MADAME PHYLLIS. 139 



beer. To the liorror of his workmen, he accepted for the 

 day was hot, as usual a sin^^le bottle ; and drank it there 

 and then. The Xegros looked like the honest Maltese 

 at St. Paul "when he should have swollen, or fallen 

 down dead suddenly : " but nothing happened ; and they 

 went on with their work, secure under a leader whom 

 even Madame Phyllis dared not poison. But he ran a 

 great risk ; and knew it. 



" I took care," said he, " to see that the cork had not been 

 drawn and put back again ; and then, to draw it myself." 



At last Madame Phyllis's cup was full, and she fell into 

 the snare which she liad set for others. , For a certain 

 coloured policeman went off to her one night; and having 

 poured out his love-lorn heart, and the agonies which he 

 endured from the cruelty of a neighbouring fair, he begged 

 for, got, and paid for a philtre to ^vin her affections. On 

 which, saying with Danton " Que mon nom soit fxetri, 

 mais que la patrie soit libre," he carried the philtre to the 

 magistrate; laid his information; and Madame Phyllis and 

 her male accomplice were sent to gaol as rogues and 

 impostors. 



Her coloured victims looked on aghast at the audacity of 

 English lawyers. But when they found that I^Iadame was 

 actually going to prison, they rose ^just as if they had been 

 French Ticpublicans deposed their despot after she had 



