The General, two squires, the clergyman, the Gorgon apothecary and
attorney, with their respective ladies, followed her: they were
plainly beaten from the field. Such of the Tories as dared
remained, and in inglorious compromise shared the jovial Whig feast.

"Gentlemen and ladies," hiccupped Mr. Heeltap, "I'll give you a
toast. 'Champagne to our real--hic--friends,' no, 'Real champagne
to our friends,' and--hic--pooh! 'Champagne to our friends, and real
pain to our enemies,'--huzzay!"

The Scully faction on this day bore the victory away, and if the
polite reader has been shocked by certain vulgarities on the part of
Mr. Scully and his friends, he must remember imprimis that
Oldborough was an inconsiderable place--that the inhabitants thereof
were chiefly tradespeople, not of refined habits--that Mr. Scully
himself had only for three months mingled among the aristocracy-
-that his young friend Perkins was violently angry--and finally, and
to conclude, that the proud vulgarity of the great Sir George Gorgon
and his family was infinitely more odious and contemptible than the
mean vulgarity of the Scullyites and their leader.

Immediately after this event, Mr. Scully and his young friend
Perkins returned to town; the latter to his garrets in Bedford Row--
the former to his apartments on the first floor of the same house.
He lived here to superintend his legal business: his London agents,
Messrs. Higgs, Biggs, and Blatherwick, occupying the ground floor;
the junior partner, Mr. Gustavus Blatherwick, the second flat of the
house. Scully made no secret of his profession or residence: he
was an attorney, and proud of it; he was the grandson of a labourer,
and thanked God for it; he had made his fortune by his own honest