object, unable to see or
hear, almost unable to breathe, and quite unable to rid himself of
the sticky, loathsome mass in which he had suddenly become encased.

Then from the window above came a shrill, jeering cry:

"To your task, bold Scourers--to your task! Scour your own fine
friend and comrade. Scour him well, for he will need it. Scour him
from head to foot. A pest upon you, young villains! I would every
citizen in London would serve you the same!"

Then the window above was banged to. The mob of roisterers fled
helter skelter, laughing and jeering. Not one amongst them offered
to assist their wretched leader. They left him alone in his sorry
plight to get out of it as best he might. They had not the smallest
consideration for one even of their own number overtaken by
misfortune. Roaring with laughter at the frightful picture he
presented, they dispersed to their own homes, and the wretched
Frederick was left alone in the street to do the best he could with
his black, unsavoury plaster.

He strove in vain to clear his vision, and to remove the peruke,
which clung to him like a second skin. He was in a horrible fright
lest he should be seen and recognized in this ignominious plight;
and although he felt sure his comrades would spread the story of
his discomfiture all over the town, he did not wish to be seen by
the watch, or by any law-abiding citizens who knew him.

But how to get home was a puzzle, blind and half suffocated as he
was; and he scarce knew whether anger or relief came uppermost to
his mind when he felt his arm taken, and a voice that he knew said
in his ear:

"For shame, Frederick! It is a disgrace to London the way you and
your comrades go on. And now of all times to jest when the foe is
at our doors. Shame upon you! The old dame has given you no more
than your due. But come with me, and I will get you home ere the
town be awake; and have a care how you offend again like this, for
the Magistrates will not suffer jests of such a kind at such a
time. Know you not that it is almost enough to frighten a timid
serving wench into the distemper to see such signs upon the doors?
And if it break out in the midst of us, who can say where it will
end?"

It was Reuben Harmer who spoke, as Frederick very well knew. The
young men had been boys together, and as Reuben was two years the
elder, he assumed a tone in speaking which Frederick now keenly
resented. But it was no time to repel an overture of h