warrant even your rash assertion, ought, at least, to have been well known and well esteemed by you. But, such as he is, you can produce him ?"

"I can, at a second's call; but, if you allow me my choice, I had rather decline, no matter under what opinions, from all that hear me, farther inquiry in this business, until some certain day, which I am ready to name, and upon which I engage to re-appear before Captain Whaley, and stand or fall by the case I shall make out."

"It is not intended to deny you a future opportunity for arranging your full proof, Mr. Talbot; but meantime, having pushed us so far, we must insist, at least, upon being confronted with the man from whose assertion yours is, for the present, exclusively derived."

"You push me, not I you, Sir Thomas. But does the party most interested desire it ?"

"I have already called you slanderer and—” his rival began.

ronet.

"Peace, Sir William !" cried the elder Ba"Mr. Talbot, we await your decision." Then, Captain Whaley, be good enough to order in the prisoner who waits in the hall," said Talbot deliberately: and again Sir Thomas

saw he had indeed rightly pronounced, in his own mind, upon the excusable, though headlong credulity, of his former friend.

"Oh, the Croppy dog!" cried the magistrate. "What, that fellow! eh?-I guessed it all along. I said it was Croppyism at bottom; didn't I, eh? To be sure, he must appear before us: haul him in here, Saunders."

"One other question, before he enters," continued Sir Thomas, as the disciplinarian withdrew to obey orders. "When this man made to you, Mr. Talbot, his extraordinary assertion, did you not ask him to give particular circumstances such as the name, family, and residence of the supposed lady?"

"I did; but, for recent and most important reasons, as he alleged, my informant, pledging himself to be explicit at a future time, declined to answer my questions.".

“Then, you know no more from him, nor, indeed, from any other quarter, than we know from you."

"Nothing more."

The person so generally alluded to, here made his entrance, followed by Saunders Smyly. Not the least sign of alarm or embarrassment marked his features or manner. The same leer

still played round his mouth, and one of his hands was yet thrust into his bosom. And, to crown his effrontery, his most suspicious new hat still hung at one side of his head, and he lounged into the magisterial chamber without attempting to remove it.

"Sarvent, gintlemen all," he said, seating himself on a chair near the door.

"Off with your hat, you scoundrel!" cried Captain Whaley, darting upon him, and knocking it about the floor. "Aha!" he continued, starting, and staring in some terror at Bill's head" Be d-d! but I knew I could guess a Croppy look at the fellow's pole !" seizing and forcing the head forward, and showing the hair cut short behind; while Bill held quietly for the investigation, and when it had ended, and that he again sat upright, the same unaltered, jeering grin was visible on his features.

And here the reader has an explanation of a term applied to the conspirators and insurrec tionists of 1798, and used by us in our titlepage, though not hitherto explained.

The French Republicans, to distinguish themselves (to a hair, says a punster at our elbow,) from the old aristocratic têtes, clubs, queus, and so forth, first introduced the cleanly, though

Revolutionary fashion, of une tête à la Brutus; previous to the time of our Tale, it was adopted by (our punster again) the heads of the Irish Republicans: as a mark of brotherhood, it became characterised in the shape of very closecut polls among their humble adherents; was detected by the opposite party as a badge of disaffection; and hence "a Croppy," or a man whose hair was sheared close, grew into a synonyme with rebel.

"Out with every word you know, rascal!" continued Captain Whaley, seizing Nale by the collar, and dragging him to his feet from the chair.

"About what, Capt'n ?"

"About what? about all this

business, to be sure !-come-spake !"

Croppy

"By the livin' farmer, I knows no more about id nor the new-born babe; an' if it's the crop you mane, sure that was done while I was asleep."

I'll find a way to refresh your memory. Saunders, get the cat ready-put the car in the middle o' the field, and let me see you give this fellow the use of his tongue."

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Why, then, I think I'm purty handy at the tongue, widout Saundhers's help; bud it's

an ould fashion wid me to wag id the way I likes myself; an', not all the cats, or all the dogs along wid 'em, 'ud make me say as mooch as 'good-morrow, Jack,' only jest as is most plasin' to me."

"Quick, Saunders !-What! you Croppy villain!-I'll tache you !-I'll show you !" blustered Captain Whaley, in a real passion.

"Hah!" laughed Bill, turning to Sir Thomas Hartley, as Saunders again left the room, "I b'lieve he thinks he's in arnest."

Captain Whaley," said the Baronet, as the magistrate now strode about the room, "I have business with this man; allow me to proceed on it, before you deal with him on your own account.""

"Well, Sir Thomas, go on, and I'll deal with him, never fear."

“Hah! hah!" still laughed Bill, again sitting, and stooping his head to enjoy his own jocularity.

"Your name ?" demanded Sir Thomas.

"It's me your honour is spakin' to, I b'lieve?” questioned Bill, in his turn; as, sitting at his ease, he bent forward, leaned his elbows on his knees, and, resting the edges of the leaf of his hat upon the tips of the fingers of either hand,