t's a great pity," he replied, very sensibly, "they
couldn't suffocate that boy, Master Oxford, and say no more about it.
To have put him quietly between two feather beds would have stopped his
heroic speeches, and dulled the sound of his glory very much. As it is,
she will have to run the gauntlet of many a fool and madman, some of
whom may perchance be better shots and use other than Brummagem
firearms." How much of this actually came to pass, the reader knows.

From the letters of his present Broadstairs visit, there is little
further to add to their account of his progress with his story; but a
couple more lines may be given for their characteristic expression of
his invariable habit upon entering any new abode, whether to stay in it
for days or for years. On a Monday night he arrived, and on the Tuesday
(2d of June) wrote to me, "_Before_ I tasted bit or drop yesterday, I
set out my writing-table with extreme taste and neatness, and improved
the disposition of the furniture generally." He stayed till the end of
June; when Maclise and myself joined him for the pleasure of posting
back home with him and Mrs. Dickens, by way of his favorite Chatham and
Rochester and Cobham, where we passed two agreeable days in revisiting
well-remembered scenes. I had meanwhile brought to a close the treaty
for repurchase of _Oliver_ and surrender of _Barnaby_, upon terms which
are succinctly stated in a letter written by him to Messrs. Chapman &
Hall on the 2d of July, the day after our return:

"The terms upon which you advance the money to-day for the purchase of
the copyright and stock[32] of _Oliver_ on my behalf are understood
between us to be these. That this 2250_l._ is to be deducted from the
purchase-money of a work by me entitled _Barnaby Rudge_, of which two
chapters are now in your hands, and of which the whole is to be written
within some convenient time to be agreed upon between us. But if it
should not be written (which God forbid!) within five years, you are to
have a lien to this amount on the property belonging to me that is now
in your hands, namely, my shares in the stock and copyright of _Sketches
by Boz_, _The Pickwick Papers_, _Nicholas Nickleby_, _Oliver Twist_, and
_Master Humphrey's Clock_; in which we do not include any share of the
current profits of the last-named work, which I shall remain at liberty
to draw at the times stated in our agreement. Your purchase of _Barnaby
Rudge_ is made upon the following