ich they dressed themselves for the day,
and who learned from him how to travel, with the newest and best
grace, the general Road to Ruin; there were others of a graver
character--discarded statesmen, political spies, opposition orators,
servile tools of administration, men who met not elsewhere, but who
regarded the Duke's mansion as a sort of neutral ground; sure, that if
he was not of their opinion to-day, this very circumstance rendered it
most likely he should think with them to-morrow. The Puritans themselves
did not shun intercourse with a man whose talents must have rendered
him formidable, even if they had not been united with high rank and
an immense fortune. Several grave personages, with black suits, short
cloaks, and band-strings of a formal cut, were mingled, as we see their
portraits in a gallery of paintings, among the gallants who ruffled
in silk and embroidery. It is true, they escaped the scandal of being
thought intimates of the Duke, by their business being supposed to refer
to money matters. Whether these grave and professing citizens mixed
politics with money lending, was not known; but it had been long
observed, that the Jews, who in general confine themselves to the latter
department, had become for some time faithful attendants at the Duke's
levee.

It was high-tide in the antechamber, and had been so for more than an
hour, ere the Duke's gentleman-in-ordinary ventured into his bedchamber,
carefully darkened, so as to make midnight at noonday, to know his
Grace's pleasure. His soft and serene whisper, in which he asked whether
it were his Grace's pleasure to rise, was briefly and sharply answered
by the counter questions, "Who waits?--What's o'clock?"

"It is Jerningham, your Grace," said the attendant. "It is one,
afternoon; and your Grace appointed some of the people without at
eleven."

"Who are they?--What do they want?"

"A message from Whitehall, your Grace."

"Pshaw! it will keep cold. Those who make all others wait, will be the
better of waiting in their turn. Were I to be guilty of ill-breeding, it
should rather be to a king than a beggar."

"The gentlemen from the city."

"I am tired of them--tired of their all cant, and no religion--all
Protestantism, and no charity. Tell them to go to Shaftesbury--to
Aldersgate Street with them--that's the best market for their wares."

"Jockey, my lord, from Newmarket."

"Let him ride to the devil--he has horse of mine, and spurs of his