Page:Paul Clifford Vol 1.djvu/53

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PAUL CLIFFORD.
23

Nor were these materials for Satanic History the only prosaic and faithful chronicles which the bibliothecal blanket afforded: equally wonderful, and equally indisputable, was the account of "a young lady, the daughter of a duke, with three legs, and the face of a porcupine." Nor less so, "The Awful Judgment of God upon Swearers, as exemplified in the case of John Stiles, who Dropped down Dead after swearing a Great Oath, and on stripping the unhappy man they found 'Swear not at all' written on the Tail of his Shirt!"

Twice had Mrs. Lobkins heaved a long sigh; as her eyes turned from Paul to the tranquil countenance of Dummie Dunnaker, and now, resettling herself in her chair, as a motherly anxiety gathered over her visage—

"Paul, my ben cull," said she, "what gibberish hast got there?"

"Turpin, the great highwayman!" answered the young student, without lifting his eyes from the page, through which he was spelling his instructive way.

"Oh! he be's a chip of the right block,