Take this packet," he continued, placing a sealed letter of more than usual size into the hand of the gondolier, and drawing from his finger a signet ring, "with this token of thy authority.

Thou wilt seek him beneath the Bridge of Sighs, and, showing the signet, deliver the package according to my instructions.

Here is a ring whose signet may help us to understand each other.

But thy errand was not solely to exhibit the signet?"

Frightened at the loss of his master's signet, however, the indiscreet but well intentioned gondolier rushed into the crowd, and tried in vain to select the delinquent from among a thousand masks.

"Harkee, Signore," uttered the half-distracted gondolier to one, who, having first examined his person with distrust, evidently betrayed a wish to avoid him, "if thou hast sufficiently pleased thy finger with my master's signet, the occasion offers to return it.

"The signet, if thou pleasest, and the affair need go no further.

"My master's signet.

Dost thou bear thy master's signet?

I have given them the Neapolitan's signet by way of proof.

The mosaics, the signet rings, cameos, bracelets, bronzes, vases, couches, banqueting-tables, lamps, colored glass, potteries, all attest great elegance and beauty.

Plutarch says that the troops murdered him because he was suspected of having killed Pompeius, and that, when he tried to bribe a centurion with a signet-ring to spare him, the centurion replied that he was not going to seal a bond but slay a tyrant.

But do not resort to gunpowder unless you receive an order from me accompanied by my signet-ring.

Suddenly rousing himself, he took forth his tablets, and hastily tracing a few lines upon a leaf, tore it out, and delivered it with his signet-ring to Lord Argentine.

At midnight, in his guarded tent, The Turk was dreaming of the hour When Greece, her knee in suppliance bent, Should tremble at his power; In dreams, through camp and court he bore The trophies of a conqueror; In dreams his song of triumph heard; Then wore his monarch's signet ring: Then pressed that monarch's thronea king; As wild his thoughts, and gay of wing, As Eden's garden bird.

They remain with us just as they appeared in life; they look down upon us from our walls; they lie upon our tables; they rest upon our bosoms; nay, if we will, we may wear their portraits, like signet-rings, upon our fingers.

The Devil sits in Christ's seat, and hath stolen his signet-ring, to seal decrees against the Lord's own followers.

The escort brought your signet-ring.

While grateful feelings, like a signet sign'd By a strong hand, seem burnt into her mind.

Moreover, when he died, they would not believe this news till late, and until they saw his signet that had been sent.

I was of opinion that Miss Agnes was somehow connected with this signet-ring,that it had some influence over her fate.

The day that she was married, our cousin far away saw the black letters turn red upon the signet-ring.

MACLEAN, Sir Allan, Chief of the Macleans, v. 310; Johnson visits him, v. 322-31; his house, v. 322, n. 1, 323; Sunday evening, v. 325; accompanies Johnson, v. 331-44; in Iona, v. 335; asserts the rights of a chieftain, v. 337; brags of Scotland, v. 340; visits Lochbury, v. 341-3; lawsuit, his, ii. 380, n. 4; iii. 95, 101, 102, 122, 126-7; hates writers to the signet, v. 343, n. 3.

"That same evening I received a present for my mistress, a small basket marked with the signet of the princess, and containing articles of no great value.

WRITERS TO THE SIGNET, a body of solicitors in Scotland who had at one time the exclusive privilege of practising in and drawing up cases for the supreme courts of the country, and whose privileges are now limited to the preparation of crown writs.