s address, and conducting the
unfortunate gentleman to his residence, the self-important petty
official adopted the very means to irritate him and render him more
boisterous. In a savage, brutal manner, he ordered the doctor to 'stop
his d----d noise, and move on, or he'd make him!'

'Nay, friend, thou art insolent,' remarked the young gentleman, who
drunk as he was, could not brook the insults of the low, vulgar ruffian.

'Insolent, am I?--take that, and be d----d to you!' cried the fellow,
raising a heavy bludgeon, and dealing the poor Doctor a blow on the head
which felled him senseless to the ground, covered with blood.

'That'll teach you genteel chaps not to meddle with us _officers_,'
growled the watchman. 'I wonder what he's got about him--perhaps some
dangerous weapon--let's see.' Thrusting his hand into the pockets of his
victim, he drew forth a valuable gold watch, and a purse containing a
considerable sum of money. Why did he so rapidly transfer these articles
to this own pockets? Was if for the purpose of restoring them to the
owner, on the morrow? We shall see.

'I 'spose I'd better lug him to the watch-house,' said the
'officer'--and he struck his club three times on the pavement, which
summoned another 'officer' to his assistance. The two then raising the
wounded man between them, conducted him towards the Tombs.

The Doctor, awaking from his unconsciousness, and feeling himself in the
grasp of the watchman, instantly comprehended the state of affairs, and
shuddered as he thought of his exposure and ruin. The fumes of the wine
which he had drunk, had entirely subsided; but he felt himself weak from
loss of blood, sick from his recent debauch, while the wound on his head
pained him terribly. Oh, how bitterly he deplored his connection with
that depraved woman, who had been the cause of his downfall!

The awful dread of exposure prompted him to appeal to the mercy of his
captors.

'Watchman,' said he, 'pray conduct me to my home, or suffer me to go
there myself, for with shame I confess it, I am a gospel minister, and
wish to avoid exposure.'

The two fellows laughed scornfully. 'Don't think to come that gammon
over us,' said they. 'A minister indeed!--and picked up blind drunk in
the street at midnight!'

'But I have money about me, and will pay you well,' said the Doctor.

The man who had struck him with the club, knowing that he had no money,
affected to be indignant at this attempt to 'bribe