--an
impertinent term that he was much addicted to. The grammar school was at
the time skailing, and the boys seeing the stramash, gathered round the
officer, and yelling and shouting, encouraged Robin more and more into
rebellion, till at last they worked up his corruption to such a pitch,
that he took the drum from about his neck, and made it fly like a
bombshell at the officer's head.

The officers behaved very well, for they dragged Robin by the lug and the
horn to the tolbooth, and then came with their complaint to me. Seeing
how the authorities had been set at nought, and the necessity there was
of making an example, I forthwith ordered Robin to be cashiered from the
service of the town; and as so important a concern as a proclamation
ought not to be delayed, I likewise, upon the spot, ordered the officers
to take a lad that had been also a drummer in a marching regiment, and go
with him to make the proclamation.

Nothing could be done in a more earnest and zealous public spirit than
this was done by me. But habit had begot in the town a partiality for
the drunken ne'er-do-well, Robin; and this just act of mine was
immediately condemned as a daring stretch of arbitrary power; and the
consequence was, that when the council met next day, some sharp words
flew from among us, as to my usurping an undue authority; and the thank I
got for my pains was the mortification to see the worthless body restored
to full power and dignity, with no other reward than an admonition to
behave better for the future. Now, I leave it to the unbiassed judgment
of posterity to determine if any public man could be more ungraciously
treated by his colleagues than I was on this occasion. But, verily, the
council had their reward.

CHAPTER XXXIII--AN ALARM

The divor, Robin Boss, being, as I have recorded, reinstated in office,
soon began to play his old tricks. In the course of the week after the
Michaelmas term at which my second provostry ended, he was so
insupportably drunk that he fell head foremost into his drum, which cost
the town five-and-twenty shillings for a new one--an accident that was
not without some satisfaction to me; and I trow I was not sparing in my
derisive commendations on the worth of such a public officer.
Nevertheless, he was still kept on, some befriending him for compassion,
and others as it were to spite me.

But Robin's good behaviour did not end with breaking the drum, and
costing a new one.-