ad, seizes his
lawfully begotten by the throat, and drags him like a log into the
passage.

"Shpeak, shpeak! you blackguard, you villain!" exclaimed the man. "My
money, my money!"

"Oh, father!" answered the stripling, "they have robbed us--they have
taken advantage of me. I aint to blame; oh Lor'! oh Lor'!"

The little man threw his boy from him with the strength of a giant and
the anger of a fiend. The unhappy Aby spun like a top into the corner of
the passage.

"Show me the man," cried Methusaleh, "as has got my money. Take me to
him, you fool, you ass; let me have my revenge; or I'll be the death of
you."

Aby crawled away from his father, rose, and then bade his father follow
him. The father did as he was directed. He ascended a few stairs, and
entered a room on the first floor. The only living object he saw there
was Lord Downy. His lordship was very pale, and as agitated as any of
the party; but his agitation did not save him from the assaults of the
defrauded Israelite. The old man had scarcely caught sight of his prey
before he pounced upon him like a panther.

"What does this mean?" exclaimed his lordship, in amazement.

"My money!"

"Who are you?" said Lord Downy.

"My money!" repeated Moses, furiously. "Give me my money! Three hundred
pounds--bank notes! I have got the numbers; I've stopped the payment.
Give me my money!"

"Is this your son, sir?" said Lord Downy, pointing to the wretched Aby,
who stood in a corner of the apartment, looking like a member of the
swell mob, very sea-sick.

"Never mind him!" cried the old man, energetically. "The money is mine,
not his'n. I gave it him to take up a bill. If you have seduced him
here, and robbed him of it, it's transportation. I knows the law. It's
the penal shettlements!"

"Good heaven, sir! What language do you hold to me?"

"Never mind my language. It vill be vorse by and by. Dis matter shall be
settled before the magistrate. Come along to Bow Street!"

And so saying, Mr Moses, who all this time had held his lordship fast by
the collar of his coat, urged him forwards to the door.

"I tell you, sir," said the nobleman, "whoever you may be, you are
labouring under a mistake. I am not the person that you take me for. I
am a peer of the realm."

"If you vos the whole House of Commons," continued Methusaleh, without
relaxing his grasp, "vith Sir Robert Peel and the Duke of Vellington
into the pargain, you should go to Bow Street. Innoshent me