faithless and uncertain disposition. The cheek-bones were prominent: the
nose slightly depressed, with rather wide nostrils; the chin narrow, but
well-formed; the forehead broad and lofty; and he possessed such an
extraordinary flexibility of muscle in this region, that he could
elevate his eye-brows at pleasure up to the very verge of his sleek and
shining black hair, which, being closely cropped, to admit of his
occasionally wearing a wig, gave a singular bullet-shape to his head.
Taken altogether, his physiognomy resembled one of those vagabond heads
which Murillo delighted to paint, and for which Guzman d'Alfarache,
Lazarillo de Tormes, or Estevanillo Gonzalez might have sat:--faces that
almost make one in love with roguery, they seem so full of vivacity and
enjoyment. There was all the knavery, and more than all the drollery of
a Spanish picaroon in the laughing eyes of the English apprentice; and,
with a little more warmth and sunniness of skin on the side of the
latter, the resemblance between them would have been complete.

Satisfied, as he thought, that he had nothing to apprehend, the boy
resumed his task, chanting, as he plied his knife with redoubled
assiduity, the following--not inappropriate strains:--

THE NEWGATE STONE.

When Claude Du Val was in Newgate thrown,
He carved his name on the dungeon stone;
Quoth a dubsman, who gazed on the shattered wall,
"You have carved your epitaph, Claude Du Val,
_With your chisel so fine, tra la_!"

"This S wants a little deepening," mused the apprentice, retouching the
letter in question; "ay, that's better."