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+The Project Gutenberg EBook The Confessions of Harry Lorrequer, v6
+#6 in our series Charles James Lever (1806-1872)
+
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+Title: The Confessions of Harry Lorrequer, v6
+
+Author: Charles James Lever (1806-1872)
+
+Release Date: March, 2004  [EBook #5239]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on June 10, 2002]
+
+Edition: 10
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+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
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+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CONFESSIONS OF LORREQUER, V6 ***
+
+
+
+This eBook was produced by Mary Munarin
+and David Widger <widger@cecomet.net>
+
+
+
+[NOTE: There is a short list of bookmarks, or pointers, at the end of the
+file for those who may wish to sample the author's ideas before making an
+entire meal of them.  D.W.]
+
+
+
+
+
+THE CONFESSIONS OF HARRY LORREQUER, v6
+
+[By Charles James Lever (1806-1872)]
+
+
+Dublin
+
+MDCCCXXXIX.
+
+
+
+Volume 6. (Chapter XLII-LV)
+
+
+
+Contents:
+
+CHAPTER XLII.
+The Journey
+
+CHAPTER XLIII.
+The Journey
+
+CHAPTER XLIV.
+A Reminscence of the East
+
+CHAPTER XLV.
+A Day in the Phoenix
+
+CHAPTER XLVI.
+An Adventure in Canada
+
+CHAPTER XLVII.
+The Courier's Passport
+
+CHAPTER XLVIII.
+A Night in Strasbourg
+
+CHAPTER XLIX.
+A Surprise
+
+CHAPTER L.
+Jack Waller's Story
+
+CHAPTER LI.
+Munich
+
+CHAPTER LII.
+Inn at Munich
+
+CHAPTER LIII.
+The Ball
+
+CHAPTER LIV.
+A Discovery
+
+CHAPTER LV.
+Conclusion
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLII.
+
+THE JOURNEY.
+
+Trevanion came at last.  He had obtained my passport, and engaged a
+carriage to convey me about eight miles, where I should overtake the
+diligence--such a mode of travelling being judged more likely to favour
+my escape, by attracting less attention than posting.  It was past ten
+when I left the Rue St. Honore, having shaken hands with Trevanion for
+the last time, and charged him with ten thousand soft messages for the
+"friends" I left behind me.
+
+When I arrived at the village of St. Jacques, the diligence had not come
+up.  To pass away the time, I ordered a little supper and a bottle of St.
+Julien.  Scarcely had I seated myself to my "cotelette," when the rapid
+whirl of wheels was heard without, and a cab drew up suddenly at the
+door.  So naturally does the fugitive suspect pursuit, that my immediate
+impression was, that I was followed.  In this notion I was strengthened
+by the tones of a cracked, discordant voice, asking in very peculiar
+French if the "diligence had passed?"  Being answered in the negative he
+walked into the room where I was, and speedily by his appearance, removed
+any apprehensions I had felt as to my safety.  Nothing could less
+resemble the tall port and sturdy bearing of a gendarme, than the
+diminutive and dwarfish individual before me.  His height could scarcely
+have reached five feet, of which the head formed fully a fourth part; and
+even this was rendered in appearance still greater by a mass of loosely
+floating black hair that fell upon his neck and shoulders, and gave him
+much the air of a "black lion" on a sign board.  His black frock, fur-
+collared and braided--his ill-made boots, his meerschaum projecting from
+his breast-pocket, above all, his unwashed hands, and a heavy gold ring
+upon his thumb--all made up an ensemble of evidences that showed he could
+be nothing but a German.  His manner was bustling, impatient, and had it
+not been ludicrous, would certainly be considered as insolent to every
+one about him, for he stared each person abruptly in the face, and
+mumbled some broken expressions of his opinion of them half-aloud in
+German.  His comments ran on:--"Bon soir, Monsieur," to the host: "Ein
+boesewicht, ganz sicher"--"a scoundrel without doubt;" and then added,
+still lower, "Rob you here as soon as look at you."  "Ah, postillion!
+comment va?"--"much more like a brigand after all--I know which I'd take
+you for."  "Ver fluchte fraw"--"how ugly the woman is."  This compliment
+was intended for the hostess, who curtsied down to the ground in her
+ignorance.  At last approaching me, he stopped, and having steadily
+surveyed me, muttered, "Ein echter Englander"--"a thorough Englishman,
+always eating."  I could not resist the temptation to assure him that I
+was perfectly aware of his flattering impression in my behalf, though I
+had speedily to regret my precipitancy, for, less mindful of the rebuke
+than pleased at finding some one who understood German, he drew his chair
+beside me and entered into conversation.
+
+Every one has surely felt, some time or other in life, the insufferable
+annoyance of having his thoughts and reflections interfered with, and
+broken in upon by the vulgar impertinence and egotism of some "bore,"
+who, mistaking your abstraction for attention and your despair for
+delight, inflicts upon you his whole life and adventures, when your own
+immediate destinies are perhaps vacillating in the scale.
+
+Such a doom was now mine!  Occupied as I was by the hope of the future,
+and my fears lest any impediment to my escape should blast my prospects
+for ever, I preferred appearing to pay attention to this confounded
+fellow's "personal narrative" lest his questions, turning on my own
+affairs, might excite suspicions as to the reasons of my journey.
