Down with everybody, down with everything! Hurrah for the Protestant religion! That's the time of day, Muster Gashford!' The secretary regarded them both with a very favourable expression of countenance, while they gave loose to these and other demonstrations of their patriotic purpose; and was about to make some remark aloud, when Dennis, stepping up to him, and shading his mouth with his hand, said, in a hoarse whisper, as he nudged him with his elbow: 'Don't split upon a constitutional officer's profession, Muster Gashford.

There are popular prejudices, you know, and he mightn't like it.

Wait till he comes to be more intimate with me.

He's a fine-built chap, an't he ?' 'A powerful fellow indeed!' 'Did you ever, Muster Gashford,' whispered Dennis, with a horrible kind of admiration, such as that with which a cannibal might regard his intimate friend, when hungry,--'did you ever--and here he drew still closer to his ear, and fenced his mouth with both his open bands--'see such a throat as his?
Do but cast your eye upon it.

There's a neck for stretching, Muster Gashford!' The secretary assented to this proposition with the best grace he could assume--it is difficult to feign a true professional relish: which is eccentric sometimes--and after asking the candidate a few unimportant questions, proceeded to enrol him a member of the Great Protestant Association of England.