Page:Paul Clifford Vol 3.djvu/268

260 the beastliness of the Pseudo-Liberals, who cry up the virtues of the poor. If they are virtuous, why would you reform them? 'tis because they are not virtuous that you should look to the laws that oppress them, and the ignorance that deludes!

It would have been a fine sight for Asmodeus, could he have perched on one of the housetops of the market-place of, and looked on the murmuring and heaving sea of mortality below. Oh! the sight of a crowd round a court of law, or a gibbet, ought to make the devil split himself with laughter.

While the mob was fretting, and pushing, and swearing, and grinning, and betting, and picking pockets, and trampling feet, and tearing gowns, and scrambling nearer and nearer to the doors and windows of the court, Brandon was slowly concluding his abstemious repast preparatory to attendance on his judicial duties. His footman entered with a letter. Sir William glanced rapidly over the seal, (one of those immense sacrifices of wax used at that day,) adorned with a huge coat of arms, surmounted with an Earl's coronet, and decorated on either side with those supporters