Opening it with his usual calm and happy curiosity, he perceived that it was composed of pen-and-ink drawings.

And suddenly his heart sank like a scuttled ship.

He saw himself the victim of a caricature.
The first sketch had merely seemed picturesque, and he supposed it a clever play of fancy by some travelling friend, or perhaps an actual scene slightly exaggerated.

Even on reading, 'A distant view of the city of Wilsonople,' he was only slightly enlightened.

His heart beat still with befitting regularity.