letter by the master of the ceremonies, but the intelligence was rather
calculated, with a man of Mr. Tyrrel's disposition, to excite defiance
than to overawe. At the door of the assembly he was personally met by
the master of the ceremonies, who had perceived the arrival of an
equipage, and who now endeavoured to repeat his prohibition: but he was
thrust aside by Mr. Tyrrel with an air of native authority and ineffable
contempt. As he entered; every eye was turned upon him. Presently all
the gentlemen in the room assembled round him. Some endeavoured to
hustle him, and others began to expostulate. But he found the secret
effectually to silence the one set, and to shake off the other. His
muscular form, the well-known eminence of his intellectual powers, the
long habits to which every man was formed of acknowledging his
ascendancy, were all in his favour. He considered himself as playing a
desperate stake, and had roused all the energies he possessed, to enable
him to do justice to so interesting a transaction. Disengaged from the
insects that at first pestered him, he paced up and down the room with a
magisterial stride, and flashed an angry glance on every side. He then
broke silence. "If any one had any thing to say to him, he should know
where and how to answer him. He would advise any such person, however,
to consider well what he was about. If any man imagined he had any thing
personally to complain of, it was very well. But he did expect that
nobody there would be ignorant and raw enough to meddle with what was no
business of theirs, and intrude into the concerns of any man's private
family."

This being a sort of defiance, one and another gentleman advanced to
answer it. He that was first began to speak; but Mr. Tyrrel, by the
expression of his countenance and a peremptory tone, by well-timed
interruptions and pertinent insinuations, caused him first to hesitate,
and then to be silent. He seemed to be fast advancing to the triumph he