164 Friar Bacon's Key. [Avueust, 
topazes, emeralds, and gold-dust. Even then I thought I might as well 
continue my work a little longer. The evening had, it is true, thrown a 
grey veil over the crystal sky ; but who could say how long such a twi- 
light would last? It might, for aught I knew, endure for hours ; so 
that there would be still time to sit down and enjoy myself. On, there- 
fore, I went, most gallantly, with spade and pick-axe, digging and ham- 
mering, rending and gathering, till I could absolutely work no longer ; 
indeed, I could scarcely move hand or foot: the sky, too, grew darker 
and darker ; and I began to think it would be as well to rest contented 
with what I had got, and enjoy myself while there was any twilight 
remaining. But here again I had reckoned without my host, or rather 
my passion for gold and diamonds had blinded me to all other consi- 
derations. Having wasted the day in such excessive toil, I was almost 
too weary to gather the fruit ; and when I did reach any, the same feel-. 
ing of fatigue rendered me incapable of enjoying it. 
Night now unfolded her wings, and sank down in darkness upon the 
earth, like a vulture overshadowing the prey it has struck ; and a deep 
bell, that seemed to be tolled in the very centre of the earth, sent a heavy 
summons to all that the day was over. At this signal, the plains and hills 
suddenly swarmed with gnomes, in face and figure the exact prototypes of 
Gobliner, if indeed they did not—many of them, at least—deserve the 
palm of superior ugliness. These ferocious monsters were armed with 
whips, which they cracked with high glee about the ears of those who, 
like myself, had loitered to this late hour, driving us forward, as if we 
had been a flock of sheep, to the great hall. Wearied as I was, and with 
such beagles close upon my heels, it is no wonder that by degrees I lost 
the whole of the precious burthen I had toiled so hard for. Diamond 
dropped after diamond, emerald after emerald, and, if I paused for an. 
instant to pick up the fallen treasure, the lash of the gnomes soon 
reminded me that time was no longer at my own disposal. Indeed, I 
was often glad, when we came on the more broken parts of the ground, 
to fling away a portion of my load, dear as it was to me, that I might 
get on the more easily ; and thus, in one way or the other, by the time 
I reached the hall, I had not a single sample left of all my treasure. 
There was no occasion for the key to let me out: the great folding- 
doors now stood wide open, the gnomes smacking their whips behind us, 
and the road before us being covered with vehicles of all kinds, from the 
proud coach and six, through all the intermediate degree of carriages and 
pair, demi-fortune, and gig, down to the humble hackney. Vexed 
beyond measure at my own folly in having thus wasted the whole day in 
fruitless toil, instead of enjoying myself, I jumped into the first vacant 
coach, and, holding out a crown-piece to the driver, bade him drive like 
fury. He took me at my word. Off we set at full gallop, with as little 
regard to our necks as might be; and as many of my neighbours, pro-. 
bably under the influence of the same feelings, were going at the same 
rate, I had no right to wonder at our vehicles coming in collision. Off 
flew the wheel—down smashed the coach ; and I was thrown upon the 
hard road with so much violence that—awoke me! I was still in the 
auction-room, where, thanks to the eloquence of Mr. Fudge, I had been 
comfortably asleep for the last two hours. The Venus or Hercules was 
going.—“ Nine hundred and eighty guineas are bid for this magnificent 
torso.”—«* One thousand !” I cried.—* Thank you, Sir.—Going for one 
thousand guineas—gone!” __ G. § 
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