I have opposed the peace so long that it is out of the question.

Of course, Lord Wansted will not think of it, and he may count on my boroughs.

A peace!--shameful, disgraceful, dastardly proposition!" "But, my dear lord, my letter says that this unexpected firmness on the part of Lord Daberly has produced so great a sensation that, seeing the impossibility of forming a durable Cabinet without him, the king has consented to the negotiation, and Duberly stays in!" "The devil!--what next ?" "Raffden and Sternhold go out in favour of Baldwin and Charlton, and in the hope that you will lend your aid to--" "I!" said Lord Mauleverer, very angrily,--"I lend my aid to Baldwin, the Jacobin, and Charlton, the son of a brewer!" "Very true!" continued Brandon.

"But in the hope that you might be persuaded to regard the new arrangements with an indulgent eye, you are talked of instead of the Duke of for the vacant garter and the office of chamberlain." "You don't mean it!" cried Mauleverer, starting from his bed.
"A few other (but, I hear, chiefly legal) promotions are to be made.
Among the rest, my learned brother, the democrat Sarsden, is to have a silk gown; Cromwell is to be attorney-general; and, between ourselves, they have offered me a judgeship." "But the garter!" said Mauleverer, scarcely hearing the rest of the lawyer's news,--"the whole object, aim, and ambition of my life.

How truly kind in the king! After all," continued the earl, laughing, and throwing himself back, "opinions are variable, truth is not uniform.