ly great, and of course multiplied by
the tongue of Rumour. F. B. knew to a few millions of rupees, more or
less, what the Colonel possessed, and what Clive would inherit. Thomas
Newcome's distinguished military services, his high bearing, lofty
courtesy, simple but touching garrulity;--for the honest man talked much
more now than he had been accustomed to do in former days, and was not
insensible to the flattery which his wealth brought him,--his reputation
as a keen man of business, who had made his own fortune by operations
equally prudent and spirited, and who might make the fortunes of
hundreds of other people, brought the worthy Colonel a number of
friends, and I promise you that the loudest huzzahs greeted his health
when it was proposed at the Blackwall dinners. At the second annual
dinner after Clive's marriage some friends presented Mrs. Clive Newcome
with a fine testimonial. There was a superb silver cocoa-nut tree,
whereof the leaves were dexterously arranged for holding candle and
pickles; under the cocoa-nut was an Indian prince on a camel, giving his
hand to a cavalry officer on horseback--a howitzer, a plough, a loom, a
bale of cotton, on which were the East India Company's arms, a Brahmin,
Britannia, and Commerce with a cornucopia were grouped round the
principal figures: and if you would see a noble account of this chaste
and elegant specimen of British art, you are referred to the pages of
the Pall Mall Gazette of that year, as well as to Fred Bayham's noble
speech in the course of the evening, when it was exhibited. The East and
its wars, and its heroes, Assaye and Seringapatam ("and Lord Lake and
Laswaree too," calls out the Colonel greatly elated), tiger-hunting,
palanquins, Juggernaut, elephants, the burning of widows--all passed
before us in F. B.'s splendid oration. He spoke of the product of the
Indian forest, the palm-tree, the cocoa-nut tree, the banyan-tree. Palms
the Colonel had already brought back with him, the palms of valour, won
in the field of war (cheers). Cocoa-nut trees he had never seen, though
he had heard wonders related regarding the milky contents of their
fruit. Here at any rate was one tree of the kind, under the branches of
which he humbly trusted often to repose--and, if he might be so bold as
to carry on the Eastern metaphor, he would say, knowing the excellence
of the Colonel's claret and the splendour of his hospitality, that he
would prefer a cocoa-nut day at the Colonel