" etc.
[6] According to Dr. Cotterel the cars go at the rate of forty-eight miles
an hour.
[7] His Majesty, who was at Paris under the travelling name of Count
Ruppin, is known to have gone down the Beaujon very frequently.
LETTER VI.
FROM PHIL. FUDGE, ESQ., TO HIS BROTHER
TIM FUDGE, ESQ., BARRISTER AT LAW.
Yours of the 12th received, just now--
Thanks, for the hint, my trusty brother!
'Tis truly pleasing to see how
We, FUDGES, stand by one another.
But never fear--I know my chap,
And he knows _me_ too--_verbum sap_,
My Lord and I are kindred spirits,
Like in our ways as two young ferrets;
Both fashioned, as that supple race is,
To twist into all sorts of places;--
Creatures lengthy, lean and hungering,
Fond of blood and _burrow_-mongering.
As to my Book in 91,
Called "Down with Kings, or, Who'd have thought it?"
Bless you! the Book's long dead and gone,--
Not even the Attorney-General bought it.
And tho' some few seditious tricks
I played in '95 and '6,
As you remind me in your letter,
His Lordship likes me all the better;--
We proselytes, that come with news full,
Are, as he says, so vastly useful!
REYNOLDS and I--(you know TOM REYNOLDS--
Drinks his claret, keeps his chaise--
Lucky the dog that first unkennels
Traitors and Luddites now-a-days;
Or who can help to _bag_ a few,
When SIDMOUTH wants a death, or two;)
REYNOLDS and I and some few more,
All men like us of _information_,
Friends whom his Lordship keeps in store,
As _under_-saviors of the nation[1]--
Have, formed a Club this season, where
His Lordship sometimes takes the chair,
And gives us many a bright oration
In praise of our sublime vocation;
Tracing it up to great King MIDAS,
Who, tho' in fable typified as
A royal Ass, by grace, divine
And right of ears, most asinine,
Was yet no more, in fact historical,
Than an exceeding well-bred tyrant;
And these, his _ears_, but allegorical,
Meaning Informers, kept at high rent--
Gem'men, who touched the Treasury glisteners,
Like us, for being trusty listeners;
And picking up each tale and fragment,
For royal MIDAS'S Green Bag meant.
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