THE TABLE DEMOTE. 177 



pace, in scknaps, with the moderate members of the party had made their 

 conge for the evening. The Oxonians had achieved their two flasks 

 each, and were becoming classical. " That castor's out ;" said one, 

 pointing to the empty bottle ; " another shy ?" " Not if I know it," 

 said -the other,/' I shall tip and toddle." " I shall cut my stick too, 

 then, how are you for a bit of clay?" " You've said it; I'm your 

 man, your Royal Highness." " Why, I say, Jem; some cove has rung 

 my shallow." " I stand a tanner then, I name the man that thunder- 

 ing Scotch doctor." The inoffensive Scot, who from the darkness of 

 the hour was hardly visible in his position, returned the imputation, by 

 declaring both the embryo honours of the church " twa daft fallows, 

 who had nae the manners of a flunkie." " No, blow me, here it is;" 

 said one ; " so D. I. O. Good night (with a hiccough), Mr. Propria 

 quae maribus" (to my uncle, who responded) " Good night Mr. Ms 

 in presenti ;" and the collegians, giving the door a slam that shook the 

 house, and a loud curse to the poor-box, against which they stumbled, 

 sallied forth, while singing in melodious unison, " May day in the 

 morning so bright." 



The evening was advanced, and the remaining members of the party, 

 with the exception of the Scot and the Dutchman, duly took their leave. 

 The former was desirous of consulting his Batavian comrade on a point 

 of speculation, which had long engrossed his thoughts ; and as the 

 hoaxing portion of the mess was now withdrawn, an opportunity arose, 

 which Mr. Duncan Craigie had patiently awaited of acquiring, as he 

 hoped, the information requisite to shape his plan. Nothing could be 

 more germane to Mynheer Schnapsenwater's wishes, than a second 

 person present to wear out with him the tedium of the night ; and 

 though Craigie was, by habit temperate and early, he had a point to 

 gain, and consequently, sacrificed his pleasure to his interest; though 

 his interrogations were received and answered with evident repulsion 

 by the Dutchman, who regarded conversation as a detriment to smoke 

 and liquor, the only lawful objects of agreeable society. All that 

 Cragie gained from him was yes or no : they sufficed, however, to 

 confirm him in his plan, and he has since succeeded as chirurgien- at 

 Rotterdam, in the attainment of a wide and profitable practice ; and, 

 with a laudable nationality, has introduced into the town a colony of 

 Scotch, who form the various links connected with the medical profes- 

 sion, from the druggest to the very mason who engraves a tomb-stone. 



On Mr. Blunt's retirement from the table d' hole, he had experienced 

 another quittance of his practical performances; as he was an immea- 

 surable coward, and profoundly ignorant of natural pheenomena, indeed 

 of physics, in the extended acceptation' of the term; the situation of his 

 bed-room, which was just above a spacious subterraneous cellar, supplied 

 the means of operating on his fears. Mr. Killjoy had appalled him 

 with some extracts from the divination of Agrippa, and taught him to 

 expect his dissolution from the united wrath of Heaven and earth. By 

 the agency of a full barrel and an empty one, rolled to and fro beneath 

 his dormitory, a fearful sense of sound and motion was produced, which 

 in conjunction with a shaken sheet of tin, imposed on Mr. Blunt with 

 all the terrors of a thunder storm and earthquake ; the lightning having 

 been excluded by the volans of his chamber. He had sunk into a 

 sleep of doleful indigestion, in which he uttered various disjointed 

 rhapsodies ; converging, in the main, to the imposture of the venison 



M. M. No. 80. N 



