hope; but now, the glimpse he had caught
of the high-waisted satin pelisse with dangling
buttons; and broad fur edging grandly
displayed on her magnificent figure, of her
dashing Leghorn bonnet that fluttered with cherry-
coloured ribbons, and of her smart reticule,
and her green Limerick gloves daintily
confining a sprig of rosemary between her
fingers, struck him with an awful sensation
that he had lived a life of presumption.
When he saw his rival, Mr. Vollum, handing
her into an inside place, he mounted his box
moodily, and drove to within one stage of
Derby without opening his mouth either to
speak to the " box-seat," to drink, or indeed,
to disentomb it once from its shawl
sepulchre.

The merry little barmaid preferred to
travel outside, with her good friend the guard,
in the sunshine, and Mr. Vollum deposited
her mother fussily in an inside seat; but, in
his overwhelming desire to secure a place
next to that lady, he tumbled ever the top-
boots of one of the passengers, in whose
leather-cased lap he alighted.

* I suppose he's mad! " exclaimed the
young man who sat opposite. Mr. Vollum
frowned, and considered whether these words
were indictable or not; but the speaker
escaped prosecution by continuing the talk
the change of horses had not interrupted:

"Nobody but a maniac could have believed
himself able to sack Nottingham with a
handful of rabble; and surely it is not
humane to hang poor wretches because they are
mad."

"Ecod! if that were the law," said the
old gentleman in the corner, chuckling till
he shook a sleet of hair powder over the
collar of his coat, " being a physician, I should
be hanging people daily."

The country gentleman rapped out an oath.
"Rot it, sir! rebellion's a madness that
deserves hanging; and, by the blessing of Heaven,
while England remains a free and happy
country, will always get it. But I don't
believe any of 'em are mad; neither the
Nottingham Captain, nor any of his crew;
including your learned friend the Young Squire,
who's to be tried to-morrow. They're sane
enough, every man Jack of 'em."

"A man may be sane on every subject
except one. He may be a monomaniac;"
returned the young man, modestly.

"Stuff! " was the reply. " I 've been a
visiting justice for a quarter of a century,
and I think I ought to know something about
lunatics. New-fangled nonsense! A man's
mad, or he isn't mad. He can't be a quarter
mad, or half mad, or three parts mad, can
he? As for mono-what-d'ye-call-it, nobody
ever heard of such a thing when I was a
boy."

"Nevertheless," said the physician, " it is
very common. Why, there is a patient of
mine, a lady (of course I don't mention
names), who is as rational, and patient, and
clear-headed as the best of us—more so than
the best of us would be, perhaps, if we were
in as much trouble as she is—but who as
thoroughly believes that she saw and
conversed with a certain person, at a time when
that certain person was ten miles away, as I
believe you sit there."

Vollum pricked up his ears, and looked
very hard at the doctor above his spectacles.
The hanging philosopher, tired of the subject,
asked, "When is this Nottingham captain,
fellow to be hung? On Monday?"

"I think not," answered his vis-a-vis, " not
until the trial of Mr. Dornley, the remaining
prisoner, is over; and that comes on as you
observed, to-morrow."

"Well, he 's sure to swing for it; that's
one comfort," rejoined Rustic Humanity.

The younger man protested against such
comfort, and the two kept up the dispute.

"As for young Dornley," roared the
boisterous disputant, " Hanging's too good for
him. A fellow of good blood leading poor
ignorant devils into trouble, and then——"

"Stop! " said his opponent, warmly. " You
are sentencing the man before he is tried.
How do you know what he deserves? Perhaps
he is innocent."

"Nobody would talk in that way but a
radical, and a radical in disguise," exclaimed
the other. " Where's your white hat?"

"I do not care who hears me," continued
the person, not heeding the vulgar question,
and not answering it, "and I say that
I would not hang a dog upon such evidence
as that which is to be brought against
Young Dornley. If a certain amount of
hanging be necessary for public tranquillity—
a notion not too ridiculous to be entertained
in high quarters—I would feed the gallows with
the witnesses: not with the prisoners, but
with the paid spies and suborned treason-
mongers." The county magistrate, in pulling
his hat over his eyes, disturbed his flaxen
wig. " Knolliver, the arch-spy, was afraid
to show himself at the recent trials; but
he is the principal witness against Young
Dornley, and they cannot do without him.
If the Derby people catch him, they threaten,
I 'm told, to tear him limb from limb."

"It's infernal hot! Wouldn't you like the
window down, ma'arn? " the country squire
asked, without looking round.

Mrs. Tuckey complacently assented;
remarking that it was more like May than
October. From this minute the leather-lunged
champion of the gallows deprived his fellow-
travellersof the light of his countenance (a very
red light, habitually fed with ardent spirits)
by looking out of window; Mr. Vollum went
on talking to himself and gazing at Mrs.
Tuckey over his spectacles in a tender and
abstracted manner; but presently proved that
she alone did not occupy his thoughts, by
turning to the doctor, and saying, in an earnest
under-tone, "You, of your own ocular
knowledge, could not say that that gentleman was