ned night to day. Nay, it
shall be an overflowing bumper, an you will; and I will drink it _super
naculum_.--And how stands the great Madam?"[*]

[*] The Duchess of Portsmouth, Charles II.'s favourite mistress; very
unpopular at the time of the Popish Plot, as well from her
religion as her country, being a Frenchwoman and a Catholic.

"Stoutly against all change," answered the lord--"Little Anthony[*] can
make nought of her."

[*] Anthony Ashley Cooper, Earl of Shaftesbury, the politician and
intriguer of the period.

"Then he shall bring her influence to nought. Hark in thine ear. Thou
knowest----" (Here he whispered so low that Julian could not catch the
sound.)

"Know him?" answered the other--"Know Ned of the Island?--To be sure I
do."

"He is the man that shall knot the great fiddle-strings that have
snapped. Say I told you so; and thereupon I give thee his health."

"And thereupon I pledge thee," said the young nobleman, "which on any
other argument I were loath to do--thinking of Ned as somewhat the cut
of a villain."

"Granted, man--granted," said the other,--"a very thorough-paced
rascal; but able, my lord, able and necessary; and, in this plan,
indispensable.--Pshaw!--This champagne turns stronger as it gets older,
I think."

"Hark, mine honest fellow," said the courtier; "I would thou wouldst
give me some item of all this mystery. Thou hast it, I know; for whom do
men entrust but trusty Chiffinch?"

"It is your pleasure to say so, my lord," answered Smith (whom we shall
hereafter call by his real name of Chiffinch) with such drunken gravity,
for his speech had become a little altered by his copious libations in
the course of the evening,--"few men know more, or say less, than I do;
and it well becomes my station. _Conticuere omnes_, as the grammar hath
it--all men should learn to hold their tongue."

"Except with a friend, Tom--except with a friend. Thou wilt never be
such a dogbolt as to refuse a hint to a friend? Come, you get too wise
and statesman-like for your office.--The ligatures of thy most peasantly
jacket there are like to burst with thy secret. Come, undo a button,
man; it is for the health of thy constitution--Let out a reef; and let
thy chosen friend know what is meditating. Thou knowest I am as true as
thyself to little Anthony, if he can but get uppermost."

"_If_, thou lordly infidel!" said Chiffinch--"talk'st thou to me of
_ifs?_--There is neither _if_ nor _and_ i