flections, having come so far, wherefore I quickly
drew the latch and stepped inside.

I had no need of a guide to conduct me to the parlour, for I caught a
hubbub of voices coming from my right hand, above which rose a roaring
stave in chorus, interspersed with a clapping of hands and a rapping
of mugs upon the table. I undid the door, meaning to slip in quietly,
but no sooner did I pass my head into the room than the entertainment
suddenly ceased, and the whole crew turned to observe my entrance.

Truly it was easier for them to discern me than for me to do the same
by them, for besides the dismay of meeting so many faces at once, the
whole room was filled with the smoke of tobacco, a thing which was
strange to me, and which caused my eyes to tingle, besides tempting me
to cough. I made out, however, that there was at least a score of men
present, the most part of them seated round a table in the middle of
the room, at the head of which table stood a high arm-chair, and in
it, as I believe, the biggest man I had ever seen. The looks of the
company are past my power to describe, being such as to make me feel
as if I had broke into Bedlam. Their faces were all red and blotched
with drink, and their heads covered with extravagant ringlets, which
might never have seen a comb, while their dress was disordered to
indecency, and the whole table was covered with a confusion of
tankards and bottles and tobacco-pipes, not to mention playing-cards
and dice. The huge man at their head bore a most terrifying aspect. He
had an immense head set on a neck so short and thick that it seemed as
if he must infallibly choke at every morsel he swallowed, and a belly
capacious enough to have held a firkin of liquor. He had made himself
easy by unbuttoning his waistcoat and the upper part of his breeches,
and lolled back in his seat as if he had no mind to stir for the rest
of the morning. One of his eyes was closed up, and had a French
plaister across it, but the other stared and rolled enough for two.

On a bench in the window there were two other men withdrawn by
themselves; but these I did not at first notice, being taken up with
attending to this one-eyed ruffian.

"Who in the foul fiend's name have we here?" he called out as soon as
I was come in, using many other oaths beside, which I have no need to
set forth. "Is this some sprouting soul-catcher come to bestow upon us
a word in season? Speak, boy, your name and business? Show you