exclusively belong to his reverence, who had taken the pains to come so
far to enlighten the dark inmates of Sourcraut Hall. Dr. Direful stood
rolling his fierce eye (he had but one) on the abashed assembly; and,
pushing me off my perch, drove me with his handkerchief into the dense
crowd which filled the bottom of the room, and consisted of all the
servants of the house, with some recently converted Papists from
among the Sourcraut tenantry. All drew back in horror, to let one
so anathematised pass without contact. I coiled myself up near a
droll-looking little postilion, who, while turning up the whites of his
eyes, was coaxing me to him with a fragment of plumb-cake, which he had
stolen from the banquet-table. Dr. Direful returned to the centre of the
room, and mounted a desk to commence his lecture. The auditory crowded
and cowered timidly round him, while he, looking down on them with a
wrathful and contemptuous glance, was about to pour forth the pious
venom which hung upon his lips, when a sharp cry of "_Get along out
of that_" struck him dumb. Inquiry was useless, for all were ready
to swear that they had not uttered a word. Dr. Direful called them
"blasphemous liars," and proceeded one and all to empty the vials of his
wrath through the words of a text of awful denunciation, which I dare
not here repeat; but his words were again arrested by the exclamation
of, "Aisy now, aisy--what a devil of a hurry you are in!" uttered in
quick succession.--He jumped down from his altitude; and, in reply to
his renewed inquiries, a serious coachman offered up to the vengeance
of this Moloch of methodism the mischievous postilion, who had that
morning detected the not always sober son of the whip in other devotions
than those to which he professed exclusive addiction. When I saw the
rage of all parties, I thought of the roasted Indians of the Brazils,
and shuddered for the poor lad. After a short, but inquisitorial
examination, in which he in vain endeavoured to throw the blame on me,
he was stripped of his gaudy dress, and in spite of his well-founded