"But what had Mr. t.i.tmouse to do with it, you know?" said Mudflint, taking out of his pocket a bit of crumpled paper, at which the man he addressed gazed listlessly, shook his head, and exclaimed, "_No, it won't do_----He didn't desarve such treatment, poor young gentleman."

(Here Bloodsuck and Mudflint whispered--and the latter, with a very bad grace, produced a second bit of crumpled paper.)

"_That's_ something like"--said the man, rather more good-humoredly.

"Is't _sartain_ Mr. t.i.tmouse had nothing to do with it?"

"To be sure not!--Now, mind, by a quarter past eight--eh?" inquired Mudflint, very anxiously, and somewhat sullenly.

"I'm a man of my word--no one can say I ever broke it in earnest; and as for a straightforward bit o' business like this, I say, I'm your man--so here's my hand."...

"Don't _that_ look rather like business?" inquired M'Do'em, in a whisper, after they had lightly stepped away.--"But come along!"...

After another similar scene, the two returned to the Hare and Hounds, and the matter was satisfactorily settled between Crafty and M'Do'em--one hundred down, and the rest on the morning after the election. He was to _poll for t.i.tmouse_, and that, too, early in the day; and be as conspicuous and active as possible in his exertions in behalf of that gentleman--to appear, in short, one of his most stanch and confidential supporters. Whether Lord De la Zouch or his son would have sanctioned such conduct as this, had they had an inkling of it, I leave to the reader to conjecture: but Crafty was easy about the matter--'t was only, in _his_ opinion, "manuvring;" and all weapons are fair against a burglar or highwayman; all devices against a swindler. M'Do'em gave Crafty a list of nine voters at Grilston who had received five pounds a-piece; and enabled him to discover a case of wholesale _treating_, brought home to one of the leading members of Mr.

t.i.tmouse's committee. Well, this worthy capped all his honorable services by hurrying in to Gammon, some quarter of an hour after he had received the second anonymous letter, and with a perfect appearance of consternation, after carefully shutting the door and eying the window, faltered that all was going wrong--that traitors were in the camp; that Lord De la Zouch had _bought every man of the Quaint Club two days before at thirty pounds a-head_! half already paid down, the rest to be paid on the morning of the _fifteenth day after Parliament should have met_--(M'Do'em said he did not know what that meant, but Gammon was more influenced and alarmed by it than by anything else that had happened;) that _Ben Bran was playing false_, having received a large sum--though how much M'Do'em had not yet learned--as head-money from Lord De la Zouch; and that, if one single farthing were after that moment paid or promised to any single member of the club, either by Mr. t.i.tmouse, or any one on his behalf, they were all delivered, bound hand and foot, into the power of Lord De la Zouch, and at his mercy. That so daring and yet artful was Lord De la Zouch, that his agents had attempted to tamper with even HIM, M'Do'em! but so as to afford him not the least hold of them. Moreover, he knew a fellow-townsman who would, despite all his promises to the Liberal candidate, poll for Delamere; but nothing should induce him, M'Do'em, to disclose the name of that person, on account of the peculiar way in which he, M'Do'em, had come to know the fact. On hearing all this, Gammon calmly made up his mind for the worst; and immediately resolved to close all further negotiations with the Quaint Club. To have acted otherwise would have been mere madness, and courting destruction. The more he reflected on the exorbitant demand of the Quaint Club--and so _suddenly_ exorbitant, and enforced by such an impudent sort of quiet pertinacity--the more he saw to corroborate--had that occurred to him as necessary--the alarming intelligence of M'Do'em.

Mr. Gammon concealed much of his emotion; but he ground his teeth together with the effort. Towards six o'clock, there was a room full of the friends and agents of t.i.tmouse; to whom Gammon, despite all that had happened, and which was known only to four or five of those present, gave a highly encouraging account of the day's prospects, but impressed upon them all, with infinite energy, the necessity for caution and activity. A great effort was to be made to head the poll from the first, in order at once to do away with the _prestige_ of the show of hands; "and the friends of Mr. t.i.tmouse" (_i. e._ the ten pounds' worth of mob) were to be in attendance round the polling-booth at seven o'clock, and remain there the rest of the day, in order, by their presence; to encourage and protect (!) the voters of Mr. t.i.tmouse. This and one or two other matters having been thus arranged, Mr. Gammon, who was completely exhausted with his long labor, retired to a bedroom, and directed that he should without fail be called in one hour's time. As he threw himself on the bed, with his clothes on, and extinguished his candle, he had at least the consolation of reflecting, that nine of the enemy's stanchest voters were safely stowed away, (as he imagined,) and that seven or eight of the _accessibles_, pledged to Mr. Delamere, had promised to reconsider the matter.

