
but just set him adrift by himself, and let him work the ship of his own head,
and, stop my grog, if you don't find all the Johnny-raws laughing at him.«
    »Stop your grog indeed!« said Remarkable, rising with great indignation, and
seizing a candle; »you're groggy now, Benjamin, and I'll quit the room before I
hear any misbecoming words from you.«
    The housekeeper retired, with a manner but little less dignified, as she
thought, than the air of the heiress, muttering, as she drew the door after her,
with a noise like the report of a musket, the opprobrious terms of drunkard,
sot, and beast.
    »Who's that you say is drunk?« cried Benjamin, fiercely, rising and making a
movement towards Remarkable. »You talk of mustering yourself with a lady! you're
just fit to grumble and find fault. Where the devil should you larn behaviour
and dictionary? in your damn'd Bay of State, ha!«
    Benjamin here fell back in his chair, and soon gave vent to certain ominous
sounds, which resembled, not a little, the growling of his favourite animal, the
bear itself. Before, however, he was quite locked, to use the language that
would suit the Della-cruscan humour of certain refined minds of the present day,
»in the arms of Morpheus,« he spoke aloud, observing due pauses between his
epithets, the impressive terms of monkey, parrot, pic-nic, tar-pot, and
linguisters.
    We shall not attempt to explain his meaning, nor connect his sentences, and
our readers must be satisfied with our informing them, that they were expressed
with all that coolness of contempt that a man might well be supposed to feel for
a monkey.
    Nearly two hours passed in this sleep, before the Major-domo was awakened by
the noisy entrance of Richard, Major Hartmann, and the master of the mansion.
Benjamin so far rallied his confused faculties, as to shape the course of the
two former to their respective apartments, when he disappeared himself, leaving
the task of securing the house to him who was most interested in its safety.
Locks and bars were but little attended to, in the early day of that settlement;
and so soon as Marmaduke had given an eye to the enormous fires of his dwelling,
he retired. With this act of prudence closes the first night of our tale.
 

                                  Chapter XVI

 »Watch. (aside.) Some treason, masters -
 Yet
