I've been a jolly drinker this five-and-twenty year,
And still a jolly drinker, my friends, you see me here:
I sing the joys of drinking; bear a chorus, every man,
With pint pot and quart pot and clattering of can.

The sense of the professor's first stanza was not in exact proportion to
the sound; but, being executed with great spirit, it attracted universal
applause. This Hugh appropriated with a condescending bow and smile; and,
making a signal for silence, he went on,--

King Solomon of old, boys (a jolly king was he),--

But here he was interrupted by a clapping of hands, that seemed a
continuance of the applause bestowed on his former stanza. Hugh Crombie,
who, as is the custom of many great performers, usually sang with his eyes
shut, now opened them, intending gently to rebuke his auditors for their
unseasonable expression of delight. He immediately perceived, however,
that the fault was to be attributed to neither of the three young men;
and, following the direction of their eyes, he saw near the door, in the
dim background of the apartment, a figure in a cloak. The hat was flapped
forward, the cloak muffled round the lower part of the face; and only the
eyes were visible.

The party gazed a moment in silence, and then rushed _en masse_ upon
the intruder, the landlord bringing up the rear, and sounding a charge
upon his fiddle. But, as they drew nigh, the black cloak began to assume a
familiar look; the hat, also, was an old acquaintance; and, these being
removed, from beneath them shone forth the reverend face and form of Dr.
Melmoth.