Poor Woodlouse was more fortunate--somehow or another he contrived to creep and wriggle out of the danger! Whether from his utter insignificance, or from the circumstance of the destructive verdicts against Gammon, Mudflint, and Bloodsuck having satiated the avenger, I know not; but the case was not pressed very strongly against him, and the jury took a most merciful view of the evidence. But alas! what a shock this gave to the Liberal cause in Yatton! How were the mighty fallen! As soon after this melancholy result as Messrs. Mudflint and Bloodsuck had recovered their presence of mind sufficiently to discuss the matter together, they were clearly of opinion--were those brethren in distress--that Mr. Titmouse was bound, both in law and honor, to indemnify them against the consequences of acts done solely on his behalf, and at his implied request. They made the thing very clear, indeed, to Mr. Gammon, who listened to them with marked interest and attention, and undertook "to endeavor to convince" Mr. Titmouse of the justice of their claims; secretly resolving, also, not to lose sight of his own: nay, in fact, he made sure of satisfying Mr. Titmouse on _that_ score. But the personal liability which, in the first instance, he had thus incurred, to an extent of upwards of £3,000, supposing him, by any accident, to fail in _recouping_ himself out of the assets of Mr. Titmouse, was not the only unfortunate consequence of this serious miscarriage. Such a verdict as had passed against Mr. Gammon places a man in a very awkward and--if one may use the word--_nasty_ position before the public, and renders it rather difficult for him to set himself right again. 'T is really a serious thing to stand convicted of the offence of bribery; it makes a man look very sheepish indeed, ever after, especially in political life. 'T is such a beam in a man's own eye, to be pulled out before he can see the mote in his neighbor's!--and Mr. Gammon felt this. Then again, he had received a pledge from a very eminent member of the government, to be performed in the event of his being able to secure the seat for Yatton on a general election, (which was considered not unlikely to happen within a few months;) but this accursed verdict was likely to prove an insurmountable obstacle in the way of his advancement; and his chagrin and vexation may be easily imagined. He conceived a wonderful hatred of the supposed instigator of these unprincipled and vindictive proceedings, Lord De la Zouch--who seemed to have put them up like four birds to be shot at, and brought down, one by one, as his Lordship chose! As soon as these four melancholy causes above mentioned were over--Gammon considering himself bound, on the score of bare decency, to remain till his fellow-sufferers had been disposed of--he went off to Yatton, to see how matters were going on there.