If Gammon had taken the precaution of packing the front of the polling-booth in the way I have mentioned, Mr. Crafty had not overlooked the necessity of securing efficient protection for his voters; and between seven and eight o'clock no fewer than between four and five hundred stout yeomen, tenants of Lord De la Zouch and others of the surrounding n.o.bility and gentry, made their appearance in the town, and insinuated themselves into the rapidly acc.u.mulating crowd: many of them, however, remaining at large, at the command of Mr. Delamere's committee, in order, when necessary, to secure safe access to the poll for those who might require such a.s.sistance. It was strongly urged upon Mr. Crafty to bring up a strong body of voters at the commencement, in order to head the polling at the end of the first hour. "Not the least occasion for it," said Crafty, quietly--"I don't care a straw for it: in a small borough no end can be gained, where the voters are so few in number that every man's vote is secured long beforehand to a dead certainty. There's no _prestige_ to be gained or supported. No. Bring up _first_ all the distant and most uncertain voters--the timid, the feeble, the wavering; secure _them_ early while you have time and opportunity. Again, for the first few hours poll languidly; it _may_ render the enemy over-easy. You may perhaps make a sham _rush_ of about twenty or thirty between twelve and one o'clock, to give them the idea that you are doing your very best. Then fall off, poll a man now and then only, and see what _they_ will do, how _they_ are playing off their men. If you can hang back till late in the day, then direct, very secretly and cautiously, the bribery oath and the questions to be put to each of the enemy's men as they come up; and, while you are thus picking them off, pour in your own voters before the opposite party is aware of your game, and the hour for closing the poll _may_ perhaps arrive while some dozen or so of their men are unpolled. But above all, gentlemen," said Crafty, "every one to his own work only. One thing, at a time, throughout the day; which is quite long enough for all you have to do. Don't hang back in order to bring up several voters at once; if you have _one_ ready, take him up instanter, and have done with him. Don't give yourselves the least concern about ascertaining the numbers that _have_ polled, but only those that have _yet to be_ polled; the returns I will look after. Let those stand behind the check-clerks, who are best acquainted with the names, persons, and circ.u.mstances of the voters who come up, and can detect imposture of any sort before the vote is recorded, _and the mischief done_. The scoundrel may be thus easily _kept off_ the poll-books, whom it may cost you a thousand pounds hereafter to attempt to remove, in vain."

The day was bright and frosty; and long before eight o'clock the little town was all alive with music, flags, cheering, and crowds pa.s.sing to and fro. The polling-booth was exceedingly commodious and well constructed, with a view to the most rapid access and departure of the voters. By eight o'clock there were more than a couple of thousand persons collected before the booth; and--significant evidence of the transient nature of yesterday's excitement!--the yellow colors appeared as five to one. Just before eight o'clock, up drove Mr. t.i.tmouse, in a dog-cart, from which he jumped out amid the cheers of almost all present, and skipped on to the bench behind his own check-clerk, with the intention of remaining there all day to acknowledge the votes given for him! But Mr. Delamere, with a just delicacy and pride, avoided making his appearance either at or near the booth, at all events till the voting was over. The first vote given was that of Obadiah Holt, the gigantic landlord of the Hare and Hounds, and for Mr. Delamere; the event being announced by a tremendous groan; but no one ventured any personal incivility to the laughing giant that pa.s.sed through them. A loud cheer, as well as a sudden bobbing of the head on the part of t.i.tmouse, announced that the second vote had been recorded for him; and, indeed, during the next twenty minutes he polled fifteen for Delamere's eight. At _nine_ o'clock the poll stood thus--

