o find the
election promise, with all its circumstances, so fresh in the nobleman's
memory.

"When did he die?"

"The day before yesterday, exactly at half past one o'clock, after being
confined three weeks to his bed, and taking a power of doctor's stuff; and
I hope your grace will be as good as your word, and let my son-in-law
succeed him."

The Duke, by this time perfectly awake, was staggered at the impossibility
of receiving intelligence from Madrid in so short a space of time; and
perplexed at the absurdity of a king's messenger applying for his
son-in-law to succeed the King of Spain: "Is the man drunk, or mad? Where
are your dispatches?" exclaimed his grace, hastily drawing back his
curtain; where, instead of a royal courier, he recognized at the bedside,
the fat, good-humored countenance of his friend from Cornwall, making low
bows, with hat in hand, and "hoping my lord would not forget the gracious
promise he was so good as to make, in favor of his son-in-law, at the last
election."

Vexed at so untimely a disturbance, and disappointed of news from Spain,
the Duke frowned for a moment; but chagrin soon gave way to mirth, at so
singular and ridiculous a combination of circumstances, and, yielding to
the impulse, he sunk upon the bed in a violent fit of laughter, which was
communicated in a moment to the attendants.

The relater of this little narrative, concludes, with observing, "Although
the Duke of Newcastle could not place the relative of his old acquaintance
on the throne of His Catholic Majesty, he advanced him to a post not less
honorable--he made him an exciseman."
--Blackwood's Magazine.

[Illustration: Bedroom: The Duke is startled awake, sitting up in bed with
distressed look on his face. A servant is holding a candlestick. A third
man is slightly bowed and holding his hat in his hands. The duke's sword
rests against a chair at the foot of the bed.]

Notes.--Duke of Newcastle.--Thomas Holles Pelham (b. 1693, d. 1768), one
of the chief ministers of state in the reign of George II. of England.

Cornwall.--A county forming the extreme southwestern part of England.

King of Spain.--Ferdinand VI. was then the king of Spain. He died in 1759.

His Catholic Majesty, a title applied to the kings of Spain; first given
to Alfonso I. by Pope Gregory III. in 739.

II. THE NEEDLE. (67)

The gay belles of fashion may boast of excelling
In wal