+
+I longed most ardently for the arrival of the diligence, trusting that
+with true German thrift, by friend might prefer the cheapness of the
+"interieure" to the magnificence of the "coupe," and that thus I should
+see no more of him.  But in this pleasing hope I was destined to be
+disappointed, for I was scarcely seated in my place when I found him
+beside me.  The third occupant of this "privileged den," as well as my
+lamp-light survey of him permitted, afforded nothing to build on as a
+compensation for the German.  He was a tall, lanky, lantern-jawed man,
+with a hook nose and projecting chin; his hair, which had only been
+permitted to grow very lately, formed that curve upon his forehead we
+see in certain old fashioned horse-shoe wigs; his compressed lip and
+hard features gave the expression of one who had seen a good deal of the
+world, and didn't think the better of it in consequence.  I observed that
+he listened to the few words we spoke while getting in with some
+attention, and then, like a person who did not comprehend the language,
+turned his shoulder towards us, and soon fell asleep.  I was now left to
+the "tender mercies" of my talkative companion, who certainly spared me
+not.  Notwithstanding my vigorous resolves to turn a deaf ear to his
+narratives, I could not avoid learning that he was the director of music
+to some German prince--that he had been to Paris to bring out an opera
+which having, as he said, a "succes pyramidal," he was about to repeat in
+Strasbourg.  He further informed me that a depute from Alsace had
+obtained for him a government permission to travel with the courier; but
+that he being "social" withal, and no ways proud, preferred the democracy
+of the diligence to the solitary grandeur of the caleche, (for which
+heaven confound him,) and thus became my present companion.
+
+Music, in all its shapes and forms made up the staple of the little
+man's talk.  There was scarcely an opera or an overture, from Mozart to
+Donizetti, that he did not insist upon singing a scene from; and wound up
+all by a very pathetic lamentation over English insensibility to music,
+which he in great part attributed to our having only one opera, which he
+kindly informed me was "Bob et Joan."  However indisposed to check the
+current of his loquacity by any effort of mine, I could not avoid the
+temptation to translate for him a story which Sir Walter Scott once
+related to me, and was so far apropos, as conveying my own sense of the
+merits of our national music, such as we have it, by its association with
+scenes, and persons, and places we are all familiar with, however
+unintelligible to the ear of a stranger.
+
+A young French viscomte was fortunate enough to obtain in marriage the
+hand of a singularly pretty Scotch heiress of an old family and good
+fortune, who, amongst her other endowments, possessed a large old-
+fashioned house in a remote district of the highlands, where her
+ancestors had resided for centuries.  Thither the young couple repaired
+to pass their honeymoon; the enamoured bridegroom gladly availing himself
+of the opportunity to ingratiate himself with his new connexion, by
+adopting the seclusion he saw practised by the English on such occasions.
+However consonant to our notions of happiness, and however conducive to
+our enjoyment this custom be--and I have strong doubts upon the subject
+--it certainly prospered ill with the volatile Frenchman, who pined for
+Paris, its cafes, its boulevards, its maisons de jeu, and its soirees.
+His days were passed in looking from the deep and narrow windows of some
+oak-framed room upon the bare and heath-clad moors, or watching the
+cloud's shadows as they passed across the dark pine trees that closed the
+distance.
+
+Ennuyee to death, and convinced that he had sacrificed enough and more
+than enough to the barbarism which demanded such a "sejour," he was
+sitting one evening listlessly upon the terrace in front of the house,
+plotting a speedy escape from his gloomy abode, and meditating upon the
+life of pleasure that awaited him, when the discordant twang of some
+savage music broke upon his ear, and roused him from his reverie. The
+wild scream and fitful burst of a highland pibroch is certainly not the
+most likely thing in nature to allay the irritable and ruffled feelings
+of an irascible person--unless, perhaps, the hearer eschew breeches.  So
+thought the viscomte.  He started hurriedly up, and straight before him,
+upon the gravel-walk, beheld the stalwart figure and bony frame of an old
+highlander, blowing, with all his lungs, the "Gathering of the clans."
+With all the speed he could muster, he rushed into the house, and,
+calling his servants, ordered them to expel the intruder, and drive him
+at once outside the demesne.  When the mandate was made known to the old
+piper, it was with the greatest difficulty he could be brought to
+comprehend it--for, time out of mind, his approach had been hailed
+with every demonstration of rejoicing; and now--but no; the thing was
+impossible--there must be a mistake somewhere.  He was accordingly about
+to recommence, when a second and stronger hint suggested to him that it
+were safer to depart.  "Maybe the 'carl' did na like the pipes," said the
+highlander musingly, as he packed them up for his march.  "Maybe he did
+na like me;" "perhaps, too, he was na in the humour of music."  He paused
+for an instant as if reflecting--not satisfied, probably, that he had hit
+upon the true solution--when suddenly his eye brightened, his lips
+curled, and fixing a look upon the angry Frenchman, he said--"Maybe ye
+are right enow--ye heard them ower muckle in Waterloo to like the skirl
+o' them ever since;" with which satisfactory explanation, made in no
+spirit of bitterness or raillery, but in the simple belief that he had
+at last hit the mark of the viscomte's antipathy, the old man gathered
+up his plaid and departed.
+
+However disposed I might have felt towards sleep, the little German
+resolved I should not obtain any, for when for half an hour together I
+would preserve a rigid silence, he, nowise daunted, had recourse to some
+German "lied," which he gave forth with an energy of voice and manner
+that must have aroused every sleeper in the diligence: so that, fain to
+avoid this, I did my best to keep him on the subject of his adventures,
+which, as a man of successful gallantry, were manifold indeed.  Wearying
+at last, even of this subordinate part, I fell into a kind of half doze.
+The words of a student song he continued to sing without ceasing for
+above an hour--being the last waking thought on my memory.
+
+Less as a souvenir of the singer than a specimen of its class I give here
+a rough translation of the well-known Burschen melody called
+
+                           THE POPE
+
+               I.
+               The Pope, he leads a happy life,
+               He fears not married care, nor strife,
+               He drinks the best of Rhenish wine,
+               I would the Pope's gay lot were mine.
