and a very amicable and intellectual conversation
ensued. Dartmore was an adept in the art of slang, and he found himself
fairly matched, by more than one of the fair and gentle creatures by
whom we were surrounded. Just, however, as we were all in high glee,
Staunton made a trifling discovery, which turned the merriment of the
whole scene into strife, war, and confusion. A bouncing lass, whose
hands were as ready as her charms, had quietly helped herself to a watch
which Staunton wore, a la mode, in his waistcoat pocket. Drunken as the
youth was at that time, and dull as he was at all others, he was not
without the instinctive penetration with which all human bipeds watch
over their individual goods and chattels. He sprung aside from the
endearments of the syren, grasped her arm, and in a voice of querulous
indignation, accused her of the theft.

"Then rose the cry of women--shrill As shriek of gosshawk on the hill."

Never were my ears so stunned. The angry aut