excellent as this."

"Certainly, my lord, certainly; I beg your pardon; but--bless me, who is
that tall fellow in black, talking to himself yonder, my lord? The turn
of the road hides him from you just at present; but I see him well.
Ha! ha! what gestures he uses! I dare say he is one of the petitioners,
and--yes, my lord, by Jupiter, it is Wolfe himself! You had better
(excuse me, my lord) come down from the footpath: it is not wide enough
for two people; and Wolfe, I dare say, a d--d rascal, would not get out
of the way for the devil himself! He's a nasty, black, fierce-looking
fellow; I would not for something meet him in a dark night, or that sort
of thing!"

"I do not exactly understand, Mr. Glumford," returned Lord Ulswater,
with a supercilious glance at that gentleman, "what peculiarities of
temper you are pleased to impute to me, or from what you deduce the
supposition that I shall move out of my way for a person like Mr. Woolt,
or Wolfe, or whatever be his name."

"I beg your pardon, my lord, I am sure," answered Glumford: "of course
your lordship knows best, and if the rogue is impertinent, why, I'm
a magistrate, and will commit him; though, to be sure," continued our
righteous Daniel, in a lower key, "he has a right to walk upon the
footpath without being ridden over, or that sort of thing."

The equestrians were now very near Wolfe, who, turning hastily round,
perceived, and immediately recognized Lord Ulswater. "Ah-ha!" muttered
he to himself, "here comes the insolent thirster for blood, grudging us
seemingly even the meagre comfort of the path which his horse's hoofs
are breaking up; yet, thank Heaven," added the republican, looking with
a stern satisfaction at the narrowness of the footing, "he cannot very
well pass me, and the free lion does not move out of his way for such
pampered kine as those to which this creature belongs."

Actuated by this thought, Wolfe almost insensibly moved entirely into
the middle of the path, so that with the posts on one side, and the
abrupt and undefended precipice, if we may so call it, on the other,
it was quite impossible for any horseman to pass the republican, unless
over his body.

Lord Ulswater marked the motion, and did not want penetration to
perceive the cause. Glad of an opportunity to wreak some portion of
his irritation against a member of a body so offensive to his mind, and
which had the day before obtained a sort of triumph over his exertions
agains