1 Trusty. Then if you are such as soldiers, merchants, and bankers ought to be, I could not mean you; otherwise you may take the words, cut-throat, bankrupt, and coward, and divide 'em among you. And as to knave, rascal, and villain, I return them to the right owners. Hector. Gentlemen, stand by. I'll fight for you all. [Draws and turns to Trusty.] I challenge you to fight me. Land. Poh! challenge him to eat with you; the supper's waiting. Hector. To Landlord.] Don't interfere, Sir: here's serious work: blood will be spilt. Trusty. Well, spill your own then: I have no notion of having my veins pricked Hector. Choose your mode of fighting instantly, or fall beneath this sword, which has drunk the blood of thousands. Trusty. Well, if I must fight, my mode will be to use that sword five minutes upon your body: then you shall use it upon me as long, and so we will take turns. Hector. You inflame my choler. Trusty. Then unpin your collar. Trusty. Then we shall have one less at table. Hector [Brandishes his sword.] Are you prepared for your exit? Trusty. I am. [Exit.] Hector. Now he is gone to arm himself with panoply to meet this valorous sword. Guard me, ye powers! who, in the day of battle, 'mid clashing swords and all the thunder of my father Mars, have been my shield and buckler. Now I am ready for him: why does he not return?" Land. He's gone to supper. This is an eating house, not a fighting house. Sheathe your sword. Hector. [Sheathes.] There, sword, smother thy rage till some dauntless adversary shall call thee out: then seek his heart and make report of victory. [Exeunt omnes. Interval five minutes. Enter-TRUSTY and LANDLORD. Land. I take that officer-looking man to be Colonel Home, one of the bravest men in the army. Trusty Colonel Home and he are very different characters. That wretch was but an ensign, and was cashiered for cowardice. Land. Is that possible? Why, he told me himself that he had alone surprised a whole regiment and cut them in pieces; and that all the army stood in awe of him. Trusty. Well, you may depend on what I tell you: and the one that sits next to him is a bankrupt, who has been guilty of every shameful practice to defraud his creditors; and the other is a base pawnbroker, who has got all the property of this bankrupt in his hand for concealment. Land. You surprise me! Why, that bankrupt, as you call him, was just now telling the other, how he was afraid the late storms at sea might affect his shipping; and the other was offering to insure them. Enter HECTOR, HAMBURGH, and SIMON. Hector. [To Trusty.] Since my wrath is a little abated, I am persuaded you meant no offence; but look ye, Sir, if any man was seriously to dispute my courage, you see my sword! Trusty. I see it. Hector. And don't you fear it? Trusty. No; nor its owner. [Hector offers to draw.] Forbear, or "I will tell a tale will make it blush." [Hector sneaks off. Hamb. [To Trusty.] I am not disposed, Sir, to believe that you meant me by any expression you made: as to coward and cut-throat, they certainly don't be. long to me. And as to bankrupt, the four winds can give the lie to such a charge. Trusty. They could give but windy testimony in your favour. Hamb. Then I appeal to this worthy gentleman, [Speaking of Simon,] and an honester man lives not on earth, if I have not thousands in his hands. Simon. [Aside to Hamb.] You had better leave it to the four winds. Hamb. [Loud and hastily.] Have I not moneys of a great amount in your hands? Simon. Did you not take an oath, a few days since, that you had not directly nor indirectly, five pounds on earth? Hamb. Yes. I had not on earth; but it was then in your coffers, and you know it. Simon. If your oath that you had no property can't be relied on, why should your word be taken, that you have? in Hamb. But I ask you, have you not my property your hands? Simon. Not a farthing. You are a bankrupt for thousands, and the four winds may tell of that. Hamb. O knavery! Simon. O perjury! Trusty. You are perfectly welcome to use the words I just now tossed out to you; and it appears to me, they are a very proper currency between you. Hamb. O that I had the money out of that wretch's hands, to give to my honest creditors! Simon. O that I had the character, which I have lost by my connexion with you! Trusty. I am sorry for the depravity of you both. It has led you to deceive honest men, and to betray each other. You have now learned the value of reputation and peace of mind, by the loss of them. Let your future days be days of atonement. Let them be devoted to honesty and fair dealing; and ever remem ber that integrity is the only road to desirable wealth, and that the path of virtue is alone the path of peace. MR. SHERIDAN'S SPEECH AGAINST MR. TAYLOR. E have this day been honored with the coun W sels of a complete gradation of lawyers. We have received the opinion of a Judge, of an Attorney General, of an Ex- Attorney-General, and of a practising Barrister. I agree with the learned gentleman in his admiration of the abilities of my honorable friend, Mr. Fox. What he has said of his quickness and of his profoundness, of his boldness and his candor, is literally just and true, which the mental accomplishment of my honorable friend is, on every occasion, calculated to extort even from his adversaries. The learned gentleman has, however, in this insidious eulogium, connected such qualities of mind with those he has praised and venerated, as to convert his encomiums into reproach, and his tributes of praise into censure and invective. The boldness he has described is only craft, and his candor, hypocrisy. Upon what grounds does the learned gentleman connect those assemblages of great qualities and of cardinal defects? Upon what principles, either of justice or of equity, does he exalt with one hand, whilst he insidiously reprobates and destroys with the other? If the wolf is to be feared, the learned gentleman may rest assured, it will be the wolf in sheep's clothing, the masked pretender to patriotism. It is not from the fang of the lion, but from the tooth of the serpent, that reptile which insidiously steals upon the vitals of the constitution, and gnaws it to the heart, ere the mischief is suspected, that destruction is to be feared. With regard to the acquisition of a learned gentleman, Mr. Taylor, who has declared that he means to vote with us this day, I am sorry to acknowledge, that from the declaration he has made at the beginning of his speech, I see no great reason to boast of such an auxiliary. The learned gentleman, who has with peculiar modesty styled himself a chicken lawyer, has declared, that, thinking us in the right with respect to the subject of this day's discussion, he shall vote with us; but he has at the same time thought it necessary to assert, that he has never before voted differently from the minister and his friends, and perhaps he never shall again vote with those whom he means to support this day. It is rather singular to vote with us, professedly because he finds us to be in the right, and, in the very moment that he assigns so good a reason for changing his side, to declare, that in all probability he never shall vote with us again. I am sorry to find the chicken is a bird of ill omen, and that its augury is so unpropitious to our future interests. Perhaps it would have been as well, under these circumstances, that the chicken had not left the barn-door of the treasury; but continued side by side with the old cock, to pick -those crumbs of comfort which would doubtless be. dealt out in time, with a liberality proportioned to the fidelity of the feathered tribe. PART OF CICERO'S ORATION AGAINST CATI LINE. It is now amidst the dangers and machinations of this conspiracy: but I know not how it comes to pass, the full maturity of all those crimes, and of this longripening rage and insolence, has now broken out during the period of my consulship. Should Catiline alone be removed from this powerful band of traitors, it may abate, perhaps, our fears and anxieties for a while; but the danger will still remain, and continue lurking in the veins and vitals of the republic. T is now a long time, conscript fathers, that we For, as men, oppressed with a severe fit of illness, and labouring under the raging heat of a fever, are often at first seemingly relieved by a draught of cold |