obliged to tell him a very fine story from one of our elder dramatists:
viz., that once, in some far Oriental kingdom, when the sultan of all
the land, with his princes, ladies, and chief omrahs, were flying their
falcons, a hawk suddenly flew at a majestic eagle, and, in defiance of
the eagle's natural advantages, in contempt also of the eagle's
traditional royalty, and before the whole assembled field of astonished
spectators from Agra and Lahore, killed the eagle on the spot.
Amazement seized the sultan at the unequal contest, and burning
admiration for its unparalleled result. He commanded that the hawk
should be brought before him; he caressed the bird with enthusiasm; and
he ordered that, for the commemoration of his matchless courage, a
diadem of gold and rubies should be solemnly placed on the hawk's head,
but then that, immediately after this solemn coronation, the bird
should be led off to execution, as the most valiant indeed of traitors,
but not the less a traitor, as having dared to rise rebelliously
against his liege lord and anointed sovereign, the eagle. "Now," said I
to the Welshman, "to you and me, as men of refined sensibilities, how
painful it would have been that this poor Brummagem brute, the
'Tallyho,' in the impossible case of a victory over us, should have
been crowned with Birmingham tinsel, with paste diamonds and Roman
pearls, and then led off to instant execution." The Welshman doubted if
that could be warranted by law. And, when I hinted at the 6th of Edward
Longshanks, chap. 18, for regulating the precedency of coaches, as
being probably the statute relied on for the capital punishment of such
offences, he replied drily that, if the attempt to pass a mail really
were treasonable, it was a pity that the "Tallyho" appeared to have so
imperfect an acquaintance with law.

The modern modes of travelling cannot compare with the old mail-coach
system in grandeur and power. They boast of more velocity,--not,