o
him, meditated instant flight from the township.

Alas! it was his unlucky day. His sincere desire and honest endeavour to
perjure himself were baffled by a circumstance he had never foreseen nor
indeed thought possible.

He had spoken the truth.

And IN AN AFFIDAVIT!

The officers, on reaching "The Silver Lion", found the birds were flown.

They went down to the river, and from intelligence they received there,
started up the bank in hot pursuit.

This temporary escape the friends owed to Denys's good sense and
observation. After a peal of laughter, that it was a cordial to hear,
and after venting his watchword three times, he turned short grave, and
told Gerard Dusseldorf was no place for them. "That old fellow," said
he, "went off unnaturally silent for such a babbler: we are strangers
here; the bailiff is his friend: in five minutes we shall lie in a
dungeon for assaulting a Dusseldorf dignity, are you strong enough to
hobble to the water's edge? it is hard by. Once there you have but to
lie down in a boat instead of a bed; and what is the odds?"

"The odds, Denys? untold, and all in favour of the boat. I pine for
Rome; for Rome is my road to Sevenbergen; and then we shall lie in the
boat, but ON the Rhine, the famous Rhine; the cool, refreshing Rhine.
I feel its breezes coming: the very sight will cure a little
hop-'o-my-thumb fever like mine; away! away!"

Finding his excitable friend in this mood, Denys settled hastily with
the landlord, and they hurried to the river. On inquiry they found to
their dismay that the public boat was gone this half hour, and no other
would start that day, being afternoon. By dint, however, of asking a
great many questions, and collecting a crowd, they obtained an offer of
a private boat from an old man and his two sons.

This was duly ridiculed by a bystander. "The current is too strong for
three oars."

"Then my comrade and I will help row," said the invalid.

"No need," said the old man. "Bless your silly heart, he owns t'other
boat."

There was a powerful breeze right astern; the boatmen set a broad sail,
and rowing also, went off at a spanking rate.

"Are ye better, lad, for the river breeze?"

"Much better. But indeed the doctor did me good."

"The doctor? Why, you would none of his cures."

"No, but I mean--you will say I am nought--but knocking the old fool
down--somehow--it soothed me."

"Amiable dove! how thy little character opens more and more every