the door outside. What presumption is this? exclaimed the chairman, immediately leaping up. However, on opening the door, it appeared that the fury of the summons was dictated by no failure in respect, but by absolute necessity necessity has no law; and any more reverential knocking could have had no chance of being audible. The person outside was Mr. Commissioner Pig; and his business was to communicate a despatch of urgent importance which he had that moment received by express.

"First of all, gentlemen," said the pursy Commissioner, "allow me to take breath:" and, seating himself, he began to wipe his forehead. Agitated with the fear of some unhappy codicil to the unhappy testament already received, the members gazed anxiously at the open letter which he held in his hand; and the chairman, unable to control his impatience, made a grab at it: "Permit me, Mr. Pig." "No!" said Pig; "it is the postscript only which concerns the council: wait one moment, and I will have the honor of reading it myself." Thereupon he drew out his spectacles; and, adjusting them with provoking coolness, slowly and methodically proceeded to read as follows:— - "We open our letter to acquaint you with a piece of news which has just come to our knowledge, and which it will be important for your town to learn as soon as possible. His Serene Highness has resolved on visiting the remote provinces of his new dominions immediately; he means to preserve the strictest incognito; and we understand will travel under the name of Count Fitz-Hum, attended only by one gentleman of the bedchamber, viz. the Baron Von Hoax. The carriage he will use on this occasion is a plain English landau, the body painted dark blue, ‘picked out' with tawny and white: and for his Highness in particular, you will easily distinguish him by his superb whiskers. Of course we need scarcely suggest to you,

that, if the principal hotel of your town should not be in comme-il-faut order, or for any reason not fully and unconditionally available, it will be proper in that case to meet the illustrious traveller on his entrance with an offer of better accommodations in one of the best private mansions, amongst which your own, Herr Pig, is reputed to stand foremost. Your town is to have the honor of the new sovereign's first visit; and on this account you will be much envied, and the eyes of all Germany turned upon you." "Doubtless, most important intelligence!" said the chairman: "but who is your correspondent?"

"The old and eminent house of Wassermüller; and I thought it my duty to communicate the information without delay.”

"To be sure, to be sure; and the council is under the greatest obligation to you for the service."

So said all the rest; for they all viewed in the light of a providential interference on behalf of the old traditional fees, perquisites, and salaries, this opportunity so unexpectedly thrown in their way of winning the prince's favor. To make the best use of such an opportunity, it was absolutely necessary that their hospitalities should be on the most liberal scale. On that account it was highly gratifying to the council that Commissioner Pig loyally volunteered the loan of his house. Some drawback undoubtedly

it was on this pleasure, that Commissioner Pig in his next sentence made known that he must be paid for his loyalty. However there was no remedy; and his demands were acceded to. For not only was Pig-house the only mansion in the town at all suitable for the occasion; but it was also known to be so in the prince's capital, as clearly appeared from the letter which had just been read; at least when read by Pig himself.

All being thus arranged, and the council on the point of

breaking up, a sudden cry of "Treason!" was raised by a member; and the mace-bearer was detected skulking behind an arm-chair, perfidiously drinking in the secrets of the state. He was instantly dragged out, the enormity of his crime displayed to him (which under many wise governments, the chairman assured him, would have been punished with the bowstring or instant impalement), and after being amerced in a considerable fine, which paid the first instalment of the Piggian demand, he was bound over to inviolable secrecy by an oath of great solemnity. This oath, at the suggestion of a member, was afterwards administered to the whole of the senate in rotation, as also to the Commissioner; which done, the council adjourned.

"Now, my dear creatures," said the Commissioner to his wife and daughter, on returning home, "without a moment's delay send for the painter, the upholsterer, the cabinet-maker, also for the butcher, the fishmonger, the poulterer, the confectioner; in one half-hour let each and all be at work and at work let them continue all day and all night."

"At work! but what for? what for, Pig?"

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And, do you hear, as quickly as possible," added Pig, driving them both out of the room.

"But what for?" they both repeated, re-entering at another door.

Without vouchsafing any answer, however, the Commissioner went on: "And let the tailor, the shoemaker, the milliner, the

"The fiddle-stick end, Mr. Pig. I insist upon knowing what all this is about."

"No matter what, my darling. Sic volo, sic jubeo stet pro ratione voluntas."

"Hark you, Mr. Commissioner. come to a crisis. You have the

Matters are at length audacity to pretend to

keep a secret from your lawful wife.

Hear then my fixed

determination. At this moment there is a haunch of venison roasting for dinner. The cook is so ignorant that, without my directions, this haunch will be scorched to a cinder. Now I swear that, unless you instantly reveal to me this secret, without any reservation whatever, I will resign the venison to its fate. I will, by all that is sacred."

The venison could not be exposed to a more fiery trial than was Mr. Commissioner Pig; the venison, when alive and hunted, could not have perspired more profusely, nor trembled in more anguish. But there was no alternative. His "morals gave way before his "passions:" and after binding his wife and daughter by the general oath of secrecy, he communicated the state mystery. By the same or similar methods so many other wives assailed the virtue of their husbands, that in a few hours the limited scheme of secrecy adopted by the council was realized on the most extensive scale; for before nightfall, not merely a few members of the council, but every man, woman, and child in the place, had been solemnly bound over to inviolable secrecy.

Meantime some members of the council, who had an unhappy leaning to infidelity, began to suggest doubts on the authenticity of the Commissioner's news. Of old time

he had been celebrated for the prodigious quantity of secret intelligence which his letters communicated, but not equally for its quality. Too often it stood in unhappy contradiction to the official news of the public journals. But still, on such occasions, the Commissioner would exclaim: What then? Who would believe what newspapers say? ? No man of sense believes a word the newspapers say. Agreeably to which hypothesis, upon various cases of obstinate discord between his letters and the gazettes

of Europe, some of which went the length of point-blank contradiction, unceremoniously giving the lie to each other, he persisted in siding with the former: peremptorily refusing to be talked into a belief of certain events which the rest of Europe have long ago persuaded themselves to think matter of history. The battle of Leipsic, for instance, he treates to this hour as a mere idle chimera of visionary politicians.* Pure hypochondriacal fiction! says he. No such affair ever could have occurred, as you may convince yourself by looking at my private letters: they make no allusion to any transaction of that sort, as you will see at once; none whatever. Such being the character of the Commissioner's private correspondence, several councilmen were disposed, on reflection, to treat his recent communication as very questionable and apocryphal, amongst whom was the chairman or chief burgomaster; and the next day he walked over to Pig-house for the purpose of expressing his doubts. The Commissioner was so much offended, that the other found it advisable to

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apologize with some energy. "I protest to you, said he,

"that as a private individual I am fully satisfied, it is only in my public capacity that I took the liberty of doubting. The truth is, our town chest is miserably poor, and we would not wish to go to the expense of a new covering for the council-table upon a false alarm. Upon my honor,

* This seeming extravagance might have pleaded its own counterpart in Liverpool. Mr. Koster, a gold-merchant in that great town, never to his dying day would hear of any pretended battle at Talavera in the year 1809. Through Southey's introduction I myself formed his acquaintance, and though I found him (as the reader will suppose) by intermitting fits crotchety and splenetically eccentric, no man could refuse his deference to Mr. Koster's intellectual pretensions. I may add, that he was pre-eminently hospitable, and full of friendly services. But, as to Talavera, really you must excuse him.