ith wrath and
majesty seated on his bald brow and his gown flowing behind him.

He generally took such enormous strides, when moved with a sudden desire
to punish some lost soul, whom he might suspect of the heinous crimes of
idleness or "cribbing"--both unforgivable offences in his calendar--that
the aforesaid gown, I recollect, seemed frequently to float over his
head--forming in conjunction with his square college cap, alias "mortar
board," a regular "nimbus," like that surrounding the heads of the
saints in old pictures.

The Polite Letter Writer Commissioners--or rather, their executive--
were, I must confess, much quieter in their demeanour, moving about as
stealthily as if they were engaged in any number of Gunpowder, or Rye
House Plots, or other conspiracies.

Perhaps, you say, they were much too orderly in their proceedings for
me?

Well, I don't think so, exactly; still, _I_ do not believe much in the
justice and impartiality of the Vehmgerichte, Parliamentary committees,
the Berlin police, the prefects of the past empire, Monsieur Thiers's
communistic courts-martial, or of the New York Erie Ring--nor, indeed of
any representative, or, other body, which hides its deeds and decisions
under a cloak of secrecy!

Be that as it may, the method of the examiners did not tend to reassure
us, speaking collectively of the sixty of us who now awaited judgment--
fifty-four of whom were pre-ordained to failure, and _knew it_, which
certainly militated against any chance of their looking upon the
preparations for their torture with a lenient eye.

At regular intervals along the green-baize tables were deposited small
parcels of stationery, consisting of a large sheet of sanguinary
blotting-paper, a quire or so of foolscap, a piece of indiarubber, an
attenuated lead-pencil, a dozen of quill pens, with others of Gillott's
or Mitchell's manufacture, and an ink bottle--the whole putting one in
mind of those penny packets of writing requisites that itinerant
pedlars, mostly seedy-looking individuals who "have seen better days,"
pester one's private house with in London; and which they are so anxious
to dispose of, that they exhibit the greatest trust in your integrity,
leaving their wares unsolicited behind them, and intimating that they
will "call again for an answer."

The present parcels were also "left for answers"--answers on which
depended our future prospects and position!

Seated in state, on a sort of dais in