the saying is.--I
shall tell, repeat, and relate a plain story--matters of fact, d'ye see,
without rhetoric, oratory, ornament, or embellishment; without
repetition, tautology, circumlocution, or going about the bush; facts
which I shall aver, partly on the testimony of my own knowledge, and
partly from the information of responsible evidences of good repute and
credit, any circumstance known to the contrary notwithstanding.--For as
the law saith, if so be as how there is an exception to evidence, that
exception is in its nature but a denial of what is taken to be good by
the other party, and exceptio in non exceptis, firmat regulam, d'ye see.
--But howsomever, in regard to this here affair, we need not be so
scrupulous as if we were pleading before a judge sedente curia."

Ferret, whose curiosity was rather more eager than that of any other
person in this audience, being provoked by this preamble, dashed the pipe
he had just filled in pieces against the grate; and after having
pronounced the interjection pish! with an acrimony of aspect altogether
peculiar to himself, "If," said he, "impertinence and folly were felony
by the statute, there would be no warrant of unexceptionable evidence to
hang such an eternal babbler." "Anan, babbler!" cried Tom, reddening
with passion, and starting up; "I'd have you to know, sir, that I can
bite as well as babble; and that, if I am so minded, I can run upon the
foot after my game without being in fault, as the saying is; and, which
is more, I can shake an old fox by the collar."

How far this young lawyer might have proceeded to prove himself staunch
on the person of the misanthrope, if he had not been prevented, we shall
not determine; but the whole company were alarmed at his looks and
expressions. Dolly's rosy cheeks assumed an ash colour, while she ran
between the disputants, crying, "Naay, naay--vor the love of God doan't
then, doan't then!" But Captain Crowe exerted a parental authority over
his nephew, saying, "Avast, Tom, avast!--Snug's the word--we'll have no
boarding, d'ye see.--Haul forward thy chair again, take thy berth, and
proceed with thy story in a direct course, without yawing like a Dutch
yanky."

Tom, thus tutored, recollected himself, resumed his seat, and, after some
pause, plunged at once into the current of narration. "I told you
before, gemmen, that the gentleman in armour was the only son of Sir
Everhard Greaves, who possessed a free estate of five th