you know those fellows," I demanded, "since you let them go away in
your debt?" "I know nothing about them," said the landlord, "save
that they are a couple of scamps." "Then why did you let them go
away without paying you?" said I. "I had not the heart to stop
them," said the landlord; "and, to tell you the truth, everybody
serves me so now, and I suppose they are right, for a child could
flog me." "Nonsense," said I, "behave more like a man, and with
respect to those two fellows run after them, I will go with you,
and if they refuse to pay the reckoning I will help you to shake
some money out of their clothes." "Thank you," said the landlord;
"but as they are gone, let them go on. What they have drank is not
of much consequence." "What is the matter with you?" said I,
staring at the landlord, who appeared strangely altered; his
features were wild and haggard, his formerly bluff cheeks were
considerably sunken in, and his figure had lost much of its
plumpness. "Have you changed your religion already, and has the
fellow in black commanded you to fast?" "I have not changed my
religion yet," said the landlord, with a kind of shudder; "I am to
change it publicly this day fortnight, and the idea of doing so--I
do not mind telling you--preys much upon my mind; moreover, the
noise of the thing has got abroad, and everybody is laughing at me,
and what's more, coming and drinking my beer, and going away
without paying for it, whilst I feel myself like one bewitched,
wishing but not daring to take my own part. Confound the fellow in
black, I wish I had never seen him! yet what can I do without him?
The brewer swears that unless I pay him fifty pounds within a
fortnight he'll send a distress warrant into the house, and take
all I have. My poor niece is crying in the room above; and I am
thinking of going into the stable and hanging myself; and perhaps
it's the best thing I can do, for it's better to hang myself before