mercies (cried Clinker, sobbing); I have been a poor bankrupt from the beginning. Your honour’s goodness found me, when I was—naked—when I was—sick and forlorn. I understand your honour’s looks; I would not give offence; but my heart is very full; and if your worship won’t give me leave to speak, I must vent it in prayers to heaven for my benefactor.’ When he quitted the room, Lismahago said, he should have a much better opinion of his honesty, if he did not whine and cant so abominably; but that he had always observed those weeping and praying fellows were hypocrites at bottom. Mr. Bramble made no reply to this sarcastic remark, proceeding from the lieutenant’s resentment of Clinker’s having, in pure simplicity of heart, ranked him with M‘Alpine and the sinners of the earth. The landlord being called to receive some orders about the beds, told the ’squire that his house was very much at his service, but he was sure he should not have the honour to lodge him and his company. He gave us to understand that his master, who lived hard by, would not suffer us to be at a public house, when there was accommodation for us at his own; and that, if he had not dined abroad in the neighbourhood, he would have undoubtedly come to offer his services at our first arrival. He then launched out in praise of that gentleman, whom he had served as butler, representing him as a perfect miracle of goodness and generosity. He said he was a person of great learning, and allowed to be the best farmer in the country: that he had a lady who was as much beloved as himself, and an only son, a very hopeful young gentleman, just recovered from a dangerous fever, which had like to have proved fatal to the whole family; for, if the son had died, he was sure the parents would not have survived their loss. He had not yet finished the encomium of Mr. Dennison, when this gentleman arrived in a post-chaise, and his appearance seemed to justify all that had been said in his favour. He is pretty well advanced in years, but hale, robust, and florid, with an ingenuous countenance, expressive of good sense and humanity. Having condoled with us on the accident which had happened, he said he was come to conduct us to his habitation, where we should be less incommoded than at such a paltry inn, and expressed his hope that the ladies would not be the worse for going thither in his carriage, as the distance was not above a quarter of a mile. My uncle having made a proper return to this courteous exhibition, eyed him attentively, and then asked if he had not been at Oxford, a commoner of Queen’s college? When Mr. Dennison answered, ‘Yes,’ with some marks of surprise, ‘Look at me then (said our ’squire) and let us see if you can recollect the features of an old friend, whom you have not seen these forty years.’ The gentleman, taking him by the hand, and gazing at him earnestly, ‘I protest (cried he), I do think I recal the idea of Matthew Loyd of Glamorganshire, who was student of Jesus.’ ‘Well remembered, my dear friend, Charles Dennison (exclaimed my uncle, pressing him to his breast), I am that very identical Matthew Loyd of Glamorgan.’ Clinker, who had just entered the room with some coals for the fire, no sooner heard these words, than, throwing down the scuttle on the toes of Lismahago, he began to caper as if he was mad, crying, ‘Matthew Loyd of Glamorgan!—O Providence!—Matthew Loyd of Glamorgan!’ Then, clasping my uncle’s knees, he went on in this manner: ‘Your worship must forgive me—Matthew Loyd of Glamorgan!—O Lord, sir!—I can’t contain myself!—I shall lose my senses.’ ‘Nay, thou hast lost them already, I believe (said the ’squire, peevishly); prithee, Clinker, be quiet. What is the matter?’ Humphry, fumbling in his bosom, pulled out an old wooden snuff-box, which he presented in great trepidation to his master, who, opening it immediately, perceived a small cornelian seal, and two scraps of paper. At sight of these articles he started, and changed colour, and casting his eye upon the inscriptions, ‘Ha!—how!—what!—where (cried he) is the person here named?’ Clinker, knocking his own breast, could hardly pronounce these words: ‘Here—here—here is Matthew Loyd, as the certificate sheweth; Humphry Clinker was the name of the farrier that took me ’prentice.’

‘And who gave you these tokens?’ said my uncle, hastily. ‘My poor mother on her death-bed,’ replied the other. ‘And who was your mother?’ ‘Dorothy Twyford, an please your honour, heretofore bar-keeper at the Angel at Chippenham.’ And why were not these tokens produced before?’ ‘My mother told me she had wrote to Glamorganshire, at the time of my birth, but had no answer; and that afterwards, when she made inquiry, there was no such person in that country.’ ‘And so in consequence of my changing my name and going abroad at that very time, thy poor mother and thou have been left to want and misery. I am really shocked at the consequence of my own folly.’ Then, laying his hand on Clinker’s head, he added, ‘Stand forth, Matthew Loyd. You see, gentlemen, how the sins of my youth rise up in judgment against me. Here is my direction written with my own hand, and a seal which I left at the woman’s request; and this is a certificate of the child’s baptism, signed by the curate of the parish.’ The company were not a