CHAPTER XV. An Account of the Conference between Mrs. Bull and Don
Diego.*

* A Tory nobleman who, by his influence upon the House of Commons,
endeavoured to stop the Treaty.

The lawyers, as their last effort to put off the composition, sent
Don Diego to John. Don Diego was a very worthy gentleman, a friend
to John, his mother, and present wife, and, therefore, supposed to
have some influence over her. He had been ill used himself by
John's lawyers, but because of some animosity to Sir Roger was
against the composition. The conference between him and Mrs. Bull
was word for word as follows:--

DON DIEGO.--Is it possible, cousin Bull, that you can forget the
honourable maxims of the family you are come of, and break your word
with three of the honestest, best-meaning persons in the world--
Esquires South, Frog, and Hocus--that have sacrificed their
interests to yours? It is base to take advantage of their
simplicity and credulity, and leave them in the lurch at last.

MRS. BULL--I am sure they have left my family in a bad condition, we
have hardly money to go to market; and nobody will take our words
for sixpence. A very fine spark this Esquire South! My husband
took him in, a dirty boy. It was the business of half the servants
to attend him.* The rogue did bawl and make such a noise:
sometimes he fell in the fire and burnt his face, sometimes broke
his shins clambering over the benches, and always came in so dirty,
as if he had been dragged through the kennel at a boarding-school.