"Yes, my Hotspur; 'it is a good plot as ever was laid--an excellent plot. My Lord of York commends the plot, and the general course of the action.' So here is my hand. We will take some pains to do that which will cost Timothy Crop many panes to remedy; and if we escape the pains and penalties therefor, all will be well." "We must rely upon our heels for that. Give me six yards the start, and I defy any barber in the Canadas to overtake me. We must show Master Timothy that we have not played at cricket, or run foot races on the wind-mill common for nothing." "But what missiles shall we use?--have you thought of that, _Mon Général_?" "What can be better than these?" said I, taking up a couple of billets of oak from the stove-pan. "Admirable! And when shall we proceed to business?" "Now--this very hour--we cannot wish a darker night; and the sooner we carry our design into effect the better." "Very true, for Shakspeare says, that 'Between the acting of a dreadful thing And the first motion, all the interim is Like a phantasma, or a hideous dream.' We will dream as little upon it as possible." "_Allons donc!_ Take your billets, and let us march." We sallied forth into the street. It was about nine o'clock, and all was quiet. The light from Crop's window shone brightly in the distance, and invited us to our revenge. The heavy falls of snow are a serious inconvenience in the narrow streets of Montreal, and the manner in which it is disposed of, gives to them a peculiar appearance. When a storm subsides, the whole town is alive with the business of shovelling the snow from the side-walks into the middle of the street, which in the course of a few weeks after the winter sets in, is elevated several feet above its natural level. On the top of this ridge vehicles of all descriptions are forced to pass, and while guiding a _cariole_ along the height, you nod to your pedestrian friends on the side-walks, many feet below you, and peep, if you have any curiosity, into the windows of your neighbor's second story. By gradual packing and freezing, this _high_-road becomes a complete rampart of ice, along which _carioles_ and _traineaus_ are driven with alarming velocity--to a strange eye presenting the constant prospect of their being hurled down to the side-walk. But such accidents seldom happen. In their own awkward fashion, the Canadian drivers are uncommonly expert, and their hardy little horses are equally so. We kept the side-walk until we reached the corner of St. Nicholas and St. Paul streets, and here we stopped to confer.