+
+               CHORUS.
+               He drinks the best of Rhenish wine.
+               I would the Pope's gay lot were mine.
+
+               II.
+               But then all happy's not his life,
+               He has not maid, nor blooming wife;
+               Nor child has he to raise his hope--
+               I would not wish to be the Pope.
+
+               III.
+               The Sultan better pleases me,
+               His is a life of jollity;
+               His wives are many as he will--
+               I would the Sultan's throne then fill.
+
+               IV.
+               But even he's a wretched man,
+               He must obey his Alcoran;
+               And dares not drink one drop of wine--
+               I would not change his lot for mine.
+
+               V.
+               So then I'll hold my lowly stand,
+               And live in German Vaterland;
+               I'll kiss my maiden fair and fine,
+               And drink the best of Rhenish wine.
+
+               VI.
+               Whene'er my maiden kisses me,
+               I'll think that I the Sultan be;
+               And when my cheery glass I tope,
+               I'll fancy then I am the Pope.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIII.
+
+THE JOURNEY.
+
+It was with a feeling of pleasure I cannot explain, that I awoke in the
+morning, and found myself upon the road.  The turmoil, the bustle, the
+never-ending difficulties of my late life in Paris had so over-excited
+and worried me, that I could neither think nor reflect.  Now all these
+cares and troubles were behind me, and I felt like a liberated prisoner
+as I looked upon the grey dawn of the coming day, as it gradually melted
+from its dull and leaden tint to the pink and yellow hue of the rising
+sun.  The broad and richly-coloured plains of "la belle France" were
+before me--and it is "la belle France," however inferior to parts of
+England in rural beauty--the large tracts of waving yellow corn,
+undulating like a sea in the morning breeze--the interminable reaches of
+forest, upon which the shadows played and flitted, deepening the effect
+and mellowing the mass, as we see them in Ruysdael's pictures--while now
+and then some tall-gabled, antiquated chateau, with its mutilated terrace
+and dowager-like air of bye-gone grandeur, would peep forth at the end of
+some long avenue of lime trees, all having their own features of beauty--
+and a beauty with which every object around harmonizes well.  The
+sluggish peasant, in his blouse and striped night-cap--the heavily
+caparisoned horse, shaking his head amidst a Babel-tower of gaudy worsted
+tassels and brass bells--the deeply laden waggon, creeping slowly along--
+are all in keeping with a scene, where the very mist that rises from the
+valley seems indolent and lazy, and unwilling to impart the rich perfume
+of verdure with which it is loaded.  Every land has its own peculiar
+character of beauty.  The glaciered mountain, the Alpine peak, the
+dashing cataract of Switzerland and the Tyrol, are not finer in their way
+than the long flat moorlands of a Flemish landscape, with its clump of
+stunted willows cloistering over some limpid brook, in which the oxen are
+standing for shelter from the noon-day heat--while, lower down, some rude
+water-wheel is mingling its sounds with the summer bees and the merry
+voices of the miller and his companions.  So strayed my thoughts as the
+German shook me by the arm, and asked if "I were not ready for my
+breakfast?"  Luckily to this question there is rarely but the one answer.
+Who is not ready for his breakfast when on the road?  How delightful, if
+on the continent, to escape from the narrow limits of the dungeon-like
+diligence, where you sit with your knees next your collar-bone, fainting
+with heat and suffocated by dust, and find yourself suddenly beside the
+tempting "plats" of a little French dejeune, with its cutlets, its fried
+fish, its poulet, its salad, and its little entre of fruit, tempered with
+a not despicable bottle of Beaune.  If in England, the exchange is nearly
+as grateful--for though our travelling be better, and our equipage less
+"genante," still it is no small alterative from the stage-coach to the
+inn parlour, redolent of aromatic black tea, eggs, and hot toast, with a
+hospitable side-board of red, raw surloins, and York hams, that would
+made a Jew's mouth water.  While, in America, the change is greatest of
+all, as any one can vouch for who has been suddenly emancipated from the
+stove-heat of a "nine-inside" leathern "conveniency," bumping ten miles
+an hour over a corduroy road, the company smoking, if not worse; to the
+ample display of luxurious viands displayed upon the breakfast-table,
+where, what with buffalo steaks, pumpkin pie, gin cock-tail, and other
+aristocratically called temptations, he must be indeed fastidious who
+cannot employ his half-hour.  Pity it is, when there is so much good to
+eat, that people will not partake of it like civilized beings, and with
+that air of cheerful thankfulness that all other nations more or less
+express when enjoying the earth's bounties.  But true it is, that there
+is a spirit of discontent in the Yankee, that seems to accept of benefits
+with a tone of dissatisfaction, if not distrust.  I once made this remark
+to an excellent friend of mine now no more, who, however, would not
+permit of my attributing this feature to the Americans exclusively,
+adding, "Where have you more of this than in Ireland? and surely you
+would not call the Irish ungrateful?"  He illustrated his first remark by
+the following short anecdote:--
+
+The rector of the parish my friend lived in was a man who added to the
+income he derived from his living a very handsome private fortune, which
+he devoted entirely to the benefit of the poor around him.  Among the
+objects of his bounty one old woman--a childless widow, was remarkably
+distinguished.  Whether commiserating her utter helplessness or her
+complete isolation, he went farther to relieve her than to many, if not
+all, the other poor.  She frequently was in the habit of pleading her
+poverty as a reason for not appearing in church among her neighbours;
+and he gladly seized an opportunity of so improving her condition, that
+on this score at least no impediment existed.  When all his little plans
+for her comfort had been carried into execution, he took the opportunity
+one day of dropping in, as if accidentally, to speak to her.  By degrees
+he led the subject to her changed condition in life--the alteration from
+a cold, damp, smoky hovel, to a warm, clean, slated house--the cheerful
+garden before the door that replaced the mud-heap and the duck-pool--and
+all the other happy changes which a few weeks had effected.  And he then
+asked, did she not feel grateful to a bountiful Providence that had
+showered down so many blessings upon her head?
