execute a device in remainder after the death of a tenant
in tail without issue." "Spoke like a true disciple of Geber," cries
Ferret. "No, sir," replied Mr. Clarke, "Counsellor Caper is in the
conveyancing way--I was clerk to Serjeant Croker." "Ay, now you may set
up for yourself," resumed the other; "for you can prate as unintelligibly
as the best of them."

"Perhaps," said Tom, "I do not make myself understood; if so be as how
that is the case, let us change the position, and suppose that this here
case is a tail after a possibility of issue extinct. If a tenant in tail
after a possibility make a feoffment of his land, he in reversion may
enter for the forfeiture. Then we must make a distinction between
general tail and special tail. It is the word body that makes the
intail: there must be a body in the tail, devised to heirs male or
female, otherwise it is a fee-simple, because it is not limited of what
body. Thus a corporation cannot be seized in tail. For example, here is
a young woman--What is your name, my dear?" "Dolly," answered the
daughter, with a curtsey. "Here's Dolly--I seize Dolly in tail--Dolly, I
seize you in tail"--"Sha't then," cried Dolly, pouting. "I am seized of
land in fee--I settle on Dolly in tail."

Dolly, who did not comprehend the nature of the illustration, understood
him in a literal sense, and, in a whimpering tone, exclaimed, "Sha't
then, I tell thee, cursed tuoad!" Tom, however, was so transported with
his subject, that he took no notice of poor Dolly's mistake, but
proceeded in his harangue upon the different kinds of tails, remainders,
and seisins, when he was interrupted by a noise that alarmed the whole
company. The rain had been succeeded by a storm of wind that howled
around the house with the most savage impetuosity, and the heavens were
overcast in such a manner that not one star appeared, so that all without
was darkness and uproar. This aggravated the horror of divers loud
screams, which even the noise of the blast could not exclude from the
ears of our astonished travellers. Captain Crowe called out, "Avast,
avast!" Tom Clarke sat silent, staring wildly, with his mouth still
open; the surgeon himself seemed startled, and Ferret's countenance
betrayed evident marks of confusion. The ostler moved nearer the
chimney, and the good woman of the house, with her two daughters, crept
closer to the company.

After some pause, the captain starting up, "These," said