servant, and in went the modest Matthew, with an intimation that he wished to see Mr. Dumas on a very urgent business. In a few minutes a message was brought down from the master of the house, expressing his readiness to see the urgent gentleman, and up marched Matthew into the drawing-room, under the convoy of the ser vant, who, having placed a chair, again withdrew to the lower regions, leaving the two principals looking at each other in silence.

I crave your pardon, sir,' at length said the veracious Matthew; when I asked for Mr. Dumas, I fully expected to see a very different person,―one, indeed, who is not half your years, and permit me to add, who is by no means so well calculated as yourself for the higher walks of life.'

There needs no apology, Mr. Muchmore,' said the old gentleman, peering out the name from a furtive glance at the card, which he still held in hand.

I am quite ashamed of my stupid blunder,' replied the bashful visitant, and fear I must give up all hope of ever seeing the object of my search. I have already been over half London.'

The benevolent old gentleman took the hint, and politely requested him to be seated. Here was one point gained, at all events.

'You are too good,' said Matthew; I ought by this time to be with Lord Spring; but, no matter; I can put off that business to another day.'

'Lord Spring!' exclaimed the old gentleman; you are acquainted with that excellent nobleman,-my worthy friend, if I may presume to call him so ?'

Intimately,' replied Matthew; I was at his breakfast-table this very morning.'

Our epicure had struck the right chord. The benevolent old gentleman came at once to look upon him as a friend's friend, and throwing off the last shades of reserve, earnestly pressed him to take some refreshments. Would he like wine and biscuits? or did he prefer a sandwich? '

'Much obliged to you,' said Matthew; but, as I like to dine early, I seldom eat anything before that meal.'

This was a wise forbearance, and showed the delicacy of his tact, but still it did not produce the hoped-for invitation; so Matthew did all that could be done in such a dilemma. He made himself as agreeable as possible,-told a thousand pleasant anecdotes, at which, indeed, he was an adept,-discussed every subject that he thought most likely to prove interesting to his host, and, in short, played his part so well, that the old gentleman at last requested the favour of his company to dinner.

Oh! John Dory! John Dory!' mentally ejaculated the delighted Matthew, at last I have thee!-post tot casus, tot discrimina rerum— after so many cruel disappointinents, so many buffetings of unkind fortune!'

On his invitation being accepted, the old gentleman politely ex pressed a hope that his guest might be able to make a meal of the Lenten diet he had to set before him. Not expecting,' he said, 'the pleasure of any company, he had nothing better for dinner than some soup-maigre and an omelette.'

At this announcement Matthew was thunderstruck-no John Dory, after all! Had Fate herself entered the lists against him, and vowed

to make of him a second Tantalus? He groaned inwardly at the idea. And what had become of the fish?-whither had it gone?who was the lucky mortal destined by too partial fortune to feed upon its sweetness? It was no easy matter to get a solution of these knotty points, except, indeed, by putting the question directly to the old gentleman, and this was rather too much even for the modesty of our friend Matthew; so he fidgetted, and bit his fingers, and looked foolish, greatly to the surprise of his host, who could only attribute these symptoms to discontent with the Lenten fare he had announced. In his usual spirit of kindness, therefore, he said,

'Tis a pity you did not happen to call a few minutes earlier, as in that case I might have amended our meal with a splendid John Dory. It had just come in from an old friend; but being much too great a treat for a bachelor dining alone, I sent it off to good Master Gillies.'

The hunchbacked tailor of Cheapside?' said Matthew, with sudden vivacity.

The same,' replied the old gentleman. Odd enough that, high or low, you should seem to know all my acquaintance.'

Very odd,' responded Matthew. And now I think of it, I promised to see him to-day by one o'clock. It's on the matter of a bill of some standing;-and really I wonder how I came to forget it.'

Great was the old gentleman's admiration of this spirit of punctuality,--so great, indeed, that he was not particularly urgent with Matthew to fulfil his first promise of dining with him on omelette and soup-maigre; so that our unctuous friend once more found himself in the street in pursuit of the fugitive John Dory. But in proportion as his speed brought him nearer and nearer to the tailor's wellknown shop, so did his confidence in himself and his cause decline, the fact being that he was in Master Gillies' books, but not in his good books, and between the two there is a wide difference. Poor Matthew's appetite quailed for a moment when he remembered this circumstance, and how much worse than gout or rheumatism was the twinge from a bailiff's paw, however lightly laid upon the shoulder; but John Dory still gleamed to his fancy in the distance, marshalling him the way that he should go, as whilom the visionary dagger led Macbeth to the king's bed-room. On it beckoned him, and on he went, as if writs had been only innocent bits of parchment, with no more harm in them than so many strips for tailors'

measures.

