ront, shaking her head, and muttering to herself, or now and then
breaking into a paroxysm of rage, brandishing her fist at the Hall,
and denouncing ill-luck upon Ready-Money Jack, and even upon the
Squire himself.

Lady Lillycraft has given repeated audiences to the culprit's weeping
wife, at the Hall door; and the servant maids have stolen out, to
confer with the gipsy women under the trees. As to the little ladies
of the family, they are all outrageous on Ready-Money Jack, whom they
look upon in the light of a tyrannical giant of fairy tale. Phoebe
Wilkins, contrary to her usual nature, is the only one that is
pitiless in the affair. She thinks Mr. Tibbets quite in the right; and
thinks the gipsies deserve to be punished severely, for meddling with
the sheep of the Tibbets's.

In the mean time, the females of the family evinced all the provident
kindness of the sex, ever ready to soothe and succour the distressed,
right or wrong. Lady Lillycraft has had a mattress taken to the
outhouse, and comforts and delicacies of all kinds have been taken to
the prisoner; even the little girls have sent their cakes and
sweetmeats; so that, I'll warrant, the vagabond has never fared so
well in his life before. Old Christy, it is true, looks upon every
thing with a wary eye; struts about with his blunderbuss with the air
of a veteran campaigner, and will hardly allow himself to be spoken
to.

The gipsy women dare not come within gun-shot, and every tatterdemalion
of a boy has been frightened from the park. The old fellow is
determined to lodge Starlight Tom in prison with his own hands; and
hopes, he says, to see one of the poaching crew made an example of.

I doubt, after all, whether the worthy Squire is not the greatest
sufferer in the whole affair. His honourable sense of duty obliges him
to be rigid, but the overflowing kindness of his nature makes this a
grievous trial to him.

He is not accustomed to have such demands upon his justice, in his
truly patriarchal domain; and it wounds his benevolent spirit, that
while prosperity and happiness are flowing in thus bounteously upon
him, he should have to inflict misery upon a fellow-being.

He has been troubled and cast down the whole evening; took leave of
the family, on going to bed, with a sigh, instead of his usual hearty
and affectionate tone; and will, in all probability, have a far more
sleepless night than his prisoner. Indeed, this unlucky affair has
cast a damp u