t.i.tmouse 31 Delamere 18 -- Majority 13

Steadily adhering to Mr. Crafty's system, at _ten_ o'clock the poll stood--

t.i.tmouse 53 Delamere 29 -- Majority 24

At _eleven_ o'clock--

t.i.tmouse 89 Delamere 41 -- Majority 48

At _twelve_ o'clock--

t.i.tmouse 94 Delamere 60 -- Majority 34

At _one_ o'clock--

t.i.tmouse 129 Delamere 84 -- Majority 45

At this point they remained stationary for some time; but Delamere had polled all his _worst votes_, t.i.tmouse almost all his _best_. The latter had, indeed, only _seventeen_ more in reserve, independently of the Quaint Club, and the still neutral _twenty_ accessibles; while Delamere had yet, provided his promises stood firm, and none of his men were hocussed or kidnapped, forty-five good men and true--and some faint hopes, also, of the aforesaid twenty accessibles. For a quarter of an hour not one man came up for either party; but at length two of Delamere's leading friends came up, with faces full of anxiety, and recorded their votes for Delamere, amid loud laughter. About half-past one o'clock a prodigious--and I protest that it was both to Lord De la Zouch and his son a totally unexpected--rush was made on behalf of Delamere, consisting of _the twenty accessibles_; who in the midst of yelling, and hissing, and violent abuse, voted, one after another, for Delamere. Whether or not a strong pressure had been resorted to by some zealous and powerful gentlemen in the neighborhood, but entirely independent of Mr. Delamere, I know not; but the fact was as I have stated. At _two_ o'clock the poll stood thus--

t.i.tmouse 145 Delamere 134 --- Majority 11

Thus t.i.tmouse had then polled within one of his positive reserve, and yet was only eleven above Delamere, who had still _fifteen_ men to come up!

"Where is the Quaint Club?" began to be more and more frequently and earnestly asked among the crowd: but no one could give a satisfactory answer; and more than one conjecture was hazarded, as to the possibility of their coming up under _blue_ colors. But--_where were they_? Were they watching the state of the poll, and under marching orders for the moment when the enemy should be at his extremity? 'T was indeed a matter of exquisite anxiety!--Between two o'clock and a quarter past, not one voter was polled on either side; and the crowd, wearied with their long labors of hissing and shouting, looked dispirited, listless, and exhausted. By-and-by Mr. Gammon, and Messrs. Bloodsuck, (senior and junior,) Mudflint, Woodlouse, Centipede, Ginblossom, Going Gone, Hic Haec Hoc, and others, made their appearance in the booth, around t.i.tmouse.

They all looked sour, depressed, and fatigued. Their faces were indeed enough to sadden and silence the crowd. Were Mr. t.i.tmouse's forces exhausted?--"Where's the Quaint Club?" roared out a man in the crowd, addressing Mr. Gammon, who smiled wretchedly in silence. The reason of his then appearing at the polling-booth was certainly to ascertain the fate of the Quaint Club; but he had also another; for he had received information that within a short time Dr. Tatham, and also fourteen of the Yatton tenantry, were coming up to the poll. Mr. Gammon, accordingly, had not stood there more than five minutes, before a sudden hissing and groaning announced the approach of a Blue--in fact, it proved to be little Dr. Tatham, who had been prevented from earlier coming up, through attendance on one or two sick parishioners, in different parts of the neighborhood, to whom he had been summoned unexpectedly. It cost the quiet stout-hearted old man no little effort, and occasioned him a little discomposure, elbowed, and jolted, and insulted as he was; but at length there he stood before the poll-clerks--who did not require to ask him his name or residence.

Gammon gazed at him with folded arms, and a stern and sad countenance.

Presently, inclining slightly towards Mudflint, he seemed to whisper in that gentleman's ear; and--"Administer the bribery oath," said the latter to the returning officer, eagerly.

"Sir," exclaimed that functionary, in a low tone, with amazement--"the bribery oath--! To Dr. Tatham? Are you in earnest?"

"Do your duty, sir!" replied Mudflint, in a bitter, insulting tone.

"I regret to inform you, sir, that I am required to administer the bribery oath to you," said the returning officer to Dr. Tatham, bowing very low.

"What? What? The bribery oath? To _me_?" inquired Dr. Tatham, giving a sudden start, and flushing violently: at which stringent evidence of his guilt--

"Aha!" cried those of the crowd nearest to him--"Come, old gentleman!

Thou mun bolt it now!"

