MARKED BUG-QACTHER. 361 



noticed in the " Insect Miscellanies," namely, that in Mat- 

 thew's Bible, the fifth verse of the 91st Psalm is rendered 

 " Thou shalt not nede be afraide of any bugs by night ; " and in 

 this same sense the word must have been put by Shakespeare 

 into the mouth of the Prince of Denmark : 



" With ho ! such bugs and goblins in my life." 



Before we leave their favourite locality, the bed of down which 

 they convert into a bed of nettles, let's see what is this moving 

 object 1 on the floor, by the bedside. 'Tis nothing but a bit of 

 rubbish, a token of the housemaid's negligence, a mingled piece 

 conglomerate of flue, and dust, and feathers, set in motion by 

 the draught from underneath the door. Yet, no ; never did 

 wind create such careful motion ; and see ! There is a leg a 

 living leg and now another, protruded from the cloak of 

 shreds and patches. Never did lame beggar hitch in his gait 

 more piteously. Perhaps 'tis a great wounded spider caught 

 in the remnants of his own snare. But whatever be the cripple, 

 let's uncloak him. 



Oh, the rogue ! impostor ! hypocrite ! No sooner is he 

 stripped of his disguise of dirt, than he takes to his heels as if 

 the devil was behind him ; but he shall not escape us ; and 

 now that he is fairly caught, let us carry him before the light 

 for examination. And, truly, a more ill-looking miscreant, 

 and ferocious withal, was never " pulled up " at Bow Street ; 

 his eye, especially, has murder in it, and murder, doubtless, 

 was his design. What other could he have when lurking in 

 disguise, like a cowardly assassin, beside a bed ? He is self- 

 condemned, let not the monster live. Yet the monster is but 

 an insect after all ; as such, shall we not spare him as beneath 

 our anger ? True ; but ill-favoured as he is, our prisoner, in 

 relation to ourselves, is innocent ; nay, he is more, he is, to 

 us, a friend and benefactor in disguise ; while of our enemy, the 



1 Reduvius personatus. 



