Having finished dinner with this solemn speech, Mr. Hill settled himself in his arm-chair, to take his after-dinner’s nap:  and he dreamed of blowing up cathedrals, and of oak bark floating upon the waters; and the cathedral was, he thought, blown up by a man dressed in a pair of woman’s Limerick gloves, and the oak bark turned into mutton steaks, after which his great dog Jowler was swimming; when, all on a sudden, as he was going to beat Jowler for eating the bark transformed into mutton steaks, Jowler became Bampfylde the Second, king of the gipsies; and putting a horse-whip with a silver handle into Hill’s hand, commanded him three times, in a voice as loud as the town-crier’s, to have O’Neill whipped through the market-place of Hereford:  but just as he was going to the window to see this whipping, his wig fell off, and he awoke.

It was difficult, even for Mr. Hill’s sagacity, to make sense of this dream:  but he had the wise art of always finding in his dreams something that confirmed his waking determinations.  Before he went to sleep, he had half resolved to consult the king of the gipsies, in the absence of the attorney; and his dream made him now wholly determined upon this prudent step.  “From Bampfylde the Second,” thought he, “I shall learn for certain who made the hole under the cathedral, who pulled down my rick of bark, and who made away with my dog Jowler; and then I shall swear examinations against O’Neill, without waiting for attorneys.  I will follow my own way in this business:  I have always found my own way best.”

So, when the dusk of the evening increased, our wise man set out towards the wood to consult the cunning man.  Bampfylde the Second, king of the gipsies, resided in a sort of hut made of the branches of trees; the verger stooped, but did not stoop low enough, as he entered this temporary palace, and, whilst his body was almost bent double, his peruke was caught upon a twig.  From this awkward situation he was relieved by the consort of the king; and he now beheld, by the light of some embers, the person of his gipsy majesty, to whose sublime appearance this dim light was so favourable that it struck a secret awe into our wise man’s soul; and, forgetting Hereford Cathedral, and oak bark, and Limerick gloves, he stood for some seconds speechless.  During this time, the queen very dexterously disencumbered his pocket of all superfluous articles.  When he recovered his recollection, he put with great solemnity the following queries to the king of the gipsies, and received the following answers:—­

“Do you know a dangerous Irishman of the name of O’Neill, who has come, for purposes best known to himself, to settle at Hereford?”

“Yes, we know him well.”

“Indeed!  And what do you know of him?”

“That he is a dangerous Irishman.”

“Right!  And it was he, was it not, that pulled down, or caused to be pulled down, my rick of oak bark?”