to pull up the great windows, and let in a clear, fresh rush of night air, which made the candles flicker and gutter, and the fires roar.  The circle broke up, each collaring his own jug, glass, and song-book; Bill pounced on the big table, and began to rattle it away to its place outside the buttery door.  The lower-passage boys carried off their small tables, aided by their friends; while above all, standing on the great hall-table, a knot of untiring sons of harmony made night doleful by a prolonged performance of “God Save the King.”  His Majesty King William the Fourth then reigned over us, a monarch deservedly popular amongst the boys addicted to melody, to whom he was chiefly known from the beginning of that excellent if slightly vulgar song in which they much delighted,—­

     “Come, neighbours all, both great and small,
     Perform your duties here,
     And loudly sing, ‘Live Billy, our king,’
     For bating the tax upon veer.”

Others of the more learned in songs also celebrated his praises in a sort of ballad, which I take to have been written by some Irish loyalist.  I have forgotten all but the chorus, which ran,—­

     “God save our good King William,
     Be his name for ever blest;
     He’s the father of all his people,
     And the guardian of all the rest.”

In troth we were loyal subjects in those days, in a rough way.  I trust that our successors make as much of her present Majesty, and, having regard to the greater refinement of the times, have adopted or written other songs equally hearty, but more civilized, in her honour.

Then the quarter to ten struck, and the prayer-bell rang.  The sixth and fifth form boys ranged themselves in their school order along the wall, on either side of the great fires, the middle-fifth and upper-school boys round the long table in the middle of the hall, and the lower-school boys round the upper part of the second long table, which ran down the side of the hall farthest from the fires.  Here Tom found himself at the bottom of all, in a state of mind and body not at all fit for prayers, as he thought; and so tried hard to make himself serious, but couldn’t, for the life of him, do anything but repeat in his head the choruses of some of the songs, and stare at all the boys opposite, wondering at the brilliancy of their waistcoats, and speculating what sort of fellows they were.  The steps of the head-porter are heard on the stairs, and a light gleams at the door.  “Hush!” from the fifth-form boys who stand there, and then in strides the Doctor, cap on head, book in one hand, and gathering up his gown in the other.  He walks up the middle, and takes his post by Warner, who begins calling over the names.  The Doctor takes no notice of anything, but quietly turns over his book and finds the place, and then stands, cap in hand and finger in book, looking straight before his nose.  He knows better than any one when to look, and when to see nothing.