"I shall not fail to do so," replied our hero; "and that appointment reminds me of your poor prisoners at home. If you think proper to entrust the key to me”

"Curse the sorry knaves!" interrupted Rochester; "think of them no more. I shall be at home some time or other, but it will be morning first; for I have to sup in Covent Garden with Buckhurst, Sedley, Etherege, and Killigrew; beat up the quarters of Mother Shipley and her nymphs, where we have ordered the fiddlers to attend ;-take boat at Charing Cross by sunrise, and drink buttered ale at Lambeth, for a silver tankard, with Sedley; row a wherry to Vauxhall, for fifty pieces, with Tom Killigrew; swim back against Buckhurst for fifty more ;-dress and to the Finish at Wood's in the Pell-mell; and so home quietly to bed. You see the nature of my claims upon the royal favour; and as you are now in office, and bound not to delay one of the Gentlemen of the Bed-chamber to the King, and the Comptroller of Woodstock Park, when he has so much public business upon his hands, I shall make no apology for bidding you adieu till to-morrow."

CHAPTER IV.

-England is so idly king'd,

Her sceptre so fantastically borne,
That fear attends her not."

ON calling upon Lord Arlington next day, our hero received from his secretary the official confirmation of his appointment, with instructions to proceed, the next morning but one, to Hampton Court, for the purpose of being introduced to, the Queen, and immediately commencing the duties of his new office. With this welcome intelligence he hastened to Lord Rochester's, happy that his appointed interview would afford him an opportunity of renewing his thanks. He was not yet risen, and Jocelyn was ushered to his bed-side, when he expressed his apprehensions that his lordship's various wagers and undertakings of the night and morning might have proved too much for his strength. "Not a bit, not a bit,” he replied," the swim from Vauxhall carried off my drunkenness, and enabled me to win all my wagers and finish in good style. I am used to these freaks, have had

some sound sleep since, and feel in better health and spirits this morning than I have done for a long time. This is precisely my reason for lying in bed, that I may preserve them till to-night, when I shall have still more urgent occasion for them."

"Have you then some fresh wagers to win?" inquired Jocelyn.

"Ay, my Faunus, my Sylvan, my man of the woods, a wager that will make me for life. Excuse these epithets, Mr. Vice-Chamberlain; we will be serious. I have served you in obtaining that office, because I foresaw that I should want your assistance; and you are now going to return the favour, in the hope of benefiting still farther by my future influence. Now, prythee don't try to look so ingenuous and disclamatory; don't affect to be disinterested, though I will allow you to be as grateful as you please for any benefits you may hereafter expect. I hate a man who is influenced by any thing but selfishness, or rather that pretends it, for it is the universal impulse. He who yields to his feelings veers and vacillates with the whim of the moment; he who is governed by principles, as he calls them, changes his conduct, and tells you he is wiser to-day than he was yesterday; you know not where to have such fellows. Give me the man who follows nothing but his own interest. I know how to deal with such a chapman; I know that he will be my servant so long as I serve him. These are my notions: we understand one another now,

Mr. Vice, as well as if we had been acquainted twenty years."

"I will make no professions, since you consider them so suspicious," said Jocelyn, "but I cannot say that I share your lordship's sentiments."

"I don't expect you to say so; few men care to be so honest as myself; they may own to a bad head, but never to a bad heart. My candour takes an opposite course; I will acknowledge my heart to be as black as you please, but I should be sorry to have my wit impeached. So much for prologue, and now to the play. Premising that for your present aid you are to have the benefit of my future influence, I have to propose that you should assist me to-night in carrying off Mistress Mallett, the great beauty and heiress of Somersetshire, whose fortune of twenty-five hundred per annum may save many scores of creditors from leaping out of my ante-room window, and prove marvellously acceptable to a certain penny less wight yclept John Earl of Rochester."

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Surely, my lord, you would not use force," said Jocelyn.

"None more than the lady herself is willing to encounter. The King has repeatedly spoken in my behalf; the damsel is ripe and ready; but a psalm-singing mother, and Lord Hayley an old dotard of a grandfather, entertain the strange conceit that I am not sufficiently moral and religious for a good husband; forgetting that if there be any truth

in the old adage about a reformed rake, I am entitled to become a marital phoenix. To this opinion, however, the donzella herself luckily inclines, so that she has agreed to elope with me to-night, although she is so strictly watched that I must carry her off vi et armis. This method she prefers, because it saves appearances on her side, while she has no objection to the compulsion that gives her the man of her choice for a husband. She is engaged to a ball at Mistress Stewart's, one of the maids of honour, as the King still calls her, (though he must know better;) and upon her return we are to way-lay and stop her grand-mother's coach at Charing Cross. My own coach with six horses, and two ladies inside to receive her, will be in waiting to whisk her away. Some stout well-armed horsemen, who have been already provided, will be sufficient to master Lord Hayley's servants should they prove rebellious; but as I would not have the nymph rudely handled by serving men and varlets, I wish you to assist me in removing her from the carriage; and I warn you not to be deceived should she deem it necessary for her own exculpation, to make a show of repugnance, or even of resistance."

Though by no means pleased with the service upon which he was to be employed, however anxious he might be to evince his gratitude, Jocelyn felt too far compromised to recede, and consented to join the party. "Provide yourself then with a