have indeed the name of the
little engine, of which I have had experience in passing the yards at
Westminster.--Well, sir, this token of slight regard compelled me to
give the gentleman such language, as soon rendered it necessary for him
to make more serious arms. We fought on horseback--breaking ground, and
advancing by signal; and, as I never miss aim, I had the misadventure to
kill the Honourable Master Crofts at the first shot. I would not wish my
worst foe the pain which I felt, when I saw him reel on his saddle, and
so fall down to the earth!--and, when I perceived that the life-blood
was pouring fast, I could not but wish to Heaven that it had been my own
instead of his. Thus fell youth, hopes, and bravery, a sacrifice to a
silly and thoughtless jest; yet, alas! wherein had I choice, seeing that
honour is, as it were, the very breath in our nostrils; and that in no
sense can we be said to live, if we permit ourselves to be deprived of
it?"

The tone of feeling in which the dwarfish hero concluded his story, gave
Julian a better opinion of his heart, and even of his understanding,
than he had been able to form of one who gloried in having, upon a
grand occasion, formed the contents of a pasty. He was indeed enabled to
conjecture that the little champion was seduced into such exhibitions,
by the necessity attached to his condition, by his own vanity, and by
the flattery bestowed on him by those who sought pleasure in practical
jokes. The fate of the unlucky Master Crofts, however, as well as
various exploits of this diminutive person during the Civil Wars, in
which he actually, and with great gallantry, commanded a troop of horse,
rendered most men cautious of openly rallying him; which was indeed the
less necessary, as, when left alone, he seldom failed voluntarily to
show himself on the ludicrous side.

At one hour after noon, the turnkey, true to his word, supplied the
prisoners with a very tolerable dinner and a flask of well-flavoured
though light claret; which the old man, who was something of a
bon-vivant, regretted to observe, was nearly as diminutive as himself.
The evening also passed away, but not without continued symptoms of
garrulity on the part of Geoffrey Hudson.

It is true these were of a graver character than he had hitherto
exhibited, for when the flask was empty, he repeated a long Latin
prayer. But the religious act in which he had been engaged, only gave
his discourse a more serious turn