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"Yours be all the gain, as mine has been the charges, "I have brought it to bear finely: However, all I "have laid out upon it goes for nothing; thou shalt "have it with all its appurtenances; I ask nothing "but leave to go home."

NIC. FROG. The counsel are feed, and all things prepared for a trial; thou shalt be forced to stand the issue it shall be pleaded in thy name as well as mine: go home if thou canst; the gates are shut, the turnpikes locked, and the roads barricadoed *.

J. BULL. Even these very ways, Nic., that thou toldest me were as open to me as thyself? If I can't pass with my own equipage, what can I expect for my goods and waggons? I am denied passage through those very grounds, that I have purchased with my own money: however, I am glad I have made the experiment, it may serve me in some stead.

[John Bull was so overjoyed that he was going to take possession of Ecclesdown, that nothing could vex him. "Nic.," quoth he, "I am just a going to "leave thee; cast a kind look upon me at parting." Nic. looked sour and grum, and would not open his mouth.]

J. BULL. I wish thee all the success that thy heart can desire, and that these honest gentlemen of the long robe may have their bellyful of law.

[Nic. could stand it no longer; but flung out of the room with disdain, and beckoned the lawyers to follow him.]

* Difficulty of the march of part of the army to Dunkirk.

J. BULL.

J. BULL. B'uy, b'uy, Nic.; not one poor smile at parting? won't you shake your day-day, Nic.? b'uy, Nic. With that, John marched out of the common road, 'cross the country, to take possession of Ecclesdown.

CHAP. XXII.

Of the great joy that John expressed when he got possession of Ecclesdown *.

WHEN John had got into his castle, he seemed like Ulysses upon his plank after he had been well soused in salt water: who (as Homer says) was as glad as a judge going to sit down to dinner, after hearing a long cause upon the bench. I dare say John Bull's joy was equal to that of either of the two: he skipped from room to room; ran up stairs and down stairs, from the kitchen to the garrets, and from the garrets to the kitchen; he peeped into every cranny; sometimes he admired the beauty of the architecture, and the vast solidity of the mason's work; at other times he commended the symmetry and proportion of the rooms. He walked about the gardens; he bathed himself in the canal, swimming, diving, and beating the liquid element, like a milk-white swan. The hall resounded with the sprightly violin, and the martial hautboy. The family tript it about and capered, like hailstones bounding from a marble floor. Wine, ale,

* Dunkirk.

and

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and october flew about as plentifully as kennel-water: then a frolick took John in the head to call up some of Nic. Frog's pensioners, that had been so mutinous in his family.

J. BULL. Are you glad to see your master in Ecclesdown castle?

ALL. Yes, indeed, sir.

J. BULL. Extremely glad?
ALL. Extremely glad, sir.

J. BULL. Swear to me, that you are so.

Then they began to damn and sink their souls to the lowest pit of Hell, if any person in the world rejoiced more than they did.

J. BULL. Now hang me, if I don't believe you are a parcel of perjured rascals; however, take this bumper of october to your master's health.

Then John got upon the battlements, and, looking over, he called to Nic. Frog:

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"How d'ye do, Nic.? D'ye see where I am, Nic.? "I hope the cause goes on swimmingly, Nic. When "dost thou intend to go to Claypool, Nic.? Wilt "thou buy there some high heads of the newest cut "for my daughters? How comest thou to go with thy arm tied up? Has old Lewis given thee a rap "over thy fingers-ends? Thy weapon was a good << one, when I wielded it, but the butt-end remains in my hands. I am so busy in packing up my goods, "that I have no time to talk with thee any longer. It "would do thy heart good to see what waggon-loads "I am preparing for market. If thou wantest any "good office of mine, for all that has happened, I "will use thee well, Nic. B'uy Nic."

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POSTSCRIPT.

IT has been disputed among the literati of Grubstreet, whether sir Humphry proceeded any farther into the history of John Bull. By diligent inquiry we have found the titles of some chapters, which appear to be a continuation of it; and are as follow.

Chap. I. How John was made angry with the articles

of agreement. How he kicked the parchment th: ough the house, up stairs and down stairs, and put himself in a great beat therely.

Chap. II. How in his passion he was going to cut off.ir Roger's head with a cleaver. Of the strange manner of sir Roger's escaping the blow, by laying his head upon the dresser.

Chap. III. How some of John's servants attempted to scale his house with rope-ladders; and how many unfortunately dangled in the same.

Chap. IV. Of the methods by which John endeavoured to preserve the peace among his neighbours: how he kept a pair of steelyards to weigh them; and by diet, purging, vomiting, and bleeding, tried to bring them to equal bulk and strength.

Chap. V. Of false accounts of the weights given in by some of the journeymen; and of the Newmarket tricks, that were practised at the steelyards.

Chap. VI. How John's new journeymen brought him other-guise accounts of the steelyards.

VOL. XVII.

Τ

Chap.

Chap. VII. How sir Swain Northy was, by bleeding, purging, and a steel diet, brought into a consumption;

and how John was forced afterward to give him the gold cordial.

Chap. VIII. How Peter Bear † was overfed, and afterward refused to submit to the course of physick.

Chap. IX. How John pampered esquire South with titbits, till he grew wanton; how he got drunk with Calabrian wine, and longed for Sicilian beef, and how John carried him thither in his barge.

Chap. X. How the esquire, from a foul feeder, grew dainty: how he longed for mangoes, spices, and Indian birdsnests, &c. and could not sleep but in a chintz bed.

Chap. XI. The esquire turned tradesman; how he set up a China-shop over against Nic. Frog.

Chap. XII. How he procured Spanish flies to blister his neighbours, and as a provocative to himself. As likewise how he ravished Nic. Frog's favourite daughter. Chap. XIII. How Nic. Frog bearing the girl squeak,

went to call John Bull as a constable: calling of a constable no preventive of a rape.

Chap. XIV. How John rose out of his bed in a cold

morning to prevent a duel between esquire South and lord Strutt; how, to his great surprise, he found the combatants drinking geneva in a brandy-shop, with Nic.'s favourite daughter between them. How they both fell upon John so that he was forced to fight kis way out.

*

King of Sweden.
The Ostend company.

+ Czar of Muscovy.

Chap.

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