they came stumbling across the organ isthmus,
the lady's lace shawl catching at all the
stop-handles, and wofully discomposing Dr. Elvey in
his scarlet panoply of a Mus. Doc., Oxon. Of
course they couldn't remain there: the Mus.
Doc. would have told them the reason why in
the twinkling of a pedal : so over they came to
us, painfully but resolutely clambering, as though
they were members of the Alpine Club. I
regret to say that from the jackdaws they
received but little hospitality. It appears they had
had tickets for a stone gallery running behind
the carved pinnacles of the Knights of the
Garter's stalls, whence they could see nothing
but the backs of the said pinnacles, a few
emblazoned banners and sham coronets, and a
limited space of the groined and vaulted roof.
Thence they had half strayed, half climbed into
the regions of the organ-loft. I was very sorry
for the long clergyman, who was so gaily attired
and wore so miserable a mien that he looked as
though he were about to be married himself.
" Sit down," I whispered, " and keep as quiet as
ever you can, and when the processions begin
everybody will be too busy to trouble themselves
about you." "But the lady," he pathetically
interposed. " Say she is a jackdaw," I responded ;
" say she belongs to the Lady's Newspaper." I
regarded this as a master-stroke of stratagem ;
but, alas ! it proved unavailing to secure immunity
for a very inoffensive lady and gentleman.
One of my brethren — a stout jackdaw, a severe
jackdaw — became aware of them. He flapped
his wings and croaked ominously. Then, with a
grim purpose in his beak, he hopped down stairs,
and returning brought with him an amazing court
official, a halcyon creature, with radiant
plumage, an ethereal being who had seemingly been
running after Fortune's chariot, and had been
splashed with the gold from her wheels. His
face was fair and placid, but terrible to gaze
upon, in its serene inflexibility. When he
bracketed his eye-glass upon you he became,
not a court official, but a basilisk. The offenders
were pointed out to him. " You cannot possibly
remain here ;" thus he repeated the formula, but
with a silvery lisp that was far awfuller than the
angry tones of the elderly gentleman opposite.
Slowly and gently, but irresistibly, he beckoned
the interlopers away. Slowly but sadly they
withdrew from the cruel jackdaws' nest — and
what became of them afterwards, whether they
subsided into Sir Reginald Bray's chapel, or into
one of the vaults, I know not. They
disappeared, and I saw them no more.

I am bound to admit that the court official was
the most condescending and obliging of his
species. The stern dictates of duty being satisfied,
and justice done on the guilty, he over-brimmed
with tender kindness. "Was there anything
more he could do for us?" " Yes; there was,"
the stout and severe jackdaw remarked. " Would
he send us a policeman to keep watch and ward
at the entrance of our den, to protect us from
the possibility of further intrusion?" Certainly.
We should have lots of policemen. Was there
anything else? Well, we wanted some more
programmes, plans of the dais, and Orders of the
Solemnisation of Matrimony, bound in white
watered silk, and decorated with the Royal arms
— less, I apprehend, for purposes of devotional
study than for presentation, as mementoes of the
auspicious day, to certain lady daws at home.
Certainly. He would send us up lots of
programmes. Anything else ? He was so very
obliging, that I was on the point of drawing his
attention to the fact that we had all breakfasted
very early, that we hadn't all been so provident
as to bring sandwich-boxes and pocket-flasks
with us, and that a neat tray, garnished with a
cold chicken or two, and flanked with a decanter
or so of wine, would be a most agreeable
addition to our comfort ; but just as I was nerving
myself to proffer this, perhaps, bold request, the
optic muscle of the court official refused to retain
its grip on the rim of his eye-glass any longer.
Down fell the lorgnon, and hung pendant ; and
down came the official from the ethereal spheres.
Without his eye-glass he was mortal, without it
he was by no means kind or condescending ;
nay, after an abortive effort or two to re-fix the
refractory lens, he turned on his heel in an abrupt,
not to say savage manner, and left us all in the
lurch and the loft. He only sent us up two
programmes, for which we had to battle, eke
with beak and bill ; and instead of " lots" of
policemen there only came to us one constable,
a most obtuse and chuckle-headed functionary,
who seemed first to be pervaded by an impression
that it was his duty to take us all into
custody, asking, with vacuous asperity, "Wot
we were all a doin' of there ?" When it was with
difficulty explained to him that he was to be for
the time our servitor and henchman, he sank
into mere inert sulkiness, and carving out for
himself with his elbows a front place at the
railing overlooking the choir, concentrated his
energies during the remainder of the forenoon
in getting as good a view of the show as ever
he could without troubling himself about us.

Now was it — that is to say about eleven of
the clock — that there came into the loft one
with an air of authority, and who evidently cared
not a fico for all the court officials in creation.
The policeman's back was towards him as he
entered, else he, too, might have been summoned
to tell " wot he wos a doin' ob." We jackdaws
cared not to question him; for he came not,
evidently, as a sight-seer. He peeped not into
the nave. He glanced not into the choir. His
stay was but a span of the briefest. He bobbed his
powdered head and disappeared from our ken.
Whither? That you shall hear presently. Let
it be borne in mind that he was an old old
gentleman who looked eighty, and was, probably,
not far off from a hundred. His head was of
the John Anderson my Jo pattern — a "frosty
pow" like a bride-cake. Snowy and spreading
were the bows of his neckcloth. Raven black
was his attire; small-clothes wore he and trim
hose of black silk — you know, the semi-
transparent silk that allows the legs beneath to show
through in a pale kidney colour. I believe he
had shoe-buckles. He wore a prodigious bridal