the final decision of the affair was postponed,
in order to have the opinion of the judges on the propriety of taking
bail, which I promptly offered to put in, in behalf of my old shipmate.
This disagreeable little interruption temporarily disposed of, the
business of the drawing-room went on.

Noah was next conducted to the queen, who was much inclined (always by
deputy) to overlook the little mistake into which he had fallen with her
royal consort, and to receive him graciously.

"May it please your majesty, I have the honor to present to your
majesty's royal notice the Lord Noah Poke, the lord high admiral of a
distant and but little known country, called Great Britain," said
the gold stick of the evening--Judge People's Friend being afraid of
committing Leaplow, and declining to introduce the captain to any one
else.

"Lord Poke is a countryman of our royal cousin, the Prince Bob!"
observed the queen, in an exceedingly gracious manner.

"No, marm," put in the sealer, promptly, "your cousin Bob is no cousin
of mine; and if it were lawful for your majesty to have a memory, or an
inclination, or anything else in that way, I should beg the favor of you
to order the young blackguard to be soundly threshed."

The majesty of Leaphigh stood aghast, by proxy! It would seem Noah had
now actually fallen into a more serious error than the mistake he had
made with the king. By the law of Leaphigh, the queen is not a feme
couverte. She can sue and be sued in her own name, holds her separate
estate, without the intervention of trustees, and IS supposed to have a
memory, a will, an inclination, or anything else in that way, except a
"royal pleasure," to which she cannot, of right, lay claim. As to her,
the king's first-cousin is a dead letter; he having no more control over
her conscience than he has over the conscience of an apple-woman. In
short, her majesty is quite as much the mistress of her own convictions
and conscience as it probably ever falls to the lot of women in such
high stations to be the mistress of interests that are of so much
importance to those around them. Noah, innocently enough, I do firmly
believe, had seriously wounded all those nice sensibilities which
are naturally dependent on such an improved condition of society.
Forbearance could go no further, and I saw, by the dark looks around
me, that the captain had committed a serious crime. He was immediately
arrested, and conducted from the presence to a