, and that, notwithstanding that minister's overthrow, he still
retained his position, unlike the usual fate of the adherents of a
fallen ministry, they will surely admit that the favourite of fortune
could not be better personified than by the same Master Janos; nor can
it be denied that the individual opposite was no less persecuted by
the fickle goddess, not only because he was the object of honest
Master Janos's suspicious glances; but more especially because a
nailsmith's apprentice from Vienna could think of coming to Hungary of
all places on earth--a country where the craft is carried on wholesale
at the corner of every village, by the Wallachian gipsies.

Master Janos had not studied Lavater, but long experience had led him
to conclude, after minute examination of the man's countenance, that
some counter-revolutionary scheme was turning in his head.

Consequently he drew his chair nearer, and determined to break the
silence.

"Where do you come from, sir? if I may presume to ask," he inquired,
with a wily glance at his companion.

"Hyay! from Vienna," sighed the stranger, looking into the bottom of
his glass.

"And what news from that city?"

"Hyaee! nothing good."

"Eh, what? nothing good!--what bad, then?"

"Hyay! war is much feared."

"Feared! what audacity!--how dare they fear?"

"Hyay! sir, I do not fear either at thirty leagues' distance; but once
I heard from the cellar how they were bombarding the streets, and I
found nothing agreeable in it."

Master Janos found still greater reason for suspicion. He resolved to
make him drink, and he would probably come on the traces of some
dangerous plot.

How much does a nailsmith's stomach require? At the second pitcher his
head sank slowly back, and his tongue moved with difficulty.

"Now for it!" thought Master Janos, filling his glass. "Eljen!
liberty!" he exclaimed, waiting for the nailsmith to strike glasses.

The latter was not long in responding to the invitation, and echoed
the "Eljen!" as far as his thickening tongue permitted.

"Now it is your turn to give a toast," said the vice-jailer, slily
eyeing his victim.

"Indeed, I am not used to give toasts, sir; I only drink them."

"Come, don't play the egotist, but drink to whoever you consider the
greatest man in the world!"

"In the whole world?" replied the nailsmith, reflecting that the world
was very large, and that he knew very little about it.

"Yes, in the whole world!--the wh