"Your _working tools_!" said the magistrate; "and pray may I ask what trade your lordship follows?"
"No trade in the world at all," replied the general; "I am not the person to be after following trades.--The tools I am _spaking_ about are what I used in some of the greatest inventions the world ever saw. I invented a _happaratus_ for extracting stone and gravel from the _blather_, without any operation at all. I invented a machine for fishing up vessels foundered at sea, as _aisy_ as fishing up an oyster; and I invented another machine for making _accouchement_ the most _aisy_ thing in existence--a mere _fla-bite_ to the most tender lady imaginable! And it was partly these inventions, indeed, that brought me to this country now--because I did not choose to be giving foreigners the benefit of them."
"Pray, Sir," said Mr. Minshull, "will you give me leave to ask whether you were ever confined?"
The General--"_Confined!_ for what would I be confined?"
Mr. Minshull--"If you do not understand the nature of my question, I am sorry I put it; but it certainly appeared to me possible that----"
The General--"Sir, you appear to me to be after _taalking_ in a very queer kind of a way to a _jontleman_! You ought to know what is due to a respectable and _graat_ man, even though he is in distress."
Mr. Minshull--"Well, Sir, I will speak as plainly to you as you do to me. It is my opinion, and the opinion, I believe, of every person present, that you are out of your mind; and that if you have never been confined, it is high time you were so."
The General angrily declared he was altogether _mens sana in corpore sano_; and professed himself astonished that any body should entertain a contrary opinion; then taking from his side-pocket a round tin case, nearly as large as a demi-culverin, he offered to produce from it documents to show that he was really the important personage he professed himself to be.
The magistrates, however, had no faith in the matter; they told him it might be all very true, but they had no funds to assist him with; and, as he appeared very incredulous on this subject, they at length ordered him to withdraw upon pain of being committed to prison under the Vagrant Act.