as as great as any Moses! He was the right thing
there, fit to head and organize measures for the regeneration of
nations. It puzzles me to this day how the conqueror of Lodi should have
condescended to become an emperor, a vulgar, a stupid humbug; and still
more how a people who had once called themselves republicans should have
sunk again to the grade of mere slaves. I despise France! If England had
gone as far on the march of civilization as France did, she would hardly
have retreated so shamelessly."

"You don't mean to say that besotted imperial France is any worse than
bloody republican France?" demanded Helstone fiercely.

"I mean to say nothing, but I can think what I please, you know, Mr.
Helstone, both about France and England; and about revolutions, and
regicides, and restorations in general; and about the divine right of
kings, which you often stickle for in your sermons, and the duty of
non-resistance, and the sanity of war, and----"

Mr. Moore's sentence was here cut short by the rapid rolling up of a
gig, and its sudden stoppage in the middle of the road. Both he and the
rector had been too much occupied with their discourse to notice its
approach till it was close upon them.

"Nah, maister; did th' wagons hit home?" demanded a voice from the
vehicle.

"Can that be Joe Scott?"

"Ay, ay!" returned another voice; for the gig contained two persons, as
was seen by the glimmer of its lamp. The men with the lanterns had now
fallen into the rear, or rather, the equestrians of the rescue-party had
outridden the pedestrians. "Ay, Mr. Moore, it's Joe Scott. I'm bringing
him back to you in a bonny pickle. I fand him on the top of the moor
yonder, him and three others. What will you give me for restoring him to
you?"

"Why, my thanks, I believe; for I could better have afforded to lose a
better man. That is you, I suppose, Mr. Yorke, by your voice?"

"Ay, lad, it's me. I was coming home from Stilbro' market, and just as I
got to the middle of the moor, and was whipping on as swift as the wind
(for these, they say, are not safe times, thanks to a bad government!),
I heard a groan. I pulled up. Some would have whipt on faster; but I've
naught to fear that I know of. I don't believe there's a lad in these
parts would harm me--at least, I'd give them as good as I got if they
offered to do it. I said, 'Is there aught wrong anywhere?' ''Deed is
there,' somebody says, speaking out of the ground, like. 'What's to do