THE SMUGGLER. 175 



leave to soften, as far as possible, the terms of both the boy 

 and his grandmother for the future, merely premising, that 

 when conversing alone together, hardly a sentence escaped 

 their lips without an oath or a blasphemy." 



Little Starlight soon received the pot from the hands of his 

 worthy ancestress, and conveyed it into the other room, where 

 he stayed so long that she called him to come forth, in what, 

 to ordinary ears, would have seemed the most abusive language, 

 but which, on her lips, was merely the tone of endearment. 

 Pie had waited, indeed, to cool the soup, in order to steal a 

 portion of the stolen food; but finding that he should be 

 detected if he remained longer, he ventured to put his finger 

 in to taste it. The result was that he scalded his hand, but 

 he was sufficiently Spartan to utter no cry or indication of 

 pain ; and he escaped all inquiry, for the moment after he had 

 returned, the door burst violently open, and some ten or twelve 

 men came pouring in, nearly filling the little room. 



Various were their garbs, and strangely different from each 

 other were they in demeanour as well as dress. Some were 

 clad in smock-frocks, and some in sailors' jackets; some looked 

 like respectable tradesmen, some were clothed in a sort of 

 fanciful costume of their own, smacking a little of the brigand; 

 and one appeared in the ordinary riding-dress of a gentleman 

 of that period ; but all were well armed, without much con- 

 cealment of the pistols, which they carried about them in 

 addition to the sword that was not uncommonly borne by more 

 than one class in England at that time. They were all young 

 men except one or two, and three of the number bore evident 

 marks of some recent affray. One had a broad strip of plaster 

 all the way down his forehead, another had his upper lip ter- 

 ribly cut, and a third, the gentleman, as I am bound to call 

 him, as he assumed the title of major, had a patch over his 

 eye, from beneath which appeared several rings of various 

 colours, which showed that the aforesaid patch was not merely 

 a means of disguise. 



They were all quite familiar with Galley Ray and her grand- 

 son; some slapped her on the shoulder; some pulled her ear; 

 some abused her horribly in jocular tones; and all called upon 

 her eagerly to set their supper before them, vowing that they 

 had <5ome twenty miles since seven o'clock that night, and 

 were as hungry as fox-hunters. 



