For a sour man, his honour kept a good deal of company; and I, who waited upon them, with eyes and ears open, could see that my master was playing a difficult and dangerous game.
One week certain mysterious persons would drop in, and sit in long confabulation.

Another week some fellow-justice of his honour's would claim his hospitality and advice on matters of deep importance.
Sometimes a noisy braggart from the country side would demand an audience; and sometimes an officer in his Majesty's uniform would arrive as an honoured guest.
On all such occasions the tenor of the talk was the growing unrest of the country, and the gathering of that great storm which was soon to turn the whole country into a slaughter-house.
But the difficult task which Mr Gorman set before himself was to agree with everybody.
That he was deep in league with the smugglers on the coast I myself knew.

But to hear him talk to the revenue officers who visited him, one might think that he spent his days and nights in seeking to put down this detestable trade.

That he had a hand in the landing of foreign arms the reader knows as well as I.

But when his brother magistrates came to lay their heads with his, none was more urgent than he to run down the miscreants.