the largest size rushed furiously towards him.
The knight stood upon his defence; but he would unquestionably have been
torn in pieces by the savage hounds, if a shower of oaths, seconded by a
vigorous application of kicks and blows from their master, had not
driven them growling off. Apologizing to Sir Rowland for this unpleasant
reception, and swearing lustily at his servant for occasioning it by
leaving the dogs at liberty, Jonathan ordered the man to light them to
the audience-room. The command was sullenly obeyed, for the fellow did
not appear to relish the rating. Ascending the stairs, and conducting
them along a sombre gallery, in which Trenchard noticed that every door
was painted black, and numbered, he stopped at the entrance of a
chamber; and, selecting a key from the bunch at his girdle, unlocked it.
Following his guide, Sir Rowland found himself in a large and lofty
apartment, the extent of which he could not entirely discern until
lights were set upon the table. He then looked around him with some
curiosity; and, as the thief-taker was occupied in giving directions to
his attendant in an undertone, ample leisure was allowed him for
investigation. At the first glance, he imagined he must have stumbled
upon a museum of rarities, there were so many glass-cases, so many open
cabinets, ranged against the walls; but the next convinced him that if
Jonathan was a virtuoso, his tastes did not run in the ordinary
channels. Trenchard was tempted to examine the contents of some of these
cases, but a closer inspection made him recoil from them in disgust. In
the one he approached was gathered together a vast assortment of
weapons, each of which, as appeared from the ticket attached to it, had
been used as an instrument of destruction. On this side was a razor with
which a son had murdered his father; the blade notched, the haft crusted
with blood: on that, a bar of iron, bent, and partly broken, with which
a husband had beaten out his wife's brains. As it is not, however, our
intention to furnish a complete catalogue of these curiosities, we shall
merely mention that in front of them lay a large and sharp knife, once
the property of the public executioner, and used by him to dissever the
limbs of those condemned to death for high-treason; together with an
immense two-pronged flesh-fork, likewise employed by the same terrible
functionary to plunge the quarters of his victims in the caldrons of
boiling tar and oil. Every