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money. The worthy Corporal had not the slightest shame regarding his
own profession, and cut many jokes with Mrs. Cat about her late one; her
attempt to murder the Count, and her future prospects as a wife.

And here, having brought him upon the scene again, we may as well
shortly narrate some of the principal circumstances which befell him
after his sudden departure from Birmingham; and which he narrated with
much candour to Mrs. Catherine.

He rode the Captain's horse to Oxford (having exchanged his military
dress for a civil costume on the road), and at Oxford he disposed of
"George of Denmark," a great bargain, to one of the heads of colleges.
As soon as Mr. Brock, who took on himself the style and title of Captain
Wood, had sufficiently examined the curiosities of the University, he
proceeded at once to the capital: the only place for a gentleman of his
fortune and figure.

Here he read, with a great deal of philosophical indifference, in the
Daily Post, the Courant, the Observator, the Gazette, and the chief
journals of those days, which he made a point of examining at "Button's"
and "Will's," an accurate description of his person, his clothes, and
the horse he rode, and a promise of fifty guineas' reward to any person
who would give an account of him (so that he might be captured) to
Captain Count Galgenstein at Birmingham, to Mr. Murfey at the "Golden
Ball" in the Savoy, or Mr. Bates at the "Blew Anchor in Pickadilly." But
Captain Wood, in an enormous full-bottomed periwig that cost him sixty
pounds,[*] with high red heels to his shoes, a silver sword, and a
gold snuff-box, and a large wound (obtained, he said, at the siege of
Barcelona), which disfigured much of his countenance, and caused him to
cover one eye, was in small danger, he thought, of being mistaken for
Corporal Brock, the deserter of Cutts's; and strutted along the Mall
with as grave an air as the very best nobleman who appeared there.
He was generally, indeed, voted to be very good company; and as his
expenses were unlimited ("A few convent candlesticks," my dear, he used
to whisper, "melt into a vast number of doubloons"), he commanded as
good society as he chose to ask for: and it was speedily known as a fact
throughout town, that Captain Wood, who had served under His Majesty
Charles III. of Spain, had carried off the diamond petticoat of Our Lady
of Compostella, and lived upon the proceeds of the fraud. People were
good Protestants in th