"
"A very pretty _bit of true life_," said Bob; and out came the sketch
book to note them down, which, as we loitered forward, was effected in
his usual rapid manner, portraying one or two well-known characters; but
for their cognomens, misfortune claims exemption:--to them we say,
"Thou seest thou neither art mark'd out or named,
And therefore only to thyself art shamed."
_J. Withers's Abuses strict and whipt_.
~363~~
[Illustration: page363]
To be brief, we found Echo, by the aid of the crier, safely tiled in at
ten in twelve, happy to all appearance, and perfectly domiciled, with
two other equally fresh associates. The creditor and his solicitor chose
to wait the issue of our proposition in the lobby; a precaution, as I
afterwards found, to be essentially necessary to their own safety; for,
"He whom just laws imprison still is free
Beyond the proudest slaves of tyranny."
Although I must confess the exhibition we had of _freedom in Banco
Regis_ was rather a rough specimen; a poor little limb of the law, who
had formerly been a leg himself, had, like other great lawyers, ratted,
and commenced a furious warfare upon some old cronies, for divers
penalties and perjuries, arising out of Greek prosecutions: too eager to
draw the blunt, he had been inveigled into the interior of the prison,
and there, after undergoing a most delightful pumping upon, ~364~~was
_rough-dried_ by being tossed in a blanket (see plate).
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