30 Hell-fire Dick, [Jan 
guests of the Red Lion, and, though not prone to make rash bargains, 
would have held himself a gainer in giving him a double luck-penny ; 
but, since that might not be, he contented himself with wondering at 
their proceedings. 
« Whilst the supper was being laid, the supernatural guests, for whose 
behoof it was intended, maintained their posts in strict silence, nor did 
any one break out from the line, till the steward gave notice by a pro- 
found bow that his preparations were completed. Then the mail-clad 
patriarch advanced, with the heavy tread of Don Juan’s statue of stone, 
to the half-clad maiden of King Charles’s time, whose uncovered neck, 
beyond what modern decency allows, bore ample testimony to the flesh- 
colour of Sir Peter Lely ; the velvet hose and slashed coat of a still 
later day, in like manner, offered his well gloved hand to the flounced 
and furbelowed dowager of at least a century before ; and, all being 
paired after this anomalous fashion, in utter contradiction to the esta- 
blished maxim of, ‘like will to like,’ the gentlemen handed the ladies 
to their seats, and, at a signal from the steward, the dishes were simul- 
taneously uncovered. 
“ Mine host, who, in his time, had superintended the cooking and 
eating of many a good meal, though not perhaps within the walls of the 
Red Lion, was forced to confess to himself that he had never seen any 
thing at all to be compared to this supper. All the perfumes of Arabia 
were nothing to the savoury steam of the good things that smoked be- 
fore this strange company, of whom it was difficult to say whether they 
belonged to the living or the dead. “The smell alone would have tickled 
the palled appetite of a sick man, and made: him rise from his bed to 
eat, though he had been bedridden for six months before. And the 
wine, both in quantity and quality, was well worthy of the more sub- 
stantial viands ; there was Champagne, clearer and brighter than the 
chrystal in which it sparkled; rich Burgundy, perfuming the whole 
room with a fragrance far surpassing the most delicate scent of roses— 
the choicest juice of the johannisberry, almost as old as the guests them- 
selves—and, what to our landlord was hardly less acceptable, so great 
was the abundance of silver, that its weight would absolutely have 
broken down a degenerate modern table. 
«Body o’ me!’ he exclaimed, half aloud, unable to contain his 
ecstacy—“ I never dreamt your ghosts were such a set of jolly com- 
panions. I always understood they were cold, thin, vapoury fellows, 
smelling of nothing but earth or sulphur, and going about the house in 
their winding sheets to frighten honest fellows out of their wits, if they 
happen to have any. Put these are another guess sort of folks; Gad! 
they know as well as any body what belongs to good living. What a 
delicate savour that piece of venison has!—and that fricandeaux veal, 
I fancy—and those partridges!—Ugh! ugh !—I am a rogue, if there’s 
any bearing it; I shall melt away at the mouth, like a piece of fat butter 
in the frying-pan—and then the wine !—Ugh! ugh !—enough to make 
a man forswear his father—and the silver goblets !—the least of them 
bigger than the pewter flaggon I use to measure out to the exciseman, 
and be d—d to his greedy gullet. But there is no standing this any 
longer ; I'll have a drink of that same Burgundy, and a cut of the 
venison, let what will come of it.’ 
« Accordingly he quitted his safe post in the corner ; but, not to ven- 
ture too rashly on danger, from which, when once in it, he might find 