+
+"Ah, troth, its thrue for yer honour, I am grateful," she replied, in a
+whining discordant tone, which astonished the worthy parson.
+
+"Of course you are, my good woman, of course you are--but I mean to say,
+don't you feel that every moment you live is too short to express your
+thankfulness to this kind Providence for what he has done?"
+
+"Ah, darlin', it's all thrue, he's very good, he's mighty kind, so he
+is."
+
+"Why then, not acknowledge it in a different manner?" said the parson,
+with some heat--"has he not housed you, and fed you, and clothed you?"
+
+"Yes, alanah, he done it all."
+
+"Well, where is your gratitude for all these mercies?"
+
+"Ah, sure if he did," said the old crone, roused at length by the
+importunity of the questioner--"sure if he did, doesn't he take it out o'
+me in the corns?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIV.
+
+A REMINISCENCE OF THE EAST.
+
+The breakfast-table assembled around it the three generations of men who
+issued from the three subdivisions of the diligence, and presented that
+motley and mixed assemblage of ranks, ages, and countries, which forms
+so very amusing a part of a traveller's experience.
+
+First came the "haute aristocratie" of the coupe, then the middle class
+of the interieure, and lastly, the tiers etat of the rotonde, with its
+melange of Jew money-lenders, under-officers and their wives, a Norman
+nurse with a high cap and a red jupe; while, to close the procession, a
+German student descended from the roof, with a beard, a blouse, and a
+meerschaum.  Of such materials was our party made up; and yet, differing
+in all our objects and interests, we speedily amalgamated into a very
+social state of intimacy, and chatted away over our breakfast with much
+good humour and gaiety.  Each person of the number seeming pleased at the
+momentary opportunity of finding a new listener, save my tall companion
+of the coupe.  He preserved a dogged silence, unbroken by even a chance
+expression to the waiter, who observed his wants and supplied them by a
+species of quick instinct, evidently acquired by practice.  As I could
+not help feeling somewhat interested about the hermit-like attachment he
+evinced for solitude, I watched him narrowly for some time, and at length
+as the "roti" made its appearance before him, after he had helped himself
+and tasted it, he caught my eye fixed upon him, and looking at me
+intently for a few seconds, he seemed to be satisfied in some passing
+doubt he laboured under, as he said with a most peculiar shake of the
+head--"No mangez, no mangez cela."
+
+"Ah," said I, detecting in my friend's French his English origin, "you
+are an Englishman I find."
+
+"The devil a doubt of it, darlin'," said he half testily.
+
+"An Irishman, too--still better," said I.
+
+"Why then isn't it strange that my French always shows me to be English,
+and my English proves me Irish?  It's lucky for me there's no going
+farther any how."
+
+Delighted to have thus fallen upon a "character," as the Irishman
+evidently appeared, I moved my chair towards his; and finding, however,
+he was not half pleased at the manner in which my acquaintance had been
+made with him, and knowing his country's susceptibility of being taken by
+a story, I resolved to make my advances by narrating a circumstance which
+had once befallen me in my early life.
+
+Our countrymen, English and Irish, travel so much now a days, that one
+ought never to feel surprised at finding them anywhere.  The instance I
+am about to relate will verify to a certain extent the fact, by showing
+that no situation is too odd or too unlikely to be within the verge of
+calculation.
+
+When the 10th foot, to which I then belonged, were at Corfu, I obtained
+with three other officers a short leave of absence, to make a hurried
+tour of the Morea, and taking a passing glance at Constantinople--in
+those days much less frequently visited by travellers than at present.
+
+After rambling pleasantly about for some weeks, we were about to return,
+when we determined that before sailing we should accept an invitation
+some officers of the "Dwarf" frigate, then stationed there, had given us,
+to pass a day at Pera, and pic-nic in the mountain.
+
+One fine bright morning was therefore selected--a most appetizing little
+dinner being carefully packed up--we set out, a party of fourteen, upon
+our excursion.
+
+The weather was glorious, and the scene far finer than any of us had
+anticipated--the view from the mountain extending over the entire city,
+gorgeous in the rich colouring of its domes and minarets; while, at one
+side, the golden horn was visible, crowded with ships of every nation,
+and, at the other, a glimpse might be had of the sea of Marmora, blue and
+tranquil as it lay beneath.  The broad bosom of the Bosphorus was sheeted
+out like a map before us--peaceful yet bustling with life and animation.
+Here lay the union-jack of old England, floating beside the lilies of
+France--we speak of times when lilies were and barricades were not--the
+tall and taper spars of a Yankee frigate towering above the low timbers
+and heavy hull of a Dutch schooner--the gilded poop and curved galleries
+of a Turkish three-decker, anchored beside the raking mast and curved
+deck of a suspicious looking craft, whose red-capped and dark-visaged
+crew needed not the naked creese at their sides to bespeak them Malays.
+The whole was redolent of life, and teeming with food for one's fancy to
+conjure from.
+
+While we were debating upon the choice of a spot for our luncheon, which
+should command the chief points of view within our reach, one of the
+party came to inform us that he had just discovered the very thing we
+were in search of.  It was a small kiosk, built upon a projecting rock
+that looked down upon the Bosphorus and the city, and had evidently, from
+the extended views it presented, been selected as the spot to build upon.
+The building itself was a small octagon, open on every side, and
+presenting a series of prospects, land and seaward, of the most varied
+and magnificent kind.
