"Is withdrawn, if it so please your Majesty," said the mayor, looking
round to the aldermen.

"Yes, your Majesty, is withdrawn."

"For myself, Mr Mayor, I accept your excuses, and you have my pardon;
but as for the special council, I must leave you to settle with it how
you can.--Ladies, a banquet is prepared; when summoned, it will depend
upon yourselves, whether you come alone or attended by the mayor and
deputation. Come, my Lord of Rochester, we will not interfere in the
arrangements, which will take place better when we are out of the way."

So saying, the king quitted the presence-chamber with the Earl of
Rochester, leaving the ladies seated, and their husbands still kneeling.
We shall not dwell upon what took place after the departure of the king;
one thing is certain, that the fair sex are very merciful, and as their
husbands promised them that in future they should have their own way,
dress as they pleased, receive whom they pleased, and spend what money
they pleased, the ladies very kindly and magnanimously forgave their
spouses; and when they were summoned to the banquet, each lady entered
the hall, hanging on the arm of her husband.

This happy reconciliation was duly celebrated. Wine flowed, bumper after
bumper was drank, pledge succeeded to pledge, and it was long past
midnight before the carouse was over. The moon shone bright, and heated
with the wine, Rochester proposed to the ladies that they should take a
walk on the terrace before they ordered their carriages to go home. It
must be confessed that the ladies had not been so cautious as they
ought to have been, and that their steps were not very steady; but could
a lady refuse to drink wine with a king or an Earl of Rochester? No! and
the consequence was, that they all were merry, and some of them more
than merry. As for the husbands, they were reeling and tumbling in all
directions, and the terrace-wall, wide as it was, was not sufficiently
wide for them. Rochester led the way, and all was fun and merry
laughter.

The party had not proceeded far, when a little altercation took place
between the mayoress and the alderman's wife who had given her opinion
after her in the council; for it so happened that as they sauntered
along, the mayoress had picked up one portion of the broken wand, and
the alderman's lady the other. The wand was of ebony, and highly
polished--each would possess herself of the half in the hands of the
other, and thus commenced t