Note 57 — CANTO II. CONJURATIONS!
Reading edition
With two legs up, and two legs down.
Your worships will perceive that I have detailed some particulars relative to this famous experiment, which were omitted in the above statement from the Morning Post. But should any gentleman among you presume to intimate that I have stated one syllable which is not strictly and literally true, I shall embrace the fashionable mode of resenting the affront. I have two pistols in my garret. Let him who dares dispute Dr Caustic take his choice. Then, unless
“Pallas should come, in shape of rust, And ’twixt the lock and hammer thrust Her Gorgon shield, and make the cock Stand stiff as ’twere transform’d to stock,”
I will make it apparent that I am a man of honor, as well as veracity.