+
+Seeing no one near, nor any trace of habitation, we resolved to avail
+ourselves of the good taste of the founder; and spreading out the
+contents of our hampers, proceeded to discuss a most excellent cold
+dinner.  When the good things had disappeared, and the wine began to
+circulate, one of the party observed that we should not think of enjoying
+ourselves before we had filled a bumper to the brim, to the health of our
+good king, whose birth-day it chanced to be.  Our homeward thoughts and
+loyalty uniting, we filled our glasses, and gave so hearty a "hip, hip,
+hurra," to our toast, that I doubt if the echoes of those old rocks ever
+heard the equal of it.
+
+Scarcely was the last cheer dying away in the distance, when the door of
+the kiosk opened, and a negro dressed in white muslin appeared, his arms
+and ancles bearing those huge rings of massive gold, which only persons
+of rank distinguish their servants by.
+
+After a most profound obeisance to the party, he explained in very
+tolerable French, that his master the Effendi, Ben Mustapha Al Halak, at
+whose charge (in house rent) we were then resting, sent us greetings, and
+begged that if not considered as contrary to our usages, &c. we should
+permit him and his suite to approach the kiosk and observe us at our
+meal.
+
+Independent of his politeness in the mode of conveying the request, as he
+would prove fully as entertaining a sight to us as we could possibly be
+to him, we immediately expressed our great willingness to receive his
+visit, coupled with a half hint that perhaps he might honour us by
+joining the party.
+
+After a half hour's delay, the door was once more thrown open, and a
+venerable old Turk entered: he salaamed three times most reverently, and
+motioned to us to be seated, declining, at the same time, by a gentle
+gesture of his hand, our invitation.  He was followed by a train of six
+persons, all splendidly attired, and attesting, by their costume and
+manner, the rank and importance of their chief.  Conceiving that his
+visit had but one object--to observe our convivial customs--we
+immediately reseated ourselves, and filled our glasses.
+
+As one after another the officers of the effendi's household passed
+round the apartments, we offered them a goblet of champagne, which they
+severally declined, with a polite but solemn smile--all except one, a
+large, savage-looking Turk, with a most ferocious scowl, and the largest
+black beard I ever beheld.  He did not content himself with a mute
+refusal of our offer, but stopping suddenly, he raised up his hands above
+his head, and muttered some words in Turkish, which one of the party
+informed us was a very satisfactory recommendation of the whole company
+to Satan for their heretic abomination.
+
+The procession moved slowly round the room, and when it reached the door
+again retired, each member of it salaaming three times as they had done
+on entering.  Scarcely had they gone, when we burst into a loud fit of
+laughter at the savage-looking fellow who thought proper to excommunicate
+us, and were about to discuss his more than common appearance of disgust
+at our proceedings, when again the door opened, and a turbaned head
+peeped in, but so altered were the features, that although seen but the
+moment before, we could hardly believe them the same.  The dark
+complexion--the long and bushy beard were there--but instead of the
+sleepy and solemn character of the oriental, with heavy eye and closed
+lip, there was a droll, half-devilry in the look, and partly open mouth,
+that made a most laughable contrast with the head-dress.  He looked
+stealthily around him for an instant, as if to see that all was right,
+and then, with an accent and expression I shall never forget, said, "I'll
+taste your wine, gentleman, an it be pleasing to ye."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLV.
+
+A DAY IN THE PHOENIX.
+
+When we were once more in the coupe of the diligence, I directed my
+entire attention towards my Irish acquaintance, as well because of his
+apparent singularity, as to avoid the little German in the opposite
+corner.
+
+"You have not been long in France, then, sir," said I, as we resumed our
+conversation.
+
+"Three weeks, and it seems like three years to me--nothing to eat--
+nothing to drink--and nobody to speak to.  But I'll go back soon--I only
+came abroad for a month."
+
+"You'll scarcely see much of the Continent in so short a time."
+
+"Devil a much that will grieve me--I didn't come to see it."
+
+"Indeed!"
+
+"Nothing of the kind; I only came--to be away from home."
+
+"Oh!  I perceive."
+
+"You're quite out there," said my companion, misinterpreting my meaning.
+"It wasn't any thing of that kind.  I don't owe sixpence.  I was laughed
+out of Ireland--that's all, though that same is bad enough."
+
+"Laughed out of it!"
+
+"Just so--and little you know of Ireland if that surprises you."
+
+After acknowledging that such an event was perfectly possible, from what
+I myself had seen of that country, I obtained the following very brief
+account of my companion's reasons for foreign travel:
+
+"Well, sir," began he, "it is about four months since I brought up to
+Dublin from Galway a little chesnut mare, with cropped ears and a short
+tail, square-jointed, and rather low--just what you'd call a smart hack
+for going to cover with--a lively thing on the road with a light weight.
+Nobody ever suspected that she was a clean bred thing--own sister to
+Jenny, that won the Corinthians, and ran second to Giles for the
+Riddlesworth--but so she was, and a better bred mare never leaped the
+pound in Ballinasloe.  Well, I brought her to Dublin, and used to ride
+her out two or three times a week, making little matches sometimes to
+trot--and, for a thorough bred, she was a clipper at trotting--to trot
+a mile or so on the grass--another day to gallop the length of the nine
+acres opposite the Lodge--and then sometimes, back her for a ten pound
+note, to jump the biggest furze bush that could be found--all or which
+she could do with ease, nobody thinking, all the while, that the cock-
+tailed pony was out of Scroggins, by a "Lamplighter mare."  As every
+fellow that was beat to-day was sure to come back to-morrow, with
+something better, either of his own or a friend's, I had matches booked
+for every day in the week--for I always made my little boy that rode, win
+by half a neck, or a nostril, and so we kept on day after day pocketing
+from ten to thirty pounds or thereabouts.
