1827.J On the Pleasures of Body -Snatching* 363 



him, in a fashion half Quaker, half Spanish, proved that the rule might 

 be applied as well to beaver, having retained its substance, under the 



same discipline, long after the colour and shape had departed. P 



was a man of few words, so far as the tongue was concerned; but his 

 other features were so many telegraphs, which, when put into motion, 

 kept up a constant flow of intelligence : he could say more by a single 



motion of the muscles of his cheek than R , who was a great orator, 



could have spoken in an hour. On coming into the room, he commu- 

 nicated, in a whisper, a piece of intelligence, that, under other circum- 

 stances, would have been highly grateful to me, viz. that his long nose 

 had smelt out a most promising resurrection -job within a very convenient 



distance of the house. We endeavoured, in vain, to persuade R to 



take a hand in the game. All we could gain from him was a promise 

 that he would sit up for us till three or four o'clock in the morning, in the 

 event of our falling in with other assistance, and prosecuting the adventure 

 ourselves ; but even this we could only draw from him by the temptation 

 of another quart of his favourite evening draught, which we engaged to 

 send in from the wine-vaults as we passed. As we glided down the street, 

 the cold sharp rain, splashing in our faces, seemed ready to cut the skin ; 

 and I almost repented having left the comfortable berth we had just quit- 

 ted : but as for P , when I could get a glimpse, by the flickering 



glare of a lamp as we passed, of his spare figure and keen thin face, he 

 appeared to be moving on as steadily as the Flying Dutchman in the eye 

 of a gale of wind. We reached the church-yard, which was to be the 

 theatre of our operations ; and my companion leading the way, as we 

 coasted round its dark walls, or looked wistfully in through the bars of the 

 iron gate, he seemed, like Milton's Satan, gazing for the first time on the 

 new and peaceful world. I do not know how such a foolish idea entered 

 my head ; but it made me look at him, for the moment, with an interest 

 not unallied to fear, as I followed his dark person and noiseless footsteps 

 through the gloom. At length, as we turned the corner, we were chal- 

 lenged by a watchman : P fixed his eye on him as we passed, but 



neither of us spoke ; and the guardian of the night, without making any 

 observation, walked hastily away to the lighter and living part of the 

 street. We saw, however, that it was yet too early and, besides, from 

 the nature of the ground, that it was impossible to do with only two per- 

 formers. To pass the time, therefore, and also to look out for proselytes, 

 we went into the tap-room of a public-house at no great distance, and. 

 called for a pot of porter, warmed at the fire, and seasoned with a glass or 

 two of something stronger. There was only one person in the room besides 

 ourselves, and he appeared to have just come in ; he was a fine, ofF-hand- 

 looking fellow, in a sailor's dress frank and careless in his manner, with a 

 dash of the libertine in his eye, and an appearance about the lips which 

 indicates one who has an habitual inclination to moisten his clay. " He 



will do !" said P , winking at me with the off-eye ; but I had my 



doubts. We soon got into conversation, and had no difficulty in pumping 

 out the whence and whither of our chance-comrade. He belonged to an 

 East-Indiaman which had just arrived, and was hastening home, on the 

 wings of love and duty, to tell his mother and his sweetheart that his 

 apprenticeship was out, and that he was now promoted to be a man-before- 

 the-mast. Of course, he was to get married immediately ; and, in a 

 month or two, would be ready for sea once more, with high hopes of being, 

 at least captain of the fore-top, before seeing his beloved Susan again. .In 



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