Drops of perspiration poured over the poor wretch's temples as his tormentor continued: "Think of being in Millbank, beside the muggy Thames, and the years that would find you there, a bondsman and a slave, who for the least misconduct would be lashed like a faulty hound, and ironed in a blackhole. Hard work, aggravated by the consciousness of infamy; clad in the gray livery of disgrace; your name effaced from the Law List, and for it substituted the letter or number on your prison garb!" "For God's sake, hush!" implored the wretched lawyer, in terror, lest the speaker's voice might reach the room of Juggles, or the ears of the clerks below; "hush, and I shall do all you wish." "Come--that is acting like a reasonable being." "Will 200_l_. do you--this time?" "Two hundred devils! I want 600_l_. at least." "I shall be ruined with my partner; he must know ere long where all these moneys have gone." "That is nothing to me; tell him if you dare." Sharpus burst into tears, and said, piteously, "At present I can give but 200_l_.--the rest shall follow." "Well, you can do something else for me, and I may trouble you no more." "How?" asked Sharpus, eagerly and incredulously, with a dreary and bewildered air. "Get me some employment, where there is little to do; I hate brain-work." "Employment!--where? with whom?" "Civil or military, I care not which." "Military! impossible--too old. Stay, I have it!" exclaimed the lawyer; "you have been in the Militia, I know." "Three months in the Royal Diddlesex." "What say you to an appointment in Lord Aberdeen's new Land Transport Corps? It will be easily got--a handsome uniform and great _éclat_, though the officers are nearly all taken from the ranks. The duties are simple enough--conveyance of baggage, and carrying off the wounded _after_ an action." "Not to bury the dead?--ugly work that." "No, no." "By Jove, I'll go!" he exclaimed, as Sharpus filled up the cheque. Sharpus strove in vain to conceal his delight. "I have of course done a few things which would hardly bear the 'light of the world's bull's-eye' turned upon them, but the Horse Guards know nothing of them. You have noble and powerful clients, and can do this easily for me. Bravo!" And they actually shook hands over the matter, as if over a bargain. Sharpus lost no time in using the necessary influence, and--though not exactly a cadet after Mr. Cardwell's heart--this commission was decidedly one without purchase; and on the strength of having been once in the boasted constitutional force, "Henry Hawkesby Guilfoyle, gent., _late_ Lieutenant, Diddlesex Militia," appeared in the _Gazette_ ere long, as one of twenty-four comets of the long-since disbanded Land Transport Corps, for service in the Crimea. CHAPTER XXVII.--RECONCILIATION.