lauros," as Vincent would have said. On we went, faster and faster, as
the rattle rung in our ears, and the tramp of the enemy echoed after us
in hot pursuit.

"The devil take the hindmost," said Dartmore, breathlessly (as he kept up
with me).

"The watchman has saved his majesty the trouble," answered I, looking
back and seeing one of our friends in the clutch of the pursuers.

"On, on!" was Dartmore's only reply.

At last, after innumerable perils, and various immersements into back
passages, and courts, and alleys, which, like the chicaneries of law,
preserved and befriended us, in spite of all the efforts of justice, we
fairly found ourselves in safety in the midst of a great square.

Here we paused, and after ascertaining our individual safeties, we looked
round to ascertain the sum total of the general loss. Alas! we were
wofully fully shorn of our beams--we were reduced onehalf: only three out
of the six survived the conflict and the flight.

"Half," (said the companion of Dartmore and myself, whose name was
Tringle, and who was a dabbler in science, of which he was not a little
vain) "half is less worthy than the whole; but the half is more worthy
than nonentity."

"An axiom," said I, "not to be disputed; but now that we are safe, and
have time to think about it, are you not slightly of opinion that we
behaved somewhat scurvily to our better half, in leaving it so quietly in