other magistrates along with me, and you can't imagine the satisfaction
I feel in sending those poor vermin that are going about in a state of
disloyalty and starvation to the stocks or the jail. Oh, authority is a
delightful thing, Sir Thomas, especially when a man can exercise it upon
the vile rubbish that constitutes the pauper population of the country.
You know, if a' were a magistrate, Sir Thomas, a' would fine every
one--as well as my own tenants, whom I do fine--that did not take off
their hat or make me a courtesy."

"And if you were to do so, Crackenfudge," replied the baronet, with
a grim, sardonic smile, or rather a sneer, "I assure you, that such a
measure would become a very general and heavy impost upon the
country. But goodby, now; I shall remember your wishes as touching the
magistracy. You shall have J. P. after your name, and be at liberty to
fine, flog, put in the stocks, and send to prison as many of the rubbish
you speak of as you wish."

"That will be delightful, Sir Thomas. A'll then make many a vagabond
that despises and laughs at me suffer."

"In that case, the country at large will suffer heavily; for to tell you
the truth, Crackenfudge, you are anything but a favorite. Goodby, now, I
must see my daughter." And so he nodded the embryo magistrate out.

After the latter had taken his departure, Sir Thomas rubbed his hands,
with a strong turbid gleam of ferocious satisfaction, that evidently
resulted from the communication that Crackenfudge had made to him.

"It can be no other," thought he; "his allusion to the establishment
of Grinwell is a strong presumptive proof that it is; but he must be
secured forthwith, and that with all secrecy and dispatch, taking it
always for granted that he is the fugitive for whom we have been seeking
so long. One point, however, in our favor is, that as he knows neither
his real name nor origin, nor even the hand which guided his destiny,
he can make no discovery of which I may feel apprehensive. Still it is
dangerous that he should be at large, for it is impossible to say
what contingency might happen--what chance would, or perhaps early
recollection might, like a spark of light to a train, blow up in a
moment the precaution of years. As to the fellow in the inn, the account
of him may be true enough, for unquestionably Grinwell, who kept the
asylum, had a brother in the tooth-brush business, and this fact gives
the story something like probability, as does