s of times
personally--never gives the comfort that it ought; for these timid
souls, bullied by long dealings with the Office--tormented, as
Mr Carlyle would say, with much First Clerk--grow to be easily
panic-stricken, and have gloomy nightmares of a time when there shall be
no more life-certificates nor any quarter-days.

I cannot enter into their feelings, but I suppose they are reasonable.
I conclude that one would like to have a salary, and to be paid it
punctually. Self-preservation is a law that we all recognise; and some
of these officials may possibly feel that there is no other line of life
open to them, and that, if you take away from them their mission,
they will be poor indeed. You will think me perhaps as absurd as Mrs
Nickleby, who connected roast-pork and canaries, if I confess to you
that it is an old mastiff that my father had when I was a boy that
brought these people very forcibly to my mind. Poor old Turco!--I
can't know how old he was, but he was nearly blind, exceedingly feeble,
intensely stupid, and much given to sleep. Still, whenever any one of
the family--he didn't mind the servants--would go out to the stableyard,
he'd rouse himself up, and, affecting to believe it was an intruder,
he'd give a fierce bark or two, when, discovering his error, he'd wag
his tail and go back to his den--all this being evidently done to show
that he was as vigilant as ever--a sort of protest, that said, "Don't
believe one word about my being blind and toothless, still less flatter
yourself that the place is secure. It requires all my activity and
watchfulness to protect; but go back in peace, I'm ready for them."

Now, this is exactly what Turco is doing at Munich and Dresden. Whenever
Williams comes out with a hint that he is not wanted, Turco makes a
furious noise, rushes here and there after a turkey-cock if he can find
one, and thoroughly satisfies the family that he is an invaluable beast,
and could not be dispensed with.

Like Turco, too, who always barked, or tried to bark, whenever he heard
any noise or commotion going on outside, these people are sure to make
an uproar if there be any excitement in their neighbourhood. No sooner
did Schleswig-Holstein begin to trouble the world, than despatches
began to pour in from places that a few weeks before even the messengers
scarcely knew on the map. They related interviews with unknown princes
and unheard-of ministers, and spoke of hopes, fears, wishes, and
an