I only wish he may get rid of them as easily as he brought
them there, for if the bull-dogs should gain scent of them there
would be a pretty row, _take notice_." Mark's information, instead of
producing the alarm he evidently anticipated, had completely dispelled
all previous fears, and operated like the prologue to a rich comedy,
from which I expected to derive considerable merriment: following,
therefore, my conductor up one flight of stairs on the opposite side of
the space from which I had entered, I found myself at the closed _oak_
of my friend. "Mr. Eglantine is giving them a _chaunt_" said Mark, who
had applied his ear to the key-hole of the door: "we must wait till the
song is over, or you will be fined in a double bumper of _bishop_, for
interrupting the _stave, take notice_." Curiosity prompted me to
follow Mark's example, when I overheard Horace chanting part of an old
satirical ballad on John Wilkes, to the tune of the Dragon of Wantley;
commencing with--
And ballads I have heard rehearsed By harmonists itinerant, Who modern
worthies celebrate, Yet scarcely make a dinner on't. Some of whom sprang
from noble race, And some were in a pig-sty born, Dependent upon royal
grace Or triple tree of Tyburn.
CHORUS. John Wilkes he was for Middlesex, They chose him knight of the
shire: He made a fool of alderman Bull, And call'd parson Home a liar.
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