In this desperate mood he entered the domicile of the redoubted fashioner, and though at the first glimpse of his visitant a dark cloud passed over the hunchback's face, yet this was transitory as an April shower, and like that was succeeded by a fair sunshine.

'I have not come to pay you,' said Matthew, deeming it wisest to anticipate the attack that he knew else awaited him,' I have not, indeed.'

I did not suppose you had,' answered the hunchback, in a mild voice. It's rather the old suit for a new suit, I should imagine.' And the little man chuckled as gently at his own facetiousness, as if he were half ashamed of doing anything so much out of character.

Matthew of course laughed, and in a much louder key, as in prudence bound; but the next moment, putting on a demure face, he

gravely said, 'No, no, Master Gillies; henceforth I intend incurring no fresh bills till I have paid off what I already owe.'

A very virtuous resolution,' said the hunchback, with a smile. What that smile meant it was no easy matter to divine; but it made Matthew feel anything rather than comfortable.

I have only called,' he said, 'that you might see I have not forgotten you, nor the little unsettled account between us.'

Again the hunchback gave one of his inexplicable leers, and his voice lost none of its wonted gentleness as he replied, Well, that does show an honest mind; there's at least the intention to pay—when you can.'

'Of course, of course,' said Matthew, hastily.

And now you are here,' said the hunchback, perhaps you will honour my poor house by taking 'your nooning with me?-some cake and a glass of sherry?'

Nay, that were to spoil your dinner; for I know you keep early hours, and it's hard upon two already; but, if it does not put you too much out of your way, I'll take a snack with you when you sit down to dinner.'

'I shall be proud of your company,' said the tailor. Excuse me, though, for a few minutes; I have some orders to give the men in the workshop.'

Oh! don't let me interfere with business,' exclaimed Matthew. Do exactly as if I were not here.'

To this the hunchback only replied by one of his uncomfortable smiles, and edged off something after the fashion of a crab into his back-parlour.

Confound the little distortion!' muttered Matthew, as the door closed upon his host; I hardly know what to make of him to-day. Now if he has gone out only to send for one of the city-officers, meaning to pack me off to the Compter, now that he has me in the rat-trap? Oh, John Dory! John Dory! what toils, what perils do I encounter for thy sake!'

This was a wise suspicion, all things considered, and it was not a little strengthened when, through the shop window, he saw one of the hunchback's myrmidons hurrying along like one who is bound on a business that requires no ordinary despatch.

After such a hint, it would have been no very prudent measure to have trusted implicitly to his host's smiles: out, therefore, he darted, and followed, though not too closely, the steps of the flying tailor, till he saw him enter a house with grated windows, and a huge brass plate affixed. On the latter, even at that distance, he could plainly read, 'Thomas Fangs, Officer to the Sheriffs of Lon don and Middlesex,'-a proof that even in those days bailiffs had the grace to be ashamed of their vocation, and so endeavoured to cloak a foul office by a fine name. Here was 'confirmation strong as proof of holy writ;' and, as if that were not enough, the tailor's man had not been in the house more than a minute when he came out again with Mr. Fangs himself in his best top-boots, a dirty, bandy-legged follower bringing up the rear of this respectable party; Off flew Matthew the instant his eye caught them, up this alley and down another, till he was fairly brought to a stand, from want of breath, at a timber-yard on the river side. By a sort of blind impulse he dashed into the yard, and finding the door of communica

tion open between that and the house adjoining, he entered without hesitation, and scampered up stairs to the drawing-room, much to the surprise of those who were sitting about the fire-place in expectation of their dinner.

'Mr. Muchmore!' cried the lady of the mansion.

Matthew!' exclaimed the master; where, in the name of wonder, do you come from?-and why in this strange fashion? One would fancy you had dropt down from the clouds amongst us.'

The sound of these familiar voices acted upon Matthew like cold water dashed into the face of a patient just about to go off into a fit. His alarm at tailors and bailiffs passed away in a minute; and he at once saw that he had stumbled, without knowing it, into the house of an old friend, no other, indeed, than John Gillies, the timbermerchant. It would be difficult to say which party looked the most astonished,-Matthew, or mine host and his family; but the former, with whom bashfulness was at no time a predominant failing, soon recovered himself enough to stammer out in excuse, that, wishing to cut a most unpleasant acquaintance, he had taken refuge in the merchant's dwelling. Now this certainly was the truth, only it happened to be truth in disguise, and it passed muster very well with the frank-hearted man of deals, who invited him, since he was there, to stay and take pot-luck with the family.

