We went together to the House in the evening.  Raymond, while he knew that his plans and prospects were to be discussed and decided during the expected debate, was gay and careless.  An hum, like that of ten thousand hives of swarming bees, stunned us as we entered the coffee-room.  Knots of politicians were assembled with anxious brows and loud or deep voices.  The aristocratical party, the richest and most influential men in England, appeared less agitated than the others, for the question was to be discussed without their interference.  Near the fire was Ryland and his supporters.  Ryland was a man of obscure birth and of immense wealth, inherited from his father, who had been a manufacturer.  He had witnessed, when a young man, the abdication of the king, and the amalgamation of the two houses of Lords and Commons; he had sympathized with these popular encroachments, and it had been the business of his life to consolidate and encrease them.  Since then, the influence of the landed proprietors had augmented; and at first Ryland was not sorry to observe the machinations of Lord Raymond, which drew off many of his opponent’s partizans.  But the thing was now going too far.  The poorer nobility hailed the return of sovereignty, as an event which would restore them to their power and rights, now lost.  The half extinct spirit of royalty roused itself in the minds of men; and they, willing slaves, self-constituted subjects, were ready to bend their necks to the yoke.  Some erect and manly spirits still remained, pillars of state; but the word republic had grown stale to the vulgar ear; and many—­the event would prove whether it was a majority—­ pined for the tinsel and show of royalty.  Ryland was roused to resistance; he asserted that his sufferance alone had permitted the encrease of this party; but the time for indulgence was passed, and with one motion of his arm he would sweep away the cobwebs that blinded his countrymen.

When Raymond entered the coffee-room, his presence was hailed by his friends almost with a shout.  They gathered round him, counted their numbers, and detailed the reasons why they were now to receive an addition of such and such members, who had not yet declared themselves.  Some trifling business of the House having been gone through, the leaders took their seats in the chamber; the clamour of voices continued, till Ryland arose to speak, and then the slightest whispered observation was audible.  All eyes were fixed upon him as he stood—­ponderous of frame, sonorous of voice, and with a manner which, though not graceful, was impressive.  I turned from his marked, iron countenance to Raymond, whose face, veiled by a smile, would not betray his care; yet his lips quivered somewhat, and his hand clasped the bench on which he sat, with a convulsive strength that made the muscles start again.