them ineffective for mischief, and thus they lay without advantage on either side. At this moment a lucky thought struck Edward. By a mechanical act, he had still retained the countryman's snuff between his fingers, and that by a dexterous movement, was instantly transferred to the rascal's eyes. The application was as efficacious for his deliverance as if he had presented the shield of Perseus emblazoned with the snaky Gorgon's head. The fellow's grasp was instantly unloosed, and Edward had little difficulty in rolling him off into the ditch, roaring and smarting with agony. The first use he made of his liberty was to possess himself of the poltroon's cudgel, with which he walked off as fast as his agitation would allow him. "Dinna despise sma' things," said he to himself, "I never thought my aunt half so sensible till this moment; when did I think I should have owed so much to a pinch? Would that I had broken the villan's head with his own weapon," continued he, grasping the sapling with superfluous energy. "I should like to know which of the two is the hardest timber." At this moment a strife of tongues, consisting of ejaculations and imprecations, sobs and cries like those of females, mingled with the incessant barking of a little terrier, arose at no great distance; and Edward, whose blood was roused by his late conflict, pushed on to the scene of distress, for such it was,—two young ladies in the act of being pillaged by another son of Mercury,—who was with the utmost barbarity trying to pull the rings out of their ears. The sight was to Edward as wood to
