“Bless him, for a worthy and honest gentleman,” cried our applicant for the vacant post, smiling and nodding with approbation at the prime minister’s kindness, “how punctual his grace is; I knew he would not deceive me; let me hear no more of lords and dukes not keeping their words; I verily believe they are as honest, and mean as well as any other folks.”  Having ascended the stairs as he was speaking, he was ushered into the Duke’s bedchamber.

“Is he dead?” exclaimed his grace, rubbing his eyes, and scarcely awakened from dreaming of the King of Spain, “Is he dead?”

“Yes, my lord,” replied the eager expectant, delighted to find the election promise, with all its circumstances, so fresh in the nobleman’s memory.

“When did he die?”

“The day before yesterday, exactly at half past one o’clock, after being confined three weeks to his bed, and taking a power of doctor’s stuff; and I hope your grace will be as good as your word, and let my son-in-law succeed him.”

The Duke, by this time perfectly awake, was staggered at the impossibility of receiving intelligence from Madrid in so short a space of time; and perplexed at the absurdity of a king’s messenger applying for his son-in-law to succeed the King of Spain:  “Is the man drunk, or mad?  Where are your dispatches?” exclaimed his grace, hastily drawing back his curtain; where, instead of a royal courier, he recognized at the bedside, the fat, good-humored countenance of his friend from Cornwall, making low bows, with hat in hand, and “hoping my lord would not forget the gracious promise he was so good as to make, in favor of his son-in-law, at the last election.”

Vexed at so untimely a disturbance, and disappointed of news from Spain, the Duke frowned for a moment; but chagrin soon gave way to mirth, at so singular and ridiculous a combination of circumstances, and, yielding to the impulse, he sunk upon the bed in a violent fit of laughter, which was communicated in a moment to the attendants.

The relater of this little narrative, concludes, with observing, “Although the Duke of Newcastle could not place the relative of his old acquaintance on the throne of His Catholic Majesty, he advanced him to a post not less honorable—­he made him an exciseman.” 
          
                                         —­Blackwood’s Magazine.

[Illustration:  Bedroom:  The Duke is startled awake, sitting up in bed with distressed look on his face.  A servant is holding a candlestick.  A third man is slightly bowed and holding his hat in his hands.  The duke’s sword rests against a chair at the foot of the bed.]

Notes.—­Duke of Newcastle.—­Thomas Holles Pelham (b. 1693, d. 1768), one of the chief ministers of state in the reign of George ii. of England.

Cornwall.—­A county forming the extreme southwestern part of England.

King of Spain.—­Ferdinand VI. was then the king of Spain.  He died in 1759.