By the by,' he said, we have had an odd accident to-day, that I was angry enough about at the time, but which I am not sorry for now that I find we are to have the pleasure of your company. A fine John Dory was brought to the house about half an hour ago, and, as it was directed to Mr. Gillies,-some namesake of mine, I suppose, the cook thought it had been sent in by me to eke out a short dinner, and without farther ceremony popped it into the fishkettle. It was only from a few words dropped casually that I learned the mistake, and then it was too late to attempt rectifying it-the fish was nearly half-boiled; so, although somewhat against my conscience, I e'en left Master John where I found him-in hot water.'

Here was a pleasant stroke of that whimsical jade, Fortune-after having hunted John Dory all the morning to no purpose, now to stumble upon him in a place and at a time when such a thing could be least expected. The heart of Mat., therefore, leaped and was glad within him at the messenger's stupidity in consigning the precious cargo to a wrong port, and internally he vowed to make himself amends by many a precious morsel for all his previous disappointments. But l'homme propose, et Dieu dispose,' says the proverb, and so it turned out on the present occasion.

It was past the usual dinner-hour, and the timber-merchant, having repeatedly consulted his watch at short intervals, and as often received from it a renewed assurance of the fact, began to be impatient; his wife smiled more and more languidly in answer to his increasing complaints of the cook's want of punctuality; the young ladies looked pale and dull from fasting; and when nearly half an hour had thus elapsed, and still no call came to dinner, even Matthew's previous hilarity and triumph gave way to certain unpleasant misgivings, though he, too, was silent, hiding in his bosom, as whilom did the Spartan boy, the foe that was devouring him.

At length, instead of dinner, two strangers were announced, the

one a little, thin, dapper coxcomb, in a sky-blue coat, and the other a tall, broad-shouldered varlet, with legs and arms conformable, and a bull-neck, admirably calculated for the support of the huge head that rested on it.

That's Mr. Muchmore,' cried the sky-blue individual, pointing to our friend Matthew.

Then you must come with me,' said the more rugged personage, stepping forward.

Not so, friend,' replied the merchant. I'll be his bail, and I hardly think you'll venture to refuse it.'

'Bail!' said the man, with a sardonic grin; it's much you know of these matters. Why, it ain't bailable,-not in no court.'" 'Not bailable!' cried the merchant. 'I never heard of such a

thing!'

You hear it now, then,' said the man, and it's I that tells youJohn Holdfast; so mind, old gentleman, you remember it another time.'

Before the merchant could deliver himself of the angry reply that was at his tongue's end, Mr. Breedon-for it was no other than that worthy-gracefully stepped forward, and, with as much joy in his face as if he were communicating the pleasantest news imaginable, informed him that his friend was not arrested for debt, but appre hended on a charge of high treason.

Mel' exclaimed the astonished Matthew, apprehend me upon a charge of high treason! There must be some mistake!'

་

'That 'ere's no consarn of mine,' cried the Bow Street myrmidon. Make the Old Bailey jury believe as much, and it may save you a ride to Tyburn.'

Are you sure that this gentleman is the person intended in your warrant? asked the merchant, quite satisfied that his fat friend was the last person in the world to mix himself up in anything of

the kind.

You're precious hard of belief,' replied the man, with a sneer. 'Read the warrant yourself.'

The merchant took the sealed parchment, and seemed to scan it over and over again, his perplexity being anything but lessened by the perusal. At length he said, The warrant bears your name, sure enough. I should not wonder if some informing scoundrel has been trumping up this ridiculous charge, in the hope of somehow or other making money of you. There is no help for it, I fear,' continued the merchant. You must needs go, and I will with you to see that you have fair play in this matter.'

go

For the first time in the whole course of that eventful day was Matthew false to the memory of John Dory.

The magistrate, into whose awful presence Matthew was now led, or rather dragged, was devoted, as becomes a worshipful law-dis penser, soul and body to the powers that be. Short work was made with Matthew. He was fully committed to Newgate to take his trial, with a very fair chance of being hanged, unless some Deus ex machina descended, in this the fifth and last act, to save him from the gallows.

The hours passed sadly enough with the unlucky prisoner; confused visions of rope, and John Dory, and bailiffs floated before his