“I would I were at the Mermaid again,” lamented the now drunken Secretary. “There we did n’t split a flagon in three parts� . The Tsar of Muscovy drinks me down a quartern of aqua vitae at a gulp, — I’ve seen him do it� .I would I were the Bacchus on this cup, with the purple grapes adangle above me� . Wine and women — wine and women� good wine needs no bush� good sherris sack”� His voice died into unintelligible mutterings, and his gray unreverend head sank upon the table.

I rose, leaving him to his drunken slumbers, and, bowing to my lord, took my leave. My lord followed me down to the public room below. A party of upriver planters had been drinking, and a bit of chalk lay upon a settle behind the door upon which the landlord had marked their score. I passed it; then turned