+
+"It was mighty pleasant while it lasted, for besides winning the money,
+I had my own fun laughing at the spoonies that never could book my bets
+fast enough.  Young infantry officers and the junior bar--they were for
+the most part mighty nice to look at, but very raw about racing.  How
+long I might have gone on in this way I cannot say; but one morning I
+fell in with a fat, elderly gentleman, in shorts and gaiters, mounted on
+a dun cob pony, that was very fidgety and hot tempered, and appeared to
+give the rider a great deal of uneasiness.
+
+"'He's a spicy hack you're on, sir,' said I, 'and has a go in him, I'll
+be bound.'
+
+"'I rayther think he has,' said the old gentleman, half testily.
+
+"'And can trot a bit, too.'
+
+"'Twelve Irish miles in fifty minutes, with my weight.'  Here he looked
+down at a paunch like a sugar hosghead.
+
+"'Maybe he's not bad across a country,' said I, rather to humour the old
+fellow, who, I saw, was proud of his poney.
+
+"'I'd like to see his match, that's all.'  Here he gave a rather
+contemptuous glance at my hack.
+
+"Well, one word led to another, and it ended at last in our booking a
+match, with which one party was no less pleased than the other.  It was
+this: each was to ride his own horse, starting from the school in the
+Park, round the Fifteen Acres, outside the Monument, and back to the
+start--just one heat, about a mile and a half--the ground good, and only
+soft enough.  In consideration, however, of his greater weight, I was to
+give odds in the start; and as we could not well agree on how much, it
+was at length decided that he was to get away first, and I to follow as
+fast as I could, after drinking a pewter quart full of Guinness's double
+stout--droll odds, you'll say, but it was the old fellow's own thought,
+and as the match was a soft one, I let him have his way.
+
+"The next morning the Phoenix was crowded as if for a review.  There were
+all the Dublin notorieties, swarming in barouches, and tilburies, and
+outside jaunting-cars--smart clerks in the post-office, mounted upon
+kicking devils from Dycer's and Lalouette's stables--attorney's wives
+and daughters from York-street, and a stray doctor or so on a hack that
+looked as if it had been lectured on for the six winter months at the
+College of Surgeons.  My antagoist was half an hour late, which time I
+occupied in booking bets on every side of me--offering odds of ten,
+fifteen, and at last, to tempt the people, twenty-five to one against the
+dun.  At last, the fat gentleman came up on a jaunting-car, followed by a
+groom leading the cob.  I wish you heard the cheer that greeted him on
+his arrival, for it appeared he was a well-known character in town, and
+much in favour with the mob.  When he got off the car, he bundled into a
+tent, followed by a few of his friends, where they remained for about
+five minutes, at the end of which he came out in full racing costume--
+blue and yellow striped jacket, blue cap and leathers--looking as funny a
+figure as ever you set eyes upon.  I now thought it time to throw off my
+white surtout, and show out in pink and orange, the colours I had been
+winning in for two months past.  While some of the party were sent on to
+station themselves at different places round the Fifteen Acres, to mark
+out the course, my fat friend was assisted into his saddle, and gave
+a short preliminary gallop of a hundred yards or so, that set us all
+a-laughing.  The odds were now fifty to one in my favour, and I gave them
+wherever I could find takers.  'With you, sir, if you please, in pounds,
+and the gentleman in the red whiskers, too, if he likes--very well, in
+half sovereigns, if you prefer it.'  So I went on, betting on every side,
+till the bell rung to mount.  As I knew I had plenty of time to spare, I
+took little notice, and merely giving a look to my girths, I continued
+leisurely booking my bets.  At last the time came, and at the word
+'Away!' off went the fat gentleman on the dun, at a spluttering gallop,
+that flung the mud on every side of us, and once more threw us all
+a-laughing.  I waited patiently till he got near the upper end of the
+park, taking bets every minute; and now that he was away, every one
+offered to wager.  At last, when I had let him get nearly half round,
+and found no more money could be had, I called out to his friends for the
+porter, and, throwing myself into the saddle, gathered up the reins in my
+hand.  The crowd fell back on each side, while from the tent I have
+already mentioned came a thin fellow with one eye, with a pewter quart in
+his hand: he lifted it up towards me, and I took it; but what was my
+fright to find that the porter was boiling, and the vessel so hot I could
+barely hold it.  I endeavoured to drink, however: the first mouthful took
+all the skin off my lips and tongue--the second half choked, and the
+third nearly threw me into an apoplectic fit--the mob cheering all the
+time like devils.  Meantime, the old fellow had reached the furze, and
+was going along like fun.  Again I tried the porter, and a fit of
+coughing came on that lasted five minutes.  The pewter was now so hot
+that the edge of the quart took away a piece of my mouth at every effort.
+I ventured once more, and with the desperation of a madman I threw down
+the hot liquid to its last drop.  My head reeled--my eyes glared--and my
+brain was on fire.  I thought I beheld fifty fat gentlemen galloping on
+every side of me, and all the sky raining jackets in blue and yellow.
+Half mechanically I took the reins, and put spurs to my horse; but before
+I got well away, a loud cheer from the crowd assailed me.  I turned, and
+saw the dun coming in at a floundering gallop, covered with foam, and so
+dead blown that neither himself nor the rider could have got twenty yards
+farther.  The race was, however, won.  My odds were lost to every man on
+the field, and, worse than all, I was so laughed at, that I could not
+venture out in the streets, without hearing allusions to my misfortune;
+for a certain friend of mine, one Tom O'Flaherty--"
+
+"Tom of the 11th light dragoons?"
+
+"The same--you know Tom, then?  Maybe you have heard him mention me--
+Maurice Malone?"
