a fractured limb and a dislocated
shoulder; and the doctor's bulletins pronounced him to be in the most
dangerous state.

Martingale was a married man, and there was no danger of HIS riding
by the Fitzbattleaxe carriage. A fortnight after the above events, his
lordship was prancing by her Grace's great family coach, and chattering
with Lady Gwinever about the strange wager.

"Do you know what a pony is, Lady Gwinever?" he asked. Her ladyship said
yes: she had a cream-colored one at Castle Barbican; and stared when
Lord Martingale announced that he should soon have a thousand ponies,
worth five-and-twenty pounds each, which were all now kept at Coutts's.
Then he explained the circumstances of the bet with Bagnigge. Parliament
was to adjourn in ten days; the season would be over! Bagnigge was lying
ill chez lui; and the five-and-twenty thousand were irrecoverably his.
And he vowed he would buy Lord Binnacle's yacht--crew, captain, guns and
all.

On returning home that night from Lady Polkimore's, Martingale found
among the many billets upon the gold plateau in his antichambre, the
following brief one, which made him start--

"DEAR MARTINGALE.--Don't be too sure of Binnacle's yacht. There are
still ten days before the season is over; and my ponies may lie at
Coutts's for some time to come.

"Yours,

"BAGNIGGE.

"P. S.--I write with my left hand; for my right is still splintered up
from that confounded fall."

III.

The tall footman, number four, who had come in the place of John,
cashiered, (for want of proper mollets, and because his hair did not
take powder well,) had given great satisfaction to the under-butler,
who reported well of him to his chief, who had mentioned his name with
praise to the house-steward. He was so good-looking and well-spoken a
young man, that the ladies in the housekeeper's room deigned to notice
him more than once; nor was his popularity diminished on account of a
quarrel in which he engaged with Monsieur Anatole, the enormous Walloon
chasseur, who was one day found embracing Miss Flouncy, who waited
on Amethyst's own maid. The very instant Miss Flouncy saw Mr. Jeames
entering the Servants' Hall, where Monsieur Anatole was engaged in
"aggravating" her, Miss Flouncy screamed: at the next moment the Belgian
giant lay sprawling upon the carpet; and Jeames, standing over him,
assumed so terrible a look, that the chasseur declined any further
combat. The victory was made known t