at gave us
some disturbance. A cunning fellow, one of my servants, two days after,
peeping through the keyhole, observed that old Lewis had stole away
our part of the map, and saw him fiddling and turning the map from one
corner to the other, trying to join the two pieces together again. He
was muttering something to himself, which he did not well hear, only
these words, "'Tis great pity! 'tis great pity!" My servant added that
he believed this had some ill meaning. I told him he was a coxcomb,
always pretending to be wiser than his companions. Lewis and I are good
friends, he's an honest fellow, and I daresay will stand to his bargain.
The sequel of the story proved this fellow's suspicion to be too well
grounded; for Lewis revealed our whole secret to the deceased Lord
Strutt, who in reward for his treachery, and revenge to Frog and
me, settled his whole estate upon the present Philip Baboon. Then we
understood what he meant by piecing the map together.

MRS. BULL.--And were you surprised at this? Had not Lord Strutt
reason to be angry? Would you have been contented to have been so used
yourself?

JOHN BULL.--Why, truly, wife, it was not easily reconciled to the common
methods; but then it was the fashion to do such things. I have read of
your golden age, your silver age, etc.; one might justly call this
the age of the lawyers. There was hardly a man of substance in all the
country but had a counterfeit that pretended to his estate.* As the
philosophers say that there is a duplicate of every terrestrial animal
at sea, so it was in this age of the lawyers: there were at least two
of everything; nay, o' my conscience, I think there were three Esquire
Hackums** at one time. In short, it was usual for a parcel of fellows
to meet and dispose of the whole estates in the country. "This lies
convenient for me, Tom. Thou wouldst do more good with that, Dick, than
the old fellow that has it." So to law they went with the true owners:
the lawyers got well by it; everybody else was undone. It was a common
thing for an honest man when he came home at night to find another
fellow domineering in his family, hectoring his servants, and calling
for supper. In every house you might observe two Sosias quarrelling who
was master. For my own part, I am still afraid of the same treatment:
that I should find somebody behind my counter selling my broad-cloth.

* Several Pretenders at that time.

** Kings of England.

MRS. BUL