it, you ben, you deserve to cly the jerk for your patter; come
in, and be d--d to you."

Upon this invitation, Jonson, seizing me by the arm, pushed me into the
house, and followed. "Go for a glim, Bess, to light in the parish bull
with proper respect. I'll close the gig of the crib."

At this order, delivered in an authoritative tone, the old woman,
mumbling "strange oaths" to herself, moved away; when she was out of
hearing, Job whispered,

"Mark, I shall leave the bolts undrawn, the door opens with a latch,
which you press thus--do not forget the spring; it is easy, but
peculiar; should you be forced to run for it, you will also remember,
above all, when you are out of the door, to turn to the right and go
straight forwards."

The old woman now reappeared with a light, and Jonson ceased, and moved
hastily towards her: I followed. The old woman asked whether the door
had been carefully closed, and Jonson, with an oath at her doubts of
such a matter, answered in the affirmative.

We proceeded onwards, through a long and very narrow passage, till Bess
opened a small door to the left, and introduced us into a large room,
which, to my great dismay, I found already occupied by four men, who
were sitting, half immersed in smoke, by an oak table, with a capacious
bowl of hot liquor before them. At the back ground of this room, which
resembled the kitchen of a public house, was an enormous skreen, of
antique fashion; a low fire burnt sullenly in the grate, and beside it
was one of those high-backed chairs, seem frequently in old houses, and
old pictures. A clock stood in one corner, and in the opposite nook were
a flight of narrow stairs, which led downwards, probably to a cellar.
On a row of shelves, were various bottles of the different liquors
generally in request among the "flash" gentry, together with an
old-fashioned fiddle, two bridles, and some strange looking tools,
probably of more use to true boys than honest men.

Brimstone Bess was a woman about the middle size, but with bones and
sinews which would not have disgraced a prize-fighter; a cap, that might
have been cleaner, was rather thrown than put on the back of her head,
developing, to full advantage, the few scanty locks of grizzled ebon
which adorned her countenance. Her eyes large, black, and prominent,
sparkled with a fire half vivacious, half vixen. The nasal feature
was broad and fungous, and, as well as the whole of her capacious
physiognomy, blush