No sooner had he ceased speaking than Popanilla really imagined that he
had only escaped the dangers of sedition and the sea to expire by less
hostile, though not less effective, means. To be strangled was not
much better than to be starved: and certainly, with half-a-dozen highly
respectable females clinging round his neck, he was not reminded for
the first time in his life what a domestic bowstring is an affectionate
woman. In an agony of suffocation he thought very little of his arms,
although the admiration of the men had already, in his imagination,
separated these useful members from his miserable body and had it not
been for some justifiable kicking and plunging, the veneration of the
ingenuous and surrounding youth, which manifested itself by their active
exertions to divide his singular garment into relics of a martyr of
liberty, would soon have effectually prevented the ill-starred Popanilla
from being again mistaken for a Nereid. Order was at length restored,
and a committee of eight appointed to regulate the visits of the
increasing mob.

The arrangements were judicious; the whole populace was marshalled into
ranks; classes of twelve persons were allowed consecutively to walk past
the victim of tyranny, corruption, and ignorance; and each person had
the honour to touch his finger. During this proceeding, which lasted a
few hours, an influential personage generously offered to receive
the eager subscriptions of the assembled thousands. Even the boys
subscribed, and ere six hours had passed since his arrival as a coatless
vagabond in this liberal city, Captain Popanilla found himself a person
of considerable means.

The receiver of the subscriptions, while he crammed Popanilla's
serpent-skin pockets fall of gold pieces, at the same time kindly
offered the stranger to introduce him to an hotel. Popanilla, who
was quite beside himself, could only bow his assent, and mechanically
accompanied his conductor. When he had regained his faculty of speech,
he endeavoured, in wandering sentences of grateful incoherency, to
express his deep sense of this unparalleled liberality. 'It was an
excess of generosity in which mankind could never have before indulged!'

'By no means!' said his companion, with great coolness; 'far from this
being an unparalleled affair, I assure you it is a matter of hourly
occurrence; make your mind quite easy. You are probably not aware that
you are now living in the richest and the most cha