in the popular cry were
branded with the odious nickname of _the dukelings_.

A short time before the assassination of Buckingham, when the king,
after an obstinate resistance, had conceded his assent to the "Petition
of Right," the houses testified their satisfaction, perhaps their
triumph, by their shouts of acclamation. They were propagated by the
hearers on the outside, from one to the other, till they reached the
city. Some confused account arrived before the occasion of these
rejoicings was generally known. Suddenly the bells began to ring;
bonfires were kindled; and in an instant all was a scene of public
rejoicing. But ominous indeed were these rejoicings; for the greater
part was occasioned by a false rumour that the duke was to be sent to
the Tower. No one inquired about a news which every one wished to hear;
and so sudden was the joy, that a MS. letter says, "the old scaffold on
Tower-hill was pulled down and burned by certain unhappy boys, who said
they would have a new one built for the duke." This mistake so rapidly
prevailed as to reach even the country, which blazed with bonfires to
announce the fall of Buckingham.[234] The shouts on the acquittal of the
seven bishops, in 1688, did not speak in plainer language to the son's
ear, when, after the verdict was given, such prodigious acclamations of
joy "seemed to set the king's authority at defiance; it spread itself
not only into the city, but even to Hounslow Heath, where the soldiers,
upon the news of it, gave up a great shout, though the king was then
actually at dinner in the camp."[235] To the speculators of human
nature, who find its history written in their libraries, how many plain
lessons seem to have been lost on the mere politician, who is only such
in the heat of action!

About a month before the duke was assassinated, occurred the murder, by
the populace, of the man who was called "the duke's devil." This was a
Dr. Lambe, a man of infamous character, a dealer in magical arts, who
lived by showing apparitions, or selling the favours of the devil, and
whose chambers were a convenient rendezvous for the curious of both
sexes. This wretched man, who openly exulted in the infamous traffic by
which he lived, when he was sober, prophesied that he should fall one
day by the hands from which he received his death; and it was said he
was as positive about his patron's. At the age of eighty, he was torn to
pieces in the city; and the city was imprudently