chandlers' shops. It was no other than one of the most characteristic of these monopolising, chaffering, talk-loving, mischief-making, all-dealing houses which received the hungry wanderer. If bread were wanted, and it was that which Mortimer stood in need of at present, here were plenty of loaves of varying weights piled on the counter to the great annoyance of the neighbouring baker.

Butter, cheese, oils of every kind, bacon, the best -and the worst, met the eye on all sides. Above hung myriads of candles, dangling with the most inviting profusion; and nearly akin to them were brushes in abundance, great and small, tall and short, and fit for every class of labourers, from the supercilious major-domo, to the all-performing scullion. Into such a place, fraught with domestic merchandise to overflowing, did the heir of Byrdwood come, and behind the counter was a bustling inquisitive woman, whose daily work was as diversified as the goods were, over which she might be said to preside. And cool indeed was the look she cast upon Mortimer, as he entered the home-stall of village gossip. He was a stranger, and not a prepossessing guest by any means, but he was a customer, and could not be refused. So that his wants were speedily, though ungraciously supplied, and he again wandered forth in quest of some spot, where he might enjoy his scanty meal in silence.

Mankind are deceived, if they imagine that the delights of tattle are confined to the softer sex. It is even a hard reproach, to which these idols of our pleasures have been subjected, that they are the sole devotees of talk and ennui. There is not a chandler's shop in the meanest village which will not give a practical contradiction to this slander.

At the very time when Mortimer left the house of which we have been speaking, two men hastened into it almost at the same moment. These were the barber and the beadle, who, although by no means unemployed, were wont to exercise their respective callings with an enviable independence and leisure. Some news had just transpired in the neighbourhood with which we are unable to acquaint the reader, and it was the fortune of these parish worthies to learn it almost at the same instant. It was something quite recent, something of incredible import, a matter worth hearing, and infinitely

more worth the imparting, so that the question was, both on the side of barber and beadle, which should give publicity the soonest.

Whether this intelligence concerned the rich or the other classes, whether it were the foundering of some. reputation hitherto maintained in matchless purity, or the extinction of some ancient house whose ancestors held from the Conquest, or the last plunge of a desperate bankrupt now launched with a fresh freight upon the astonished world; or whether, to descend into mere common-place, it were the tale of a marriage, a wooing, a death, a funeral, a pageant, a ball, a meeting,—all matters of sovereign importance at the great house of call, we cannot pretend to say. Most likely the proposed news were respecting the fires then so common in the country, and the intended history another feat of the arch incendiary; for whilst the barber and his neighbour were speaking (both kept pace together with each other), the woman, impatient of the gossip perhaps, caught the beadle by the arm.

"There's been a very suspicious character here this very moment,' " cried she, with an eye which told won

ders.

"Where which way-where did he go?" exclaimed the patriotic beadle.

"He can't be far off," returned the woman.

Hastily and eagerly the two villagers sallied out, which gives a colour to our idea of their story, whilst the owner of the shop forthwith stepped out to indulge a near acquaintance with an embellished edition of the event she had partly heard.

"That's the man," cried the barber, observing a person coming from one of the new beer shops which had lately been set up. "He looks like a gentleman," observed the barber again, for Mortimer's dress betrayed his rank.

"We have orders to apprehend all gentlemanly-looking persons in these parts, " said the beadle, with a swaggering and fierce air.

"Is that so?" asked the barber, both pressing forward upon Mortimer, for he it was.

"During the troubles," replied the beadle, increasing in importance, and looking down upon his confederate, "the magistrates have had information, which it would

be improper for me as an officer to disclose; but, in fact, a person dressed like a gentleman is the author of all these wicked doings; and, therefore, we are to take up all gentlemen."

"All people who look like gentlemen, I suppose,

said the barber.

"Vastly well," said the beadle; "you are right, Mr. Scrape; but he looks very fierce, don't he?".

The beadle was one of that portly tribe whose tawdry trappings and gold lace have struck awe into village nestlings, from time whereof man knoweth not to the. contrary, but he had rarely been called upon to meddle with beings of stature equal to his own.

Mortimer was walking leisurely forward, and his pursuers had now overtaken him, but neither seemed disposed to interfere. The children skulked instinctively into their corners, with here and there a cry of "the beetle-the beetle's a coming," and the great man as naturally shook his wand, but he looked wistfully upon the barber as they approached the stranger.

"It's five hundred, a'ant it?" said the beadle.