+
+"Not Mr. Malone, of Fort Peak?"
+
+"Bad luck to him.  I am as well known in connexion with Fort Peak, as the
+Duke is with Waterloo.  There is not a part of the globe where he has not
+told that confounded story."
+
+As my readers may not possibly be all numbered in Mr. O'Flaherty's
+acquaintance, I shall venture to give the anecdote which Mr. Malone
+accounted to be so widely circulated.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVI.
+
+AN ADVENTURE IN CANADA.
+
+Towards the close of the last war with America, a small detachment of
+military occupied the little block house of Fort Peak, which, about eight
+miles from the Falls of Niagara, formed the last outpost on the frontier.
+The Fort, in itself inconsiderable, was only of importance as commanding
+a part of the river where it was practicable to ford, and where the easy
+ascent of the bank offered a safe situation for the enemy to cross over,
+whenever they felt disposed to carry the war into our territory.
+
+There having been, however, no threat of invasion in this quarter, and
+the natural strength of the position being considerable, a mere handful
+of men, with two subaltern officers, were allotted for this duty--such
+being conceived ample to maintain it till the arrival of succour from
+head-quarters, then at Little York, on the opposite side of the lake.
+The officers of this party were our old acquaintance Tom O'Flaherty, and
+our newly-made one Maurice Malone.
+
+Whatever may be the merits of commanding officers, one virtue they
+certainly can lay small claim to--viz. any insight into character, or at
+least any regard for the knowledge.  Seldom are two men sent off on
+detachment duty to some remote quarter, to associate daily and hourly for
+months together, that they are not, by some happy chance, the very people
+who never, as the phrase is, "took to each other" in their lives.  The
+grey-headed, weather-beaten, disappointed "Peninsular" is coupled with
+the essenced and dandified Adonis of the corps; the man of literary
+tastes and cultivated pursuits, with the empty headed, ill informed
+youth, fresh from Harrow or Westminster.  This case offered no exception
+to the rule; for though there were few men possessed of more assimilating
+powers than O'Flaherty, yet certainly his companion did put the faculty
+to the test, for any thing more unlike him, there never existed.  Tom all
+good humour and high spirits--making the best of every thing--never non-
+plussed--never taken aback--perfectly at home, whether flirting with a
+Lady Charlotte in her drawing-room, or crossing a grouse mountain in the
+highlands--sufficiently well read to talk on any ordinary topic--and
+always ready-witted enough to seem more so.  A thorough sportsman,
+whether showing forth in the "park" at Melton, whipping a trout-stream in
+Wales, or filling a country-house with black cock and moor-fowl; an
+unexceptionable judge of all the good things in life, from a pretty ancle
+to a well hung tilbury--from the odds at hazard to the "Comet vintage."
+Such, in brief, was Tom.  Now his confrere was none of these; he had been
+drafted from the Galway militia to the line, for some election services
+rendered by his family to the government candidate; was of a saturnine
+and discontented habit; always miserable about some trifle or other, and
+never at rest till he had drowned his sorrows in Jamaica rum--which,
+since the regiment was abroad, he had copiously used as a substitute for
+whiskey.  To such an extent had this passion gained upon him, that a
+corporal's guard was always in attendance whenever he dined out, to
+convey him home to the barracks.
+
+The wearisome monotony of a close garrison, with so ungenial a companion,
+would have damped any man's spirits but O'Flaherty's.  He, however, upon
+this, as other occasions in life, rallied himself to make the best of it;
+and by short excursions within certain prescribed limits along the river
+side, contrived to shoot and fish enough to get through the day, and
+improve the meagre fare of his mess-table.  Malone never appeared before
+dinner--his late sittings at night requiring all the following day to
+recruit him for a new attack upon the rum bottle.
+
+Now, although his seeing so little of his brother officer was any thing
+but unpleasant to O'Flaherty, yet the ennui of such a life was gradually
+wearing him, and all his wits were put in requisition to furnish
+occupation for his time.  Never a day passed without his praying ardently
+for an attack from the enemy; any alternative, any reverse, had been a
+blessing compared with his present life.  No such spirit, however, seemed
+to animate the Yankee troops; not a soldier was to be seen for miles
+around, and every straggler that passed the Fort concurred in saying that
+the Americans were not within four day's march of the frontier.
+
+Weeks passed over, and the same state of things remaining unchanged,
+O'Flaherty gradually relaxed some of his strictness as to duty; small
+foraging parties of three and four being daily permitted to leave the
+Fort for a few hours, to which they usually returned laden with wild
+turkeys and fish--both being found in great abundance near them.
+
+Such was the life of the little garrison for two or three long summer
+months--each day so resembling its fellow, that no difference could be
+found.
+
+As to how the war was faring, or what the aspect of affairs might be,
+they absolutely knew nothing.  Newspapers never reached them; and whether
+from having so much occupation at head-quarters, or that the difficulty
+of sending letters prevented, their friends never wrote a line; and thus
+they jogged on, a very vegetable existence, till thought at last was
+stagnating in their brains, and O'Flaherty half envied his companion's
+resource in the spirit flask.
+
+Such was the state of affairs at the Fort, when one evening O'Flaherty
+appeared to pace the little rampart that looked towards Lake Ontario,
+with an appearance of anxiety and impatience strangely at variance with
+his daily phlegmatic look.  It seemed that the corporal's party he had
+despatched that morning to forage, near the "Falls," had not returned,
+and already were four hours later than their time away.