"Is it pretended to be believed," faltered Dr. Tatham, with visible emotion--"that _I am bribed_?" But at that moment his eye happened to light upon the exulting countenance of "the Reverend" Mr. Mudflint. It calmed him. Removing his hat, he took the Testament into his hand, while the crowd ceased hooting for a moment, in order to hear the oath read; and with dignity he endured the indignity. He then recorded his vote for Mr. Delamere; and after fixing a sorrowful and surprised eye on Mr.

Gammon, who stood with his hat slouched a good deal over his face, and looking in another direction, withdrew; and as he turned his mild and venerable face towards the crowd, the hissing subsided. Shortly afterwards made their appearance amid great uproar, several of the tenantry of Mr. t.i.tmouse--all of them looking as if they had come up, poor souls! rather to receive punishment for a crime, than to exercise their elective franchise in a free country!--Gammon colored a little; took out his pocket-book and pencil; and fixing on the first of the tenantry, Mark Hackett, the eye, as it were, of a suddenly revived serpent, wrote down his name in silence--but what an expression was on his face! Thus he acted towards every one of those unhappy and doomed persons; replacing his pocket-book whence he had taken it, as soon as the last of the little body had polled. It was now a quarter to three o'clock, (the poll closing finally at _four_,) and thus stood the numbers:--

Delamere 149 t.i.tmouse 146 --- Majority 3

On these figures being exhibited by an eager member of Mr. Delamere's committee, there arose a tremendous uproar among the crowd, and cries of "Tear it down! Tear it down! Ah! Bribery and corruption! Three groans for Delamere! O--h! o----h! o----h!" Matters seemed, indeed, getting desperate with the crowd; yet they seemed to feel a sort of comfort in gazing at the stern, determined, but chagrined countenance of the ruling spirit of the day, Mr. Gammon. He was a "deep hand,"--thought they--he knew his game; and, depend upon it, he was only waiting till the enemy was clean done, and then he would pour in the Quaint Club and crush them forever. Thus thought hundreds before the hustings. Not a vote was offered for a quarter of an hour; and the poll-clerks, with their pens behind their ears, employed the interval in munching sandwiches, and drinking sherry out of a black bottle--the onlookers cutting many jokes upon them while thus pleasantly engaged. Symptoms were soon visible, in the increasing proportion of blue rosettes becoming visible in and about the crowd, that this promising state of things was reviving the hopes of Mr. Delamere's party, while it as plainly depressed those in the yellow interest. Not for one moment, during the whole of that close and exciting contest, had Mr. Crafty quitted his little inner apartment, where he had planned the battle, and conducted it to its present point of success. Nor had his phlegmatic temperament suffered the least excitement or disturbance: cold as ice though his heart might be, his head was ever clear as crystal. Certainly his strategy had been admirable. Vigilant, circ.u.mspect, equal to every emergency, he had brought up his forces in perfect order throughout the day; the enemy had not caught the least inkling of his real game. By his incessant, ingenious, and _safe_ manuvring, he had kept that dreaded body, the Quaint Club, in play up to this advanced period of the day--in a state of exquisite embarra.s.sment and irresolution, balancing between hopes and fears; and he had, moreover, rendered a temporary reverse on the field upon which he then fought, of little real importance, by reason of the measures he had taken to cut off the enemy entirely in their very next move. He was now left entirely alone in his little room, standing quietly before the fire with his hands behind him, with real composure, feeling that he had done his duty, and awaiting the issue patiently. The hustings, all this while, exhibited an exciting spectacle. Nearly another quarter of an hour had elapsed, without a single vote being added to the poll. The crowd was very great, and evidently sharing no little of the agitation and suspense experienced by those within the booth--(except Mr. t.i.tmouse, whose frequent potations of brandy and water during the day had composed him at length to sleep; and he leaned--absolutely snoring!--against the corner of the booth, out of sight of the crowd). The poll-clerks were laughing and talking unconcernedly together. The leading Blues mustered strongly on their part of the booth; elated undoubtedly, but with the feelings of men who have desperately fought their way, inch by inch, sword to sword, bayonet to bayonet, up to a point where they expect, nevertheless, momentarily to be blown into the air. What _could_ have become of the Quaint Club?

thought _they_ also, with inward astonishment and apprehension. Gammon continued standing, motionless and silent, with folded arms--his dark surtout b.u.t.toned carelessly at the top, and his hat slouched over his eyes, as if he sought to conceal their restlessness and agitation.

