e pretty
much of the same way of thinking, and the question had been really
local,--namely, whether the Lansmere interest should or should not
prevail over that of the two squire-archical families who had alone,
hitherto, ventured to oppose it. But though Captain Dashmore was really
a very loyal man, and much too old a sailor to think that the State
(which, according to established metaphor, is a vessel par excellence)
should admit Jack upon quarterdeck, yet, what with talking against lords
and aristocracy, jobs and abuses, and searching through no very refined
vocabulary for the strongest epithets to apply to those irritating
nouns-substantive, his bile had got the better of his understanding,
and he became fuddled, as it were, by his own eloquence. Thus, though
as innocent of Jacobinical designs as he was incapable of setting the
Thames on fire, you would have guessed him, by his speeches, to be one
of the most determined incendiaries that ever applied a match to the
combustible materials of a contested election; while, being by no means
accustomed to respect his adversaries, he could not have treated
the Earl of Lansmere with less ceremony if his Lordship had been a
Frenchman. He usually designated that respectable nobleman, who was
still in the prime of life, by the title of "Old Pompous;" and the
mayor, who was never seen abroad but in top-boots, and the solicitor,
who was of a large build, received from his irreverent wit the joint
sobriquet of "Tops and Bottoms"! Hence the election had now become, as I
said before, a personal matter with my Lord, and, indeed, with the great
heads of the Lansmere interest. The earl seemed to consider his very
coronet at stake in the question. "The Man from Baker Street," with his
preternatural audacity, appeared to him a being ominous and awful--not
so much to be regarded with resentment as with superstitious terror. He
felt as felt the dignified Montezuma, when that ruffianly Cortez, with
his handful of Spanish rapscallions, bearded him in his own capital,
and in the midst of his Mexican splendour. The gods were menaced if
man could be so insolent! wherefore, said my Lord tremulously,
"The Constitution is gone if the Man from Baker Street comes in for
Lansmere!"

But in the absence of Audley Egerton, the election looked extremely
ugly, and Captain Dashmore gained ground hourly, when the Lansmere
solicitor happily bethought him of a notable proxy for the missing
candidate. The Sq