626 THE CASTLK-BUILDEi;. 



before, I took a house, the most beautiful in the place, and led her to 

 the altar. Much was the rejoicing on that day ; I never shall forget 

 it. The peasants made holiday ; the men appeared in their Sunday 

 suits, and the women in their gayest colours. The hills echoed to 

 the shouts of merriment: I danced I sung I played and my 

 beautiful bride smiled and blushed, and smiled and blushed, like the 

 morning bathed in sunshine ! The parson honoured the feast with 

 his presence yet all was good-humour ; the physician yet none 

 were ailing ; the lawyer yet was there no contention. All was 

 freedom, ease, and merriment. We were the happiest couple. We 

 purchased a phaeton, and two beautiful grey studs, such as Sir Giles 

 Gadborough drove ; and, I believe, had a pack of hounds. The 

 charity-boys opened their mouths, and seized off their muffin- 

 caps when we passed ; while the little girls dropped their arms on 

 each side, and made curtseys till we were out of sight. My election 

 to be mayor of the place was the realization of every thing deserving 

 the ambition of man in this world the utmost reach of human emi- 

 nence. A pair of constables, exactly of a size, with little staves in 

 their hands, and their countenances solemnly impressed with a sense 

 of their momentous functions, walked in the front of me. Then 

 came Mr. Minny, the mace-bearer, a little man, with a large stomach, 

 and a sort of blueish physiognomy, all covered with red pimples. 

 The sword followed, borne by a tall aud dignified personage ; when 

 and then burst forth a rattling peal from the church bells the 

 chief magistrate, myself, advanced, bowing graciously, with a red 

 gown on, the tail thereof upheld by Abraham Muggs, late beadle, 

 but promoted to the office which he then filled, by reason of his 

 decorous deportment, and never allowing the little boys to play at 

 marbles on the tombstones, especially on those belonging to former 

 mayors defunct. The unprecedented style of wig, too, which he was 

 in the habit of displaying on great days a sort of yellow-brown one, 

 coming to a point in the front, and ornamented with four rows 

 of stiff, regular curls, behind marked him out favourably to the 

 notice of his superiors, and it was justly considered wrong to allow 

 such merits to go unrewarded. He was, therefore, as I have said 

 before, preferred to the first vacant office that presented itself, I my- 

 self confirming the appointment, which, though it had been intended, 

 had not absolutely been made by my predecessor. 



None but those whose souls have panted, and bosoms swelled with 

 the majestic consciousness of municipal distinction none but those, 

 indeed, who have served in the proud capacity which I then had the 

 honour to hold, and stood alone upon that flattering eminence, so 

 fatally calculated to turn the spirit of the individual giddy with its 

 own elevation, and make the man aspire to something greater than 

 mortality, forgetting the earth in his exalted sphere none but such 

 can appreciate the pride, the perilous greatness of that hour. It was 

 under the influence of such feelings, and struggling heroically with 

 the giant of glory, that would have borne him above his nature, that 

 that wonderful and ever-memorable sentiment burst from the lips of 

 the exalted, but generous citizen, " Oh ! though I am an alderman, let 

 me not forget I am & man" There was, indeed, the triumph of 



