Justice he did not expect, nor, indeed, as Forrester has already told
us, did he desire it. He asked for nothing less than justice. He was
dragged before judges, all of whom had complaints to prefer, and
injuries to redress; and none of whom were over-scrupulous as to the
nature or measure of that punishment which was to procure them the
desired atonement. The company was not so numerous as noisy. It
consisted of some twenty persons, villagers as well as small farmers in
the neighborhood, all of whom, having partaken _ad libitum_ of the
whiskey distributed freely about the table, which, in part, they
surrounded, had, in the Indian phrase, more tongues than brains, and
were sufficiently aroused by their potations to enter readily into any
mischief. Some were smoking with all the industrious perseverance of the
Hollander; others shouted forth songs in honor of the bottle, and with
all the fervor and ferment of Bacchanalian novitiates; and not a few,
congregating about the immediate person of the pedler, assailed his ears
with threats sufficiently pregnant with tangible illustration to make
him understand and acknowledge, by repeated starts and wincings, the
awkward and uncomfortable predicament in which he stood.
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