I can
handle this trunnion--but a bargain's a bargain; and so I'll tell you,
for your gold piece, that the comrade of the fellow forced one of your
wenches, her with the fair hair, will she, nill she, into Tickling Tom's
wherry; and they are far enough up Thames by this time, with wind and
tide."

"Sacred Heaven, and I stand here!" exclaimed Julian.

"Why, that is because your honour will not take a boat."

"You are right, my friend--a boat--a boat instantly!"

"Follow me, then, squire.--Here, Tom, bear a hand--the gentleman is our
fare."

A volley of water language was exchanged betwixt the successful
candidate for Peveril's custom and his disappointed brethren, which
concluded by the ancient Triton's bellowing out, in a tone above them
all, "that the gentleman was in a fair way to make a voyage to the isle
of gulls, for that sly Jack was only bantering him--No. 20 had rowed for
York Buildings."

"To the isle of gallows," cried another; "for here comes one who will
mar his trip up Thames, and carry him down to Execution Dock."

In fact, as he spoke the word, a constable, with three or four of his
assistants, armed with the old-fashioned brown bills, which were still
used for arming those guardians of the peace, cut off our hero's farther
progress to the water's edge, by arresting him in the King's name. To
attempt resistance would have been madness, as he was surrounded on all
sides; so Peveril was disarmed, and carried before the nearest Justice
of the Peace, for examination and committal.

The legal sage before whom Julian was taken was a man very honest in
his intentions, very bounded in his talents, and rather timid in his
disposition. Before the general alarm given to England, and to the city
of London in particular, by the notable discovery of the Popish Plot,
Master Maulstatute had taken serene and undisturbed pride and pleasure
in the discharge of his duties as a Justice of the Peace, with the
exercise of all its honorary privileges and awful authority. But the
murder of Sir Edmondsbury Godfrey had made a strong, nay, an indelible
impression on his mind; and he walked the Courts of Themis with fear and
trembling after that memorable and melancholy event.

Having a high idea of his official importance, and rather an exalted
notion of his personal consequence, his honour saw nothing from that
time but cords and daggers before his eyes, and never stepped out of
his own house, which he fortified, and in