the more he revolved circumstances, the more was he perplexed in his
conjectures. According to the state of the mind, a very subtle
philosopher is often puzzled by a very plain proposition; and this was
the case of our adventurer.--What made the strongest impression upon his
mind was a notion that he was apprehended on suspicion of treasonable
practices, by a warrant from the Secretary of State, in consequence of
some false malicious information; and that his prison was no other than
the house of a messenger, set apart for the accommodation of suspected
persons. In this opinion he comforted himself by recollecting his own
conscious innocence, and reflecting that he should be entitled to the
privilege of habeas corpus, as the act including that inestimable jewel
was happily not suspended at this time.

Consoled by this self-assurance, he quietly resigned himself to slumber;
but before he fell asleep, he was very disagreeably undeceived in his
conjecture. His ears were all at once saluted with a noise from the next
room, conveyed in distinct bounces against the wainscot; then a hoarse
voice exclaimed, "Bring up the artillery--let Brutandorf's brigade
advance--detach my black hussars to ravage the country--let them be new
booted--take particular care of the spur-leathers--make a desert of
Lusatia--bombard the suburbs of Pera--go, tell my brother Henry to pass
the Elbe at Meissen with forty battalions and fifty squadrons--so ho, you
Major-General Donder, why don't you finish your second parallel?--send
hither the engineer Shittenback--I'll lay all the shoes in my shop, the
breach will be practicable in four-and-twenty hours--don't tell me of
your works; you and your works be d--n'd."

"Assuredly," cried another voice from a different quarter, "he that
thinks to be saved by works is in a state of utter reprobation--I myself
was a profane weaver, and trusted to the rottenness of works--I kept my