oved by a piece of
pack-thread. My uncle always said, afterwards, that this was one of the
surest means he knew of, for disposing of an enemy; but it was liable to
one objection on the ground of expense, inasmuch as it involved the loss
of a sword for every man disabled.

'"The mail, the mail!" cried the lady, running up to my uncle and
throwing her beautiful arms round his neck; "we may yet escape."

'"May!" cried my uncle; "why, my dear, there's nobody else to kill, is
there?" My uncle was rather disappointed, gentlemen, for he thought
a little quiet bit of love-making would be agreeable after the
slaughtering, if it were only to change the subject.

'"We have not an instant to lose here," said the young lady. "He
(pointing to the young gentleman in sky-blue) is the only son of the
powerful Marquess of Filletoville." '"Well then, my dear, I'm afraid
he'll never come to the title," said my uncle, looking coolly at the
young gentleman as he stood fixed up against the wall, in the cockchafer
fashion that I have described. "You have cut off the entail, my love."

'"I have been torn from my home and my friends by these villains," said
the young lady, her features glowing with indignation. "That wretch
would have married me by violence in another hour."

'"Confound his impudence!" said my uncle, bestowing a very contemptuous
look on the dying heir of Filletoville.

'"As you may guess from what you have seen," said the young lady,
"the party were prepared to murder me if I appealed to any one for
assistance. If their accomplices find us here, we are lost. Two minutes
hence may be too late. The mail!" With these words, overpowered by
her feelings, and the exertion of sticking the young Marquess of
Filletoville, she sank into my uncle's arms. My uncle caught her up, and
bore her to the house door. There stood the mail, with four long-tailed,
flowing-maned, black horses, ready harnessed; but no coachman, no guard,
no hostler even, at the horses' heads.

'Gentlemen, I hope I do no injustice to my uncle's memory, when I
express my opinion, that although he was a bachelor, he had held some
ladies in his arms before this time; I believe, indeed, that he had
rather a habit of kissing barmaids; and I know, that in one or two
instances, he had been seen by credible witnesses, to hug a landlady in
a very perceptible manner. I mention the circumstance, to show what a
very uncommon sort of person this beautiful young lady must hav