Excitement, intense anxiety, and physical exhaustion, were visible in his countenance. He seemed indisposed to speak, even in answer to any one who addressed him.

"O cursed Quaint Club!"--said he to himself--"O cursed Crafty! I am beaten--beaten hollow--ridiculously! How the miscreants have bubbled me!

Crafty can now do without them, and won't endanger the election by polling them! We are ruined! And what will be said at headquarters, after what I have led them to believe--bah!" He almost stamped with the vehemence of his emotions. "There's certainly yet a resource; nay, but that also is too late--_a riot_--a nod, a breath of mine--those fine fellows there--would _down_ with hustings, and all the poll-books be destroyed!--No, no; it is not to be thought of--the time's gone by."

It was now nearly a quarter past three o'clock. "It's pa.s.sing strange!"

thought Gammon, as he looked at his watch; "what can be in the wind? Not a single man of them been up for either party! Perhaps, after all, Lord De la Zouch may not have come up to their mark, and may now be merely standing on the chance of _our_ being unable to come to terms with them.

But what can I do, without certain destruction, after what I have heard?

It will be simply jumping down into the pit."--A thought suddenly struck him; and with forced calmness he slipped away from the polling-booth, and, with an affectation of indifference, made his way to a house where a trusty emissary awaited his orders. 'T was a Grilston man, a Yellow voter, as much at Gammon's beck and call as Ben Bran was represented to be at the command of Lord De la Zouch. Gammon despatched him on the following enterprise--viz. to rush alarmedly among the club, who knew _him_, but _not_ his _devotion to Gammon_--to tell them that he had just discovered, by mere accident, the frightful danger in which they were placed, owing to Mr. Gammon's being enraged against them on account of their last proposal--that he had now made up his mind to the loss of the election, and also to commence prosecutions for bribery against every single member of the club; for that, having early suspected foul play, he was in a position "to _nail_ every man of them," without fixing himself on Mr. t.i.tmouse. If he succeeded thus far--viz. in alarming them--then, after apparently dire perplexity, he was suddenly to suggest one mode of at once securing themselves, and foiling their bitter enemy, Mr. Gammon; viz. hastening up to the polling-booth, without a word to any one, and, by placing t.i.tmouse at the top of the poll, _destroy Gammon's motive for commencing his vindictive proceedings_, and so take him in his own trap. Gammon then returned to the polling-booth, (having named the signal by which he was to be apprised of success,) and resumed his former position, without giving to any one near him the slightest intimation of what he had been doing. If he imagined, however, that any movement of _his_, at so critical a moment, had not been watched, he was grievously mistaken. There were three persons whose sole business it had been, during the whole of that day, to keep a lynx eye upon his every motion, especially as connected with the Quaint Club. But his cunning emissary was equal to the exigency; and having (unseen) reconnoitred the streets for a few moments, he imagined that he detected one, if not two spies, lurking about. He therefore slipped out of a low back window, got down four or five back yards, and so across a small hidden alley, which enabled him to enter, unperceivedly, into the back room of the house he wished.

"Ben! Ben!" he gasped with an air of consternation.

"Hallo, man! what is 't?" quoth Ben.

"Done! every man of you sold! Mr. Gammon turned tail on you!--Just happened to overhear him swear a solemn oath to Mr. Mudflint, that before four-and-twenty hours"....

"Lord!--you did!--did you really?"

"So help me----!" exclaimed the man, aghast.

"What's to be done?" quoth Ben, the perspiration bursting out all over his forehead. "We've been made the cursedest fools of by _some_ one!--Hang me if I think the old beast at Fotheringham, or the young cub either, has ever meant"----

"What signifies it? It's all too late now."

"Isn't there _any_ way--eh? To be sure, I own I thought we were pitched a _leetle_ too high with Mr. Gam"----

"But he has you _now_, though; and you'll find he's a devil incarnate!--But stop, I see"--he seemed, as if a thought had suddenly glanced across his puzzled and alarmed mind--"I'll tell you how to do him, and save yourselves yet."

"O Lord!--eh?" exclaimed Ben, breathlessly.

"But are your men all together?"

"Oh ay! in five minutes' time we could all be on our way to the booth."