"Five hundred-and we shall share it if we mind," said the barber, calling to mind the immense reward which had lately been offered for the apprehension of some rick-burners.

"I'll tell you what," said the beadle, "I'd give you twenty out of my share, if you'll collar him at once.

"I collar him!—I like that," said the barber; "what is to recompense me for broken bones?"

"I don't know-a-hem," said the beadle, observing that Mortimer was going on rather faster. The latter turned round, and beheld the officer of the parish arrayed in his robe of office, but vouchsafed him no further notice.

"That's the man, depend on it," cried the barber. "How wild he looks! he hasn't been shaved these six months."

"A-hem! Mr.-" said the beadle, raising his voice as high as his fears would permit, and his person to the utmost pitch of importance.

"He don't take any notice of us," exclaimed the barber. "Don't he? I shall see though," said the beadle; "it's my opinion he's afraid."

Mr.

"Mortimer felt a slight tug at the sleeve

of his coat; it was the shrinking hand of the parochial dignitary. The former was at that instant overwhelmed by the most mortifying and mournful considerations, and he shook off the intruder with the slightest effort. "Oh! indeed! is it so ?" cried the beadle, retreating however behind the barber, who in his turn gave back. "That's a dangerous character," continued the beadle, pointing to Mortimer, who was now in the midst of the village. An incendiary-a rick-burner-seize him."

The women peeped hastily forth from their hovels upon hearing the name of rick-burner, and the children ran out to get a sight of a follower of Swing. Mortimer, by no means at ease, and, yet not daunted by the abrupt salute, stood still, and gazed upon the officious beadle with contempt.

"That's the man as set the rick a-fire last night?Look at him!" said the beadle, raising the hue and cry with all his might.

Mortimer might have retreated, but he could not forbear under this new accusation.

"Do you charge me with having set a rick on fire? What are you thinking of?" said he to the beadle.

But the clamour was now fully raised, and the officer advanced boldly forward with a posse sufficient to have secured a whole gang.

"Gentlemen," said Mortimer, "it is a strange and a vexatious thing, that a stranger cannot pass through your village without the insult of being called a rickburner; but I am not going to run away, and you, Sir," addressing himself to the beadle, "must prove your words."

This appeal had like to have staggered the officer, and enabled the accused to effect his escape, but there happened to be one or two young farmers amongst the group, who had been great sufferers from the unlawful acts alluded to, and whose anger had, consequently, been kindled in no small degree. They speedily insisted upon detaining the unfortunate Mortimer, and threatened the valiant beadle that to allow the culprit to escape would, they promised him, cost no less than the loss of his place. It was, therefore, arranged that he should not have his liberty on any other terms than the due course of law; and as it was then the fittest time to carry him before a magistrate, he was required to surren

der himself, a demand which he complied with without further remonstrance. The party soon arrived at the office of the justice, the beadle vociferating as they passed on, that he was entitled to a full share of the reward, and the barber, on the other hand, earnestly asserting his claim to at least one half of the price of blood.

The magistrate before whom the prisoner appeared, was one of those who had sustained great damage from incendiaries, and he, accordingly regarded Mortimer with a feeling very far removed from that impartiality with which he had sworn to administer justice. But whatever might be the effect of a haggard appearance and care-worn cheek, the demeanor of the captive was not now such as when he was called on to answer the charge of forgery. Whatever fears he might labour under, he was not an incendiary; of the charge which had been brought against him, he was at least innocent. It, therefore, became very shortly apparent, that notwithstanding the suspicious circumstances of his journey, there was no evidence to warrant the detention of an unoffending stranger. The justice, reluctant as he might be, felt this in its fullest extent, and the beadle stripped of his golden hopes looked quite chap-fallen. Mortimer, in fact, was about to be liberated, when one of those fatal reverses of fortune, which afflict alike the righteous and the sinner, fell to his lot at the critical instant when he could best have dispensed with such a visitation.

We have acquainted the reader that the disappointed constables, from whose hands Mortimer had escaped, were again abroad, and it is not too much to add, that they used the most intense exertions to gain some knowledge of the fugitive. Had Mortimer, however, continued in his solitary hut, and only ventured by stealth to the neighbouring villages, he might possibly have remained secure from interruption till the heat of the pursuit had passed away. But, unluckily for him, instead of maintaining himself in seclusion, he had ventured within the walls of the most populous gossip-house in the village, and to this very spot the officers of justice, after losing their trace of him for some time, accidentally repaired. No time was lost in acquainting them of the rick-burner, as Mortimer was supposed to be,