()24 THE POLISH FOURTH. 



shaw, " as it's a very wet ev'ning, the nine o'clock stage has come 

 round to know, whether any one's going to town. There's room for 

 one inside." 



Minns, who had some time meditated suicide, now, with a courage 

 heretofore unknown, started up to secure the chance of escape. 



Many were the expressions of surprise, and numerous the entrea- 

 ties to stay, when Minns persisted in his determination to accept the 

 offer of the vacant inside place. It was useless to press him further ; 

 so, after detaining the coach for the purpose of looking for his um- 

 brella, and then making the pleasant discovery that he had left it in 

 the other coach coming down. Minns was informed by the parsley- 

 and-butter coated boy that the coachman " could'nt wait no longer; 

 but if the gentleman would make haste, he might catch him at the 

 Swan." Minns muttered, for the first time in his life, a diabolical 

 ejaculation. It was of no use that fresh entreaties poured upon him. 

 Quite as effective was the appeal of Master Alick, who, after dabbling 

 half-an-hour in raspberry jam and custard, and fixing the print of his 

 paws on Minns' trowsers, cried out " Do stop, godpa' I like you 

 Ma' says I am to coax you to leave me all your money !" Had 

 Minns been stung by an electric eel, he could not have made a more 

 hysteric spring through the door- way ; nor did he relax his speed 

 until, arriving at the Swan, he saw the coach drive off full inside 

 and out. 



It was half-past three in the morning ere Mr. Augustus Minns 

 knocked faintly at No. 11, Tavistock Street, Covent Garden. He had 

 footed it every step of the way from Poplar Walk : he had not a dry 

 thread about him, and his boots were like pump-suckers- Never 

 from that day could Mr. Minns endure the name of Bagshaw or 

 Poplar Walk. It was to him as the writing on the wall was to Bel- 

 shazzar. Mr. Minns has removed from Tavistock Street. His resi- 

 dence is at present a secret, as he is determined not to risk another 

 assault from his cousin and his pink-eyed poodle. 



THE POLISH FOURTH OF THE LINE/' 



ON the fall of Napoleon, the Congress of Vienna having re-con- 

 stituted a simulacrum of the kingdom of Poland, Lukasenski passed 

 into the new army that was organizing by order of the Emperor 

 Alexander, and in a short time was appointed major of that Fourth 

 regiment of the line since so famous in the war of independence. This 

 corps had already distinguished itself by the admirable order which 

 Lukasenski had introduced into it. Such was its discipline and 

 splendid appearance, that the Grand Duke Constantine always gave 

 it a marked preference, loved to call it his young guard, and never 

 allowed it to go out of Warsaw. The pro-consul little dreamt, at the 

 time, that in so skilfully organizing his countrymen, the young major 

 was aiming at something higher than the suffrages of a Muscovite ; 

 and he was certainly far from foreseeing that this regiment, this ob- 