+
+Every imaginable mode of accounting for their absence suggested itself to
+his mind.  Sometimes he feared that they had been attacked by the Indian
+hunters, who were far from favourably disposed towards their poaching
+neighbours.  Then, again, it might be merely that they had missed their
+track in the forest; or could it be that they had ventured to reach Goat
+Island in a canoe, and had been carried down the rapids.  Such were the
+torturing doubts that passed as some shrill squirrel, or hoarse night owl
+pierced the air with a cry, and then all was silent again.  While thus
+the hours went slowly by, his attention was attracted by a bright light
+in the sky.  It appeared as if part of the heavens were reflecting some
+strong glare from beneath, for as he looked, the light, at first pale and
+colourless, gradually deepened into a rich mellow hue, and at length,
+through the murky blackness of the night, a strong clear current of flame
+rose steadily upwards from the earth, and pointed towards the sky.  From
+the direction, it must have been either at the Falls, or immediately near
+them; and now the horrible conviction flashed upon his mind that the
+party had been waylaid by the Indians, who were, as is their custom,
+making a war feast over their victims.
+
+Not an instant was to be lost.  The little garrison beat to arms; and, as
+the men fell in, O'Flaherty cast his eyes around, while he selected a few
+brave fellows to accompany him.  Scarcely had the men fallen out from the
+ranks, when the sentinel at the gate was challenged by a well-known
+voice, and in a moment more the corporal of the foraging party was among
+them.  Fatigue and exhaustion had so overcome him, that for some minutes
+he was speechless.  At length he recover sufficiently to give the
+following brief account:--
+
+The little party having obtained their supply of venison above Queenston,
+were returning to the Fort, when they suddenly came upon a track of feet,
+and little experience in forest life soon proved that some new arrivals
+had reached the hunting grounds, for on examining them closely, they
+proved neither to be Indian tracks, nor yet those made by the shoes of
+the Fort party.  Proceeding with caution to trace them backwards for
+three or four miles, they reached the bank of the Niagara river, above
+the whirlpools, where the crossing is most easily effected from the
+American side.  The mystery was at once explained: it was a surprise
+party of the Yankees, sent to attack Fort Peak; and now the only thing to
+be done was to hasten back immediately to their friends, and prepare for
+their reception.
+
+With this intent they took the river path as the shortest, but had not
+proceeded far when their fears were confirmed; for in a little embayment
+of the bank they perceived a party of twenty blue coats, who, with their
+arms piled, were lying around as if waiting for the hour of attack.  The
+sight of this party added greatly to their alarm, for they now perceived
+that the Americans had divided their force--the foot-tracks first seen
+being evidently those of another division.  As the corporal and his few
+men continued, from the low and thick brushwood, to make their
+reconnaisance of the enemy, they observed with delight that they were not
+regulars, but a militia force.  With this one animating thought, they
+again, with noiseless step, regained the forest, and proceeded upon their
+way.  Scarcely, however, had they marched a mile, when the sound of
+voices and loud laughter apprised them that another party was near,
+which, as well as they could observe in the increasing gloom, was still
+larger than the former.  They were now obliged to make a considerable
+circuit, and advance still deeper into the forest--their anxiety hourly
+increasing, lest the enemy should reach the Fort before themselves.  In
+this dilemma it was resolved that the party should separate--the corporal
+determining to proceed alone by the river bank, while the others, by a
+detour of some miles, should endeavour to learn the force of the Yankees,
+and, as far as they could, their mode of attack.  From that instant the
+corporal knew no more; for, after two hours' weary exertion, he reached
+the Fort, which, had it been but another mile distant, his strength had
+not held out for him to attain.
+
+However gladly poor O'Flaherty might have hailed such information under
+other circumstances, now it came like a thunderbolt upon him.  Six of his
+small force were away, perhaps ere this made prisoners by the enemy;
+the Yankees, as well as he could judge, were a numerous party; and he
+himself totally without a single adviser--for Malone had dined, and was,
+therefore, by this time in that pleasing state of indifference, in which
+he could only recognise an enemy, in the man that did not send round the
+decanter.
+
+In the half indulged hope that his state might permit some faint exercise
+of the reasoning faculty, O'Flaherty walked towards the small den they
+had designated as the mess-room, in search of his brother officer.
+
+As he entered the apartment, little disposed as he felt to mirth at such
+a moment, the tableau before him was too ridiculous not to laugh at.  At
+one side of the fire-place sat Malone, his face florid with drinking, and
+his eyeballs projecting.  Upon his head was a small Indian skull cap,
+with two peacock feathers, and a piece of scarlet cloth which hung down
+behind.  In one hand he held a smoking goblet of rum punch, and in the
+other a long, Indian Chibook pipe.  Opposite to him, but squatted upon
+the floor, reposed a red Indian, that lived in the Fort as a guide,
+equally drunk, but preserving, even in his liquor, an impassive, grave
+aspect, strangely contrasting with the high excitement of Malone's face.
+The red man wore Malone's uniform coat, which he had put on back
+foremost--his head-dress having, in all probability been exchanged for
+it, as an amicable courtesy between the parties.  There they sat, looking
+fixedly at each other; neither spoke, nor even smiled--the rum bottle,
+which at brief intervals passed from one to the other, maintained a
+friendly intercourse that each was content with.
+
+To the hearty fit of laughing of O'Flaherty, Malone replied by a look of
+drunken defiance, and then nodded to his red friend, who returned the
+courtesy.  As poor Tom left the room, he saw that nothing was to be hoped
+for in this quarter, and determined to beat the garrison to arms without
+any further delay.  Scarcely had he closed the door behind him, when a
+sudden thought flashed through his brain.  He hesitated, walked forward a
+few paces, stopped again, and calling out to the corporal, said--
+
+"You are certain they were militia?"
+
+"Yes, sir; quite sure."
+
+"Then, by Jove, I have it," cried O'Flaherty.  "If they should turn out
+to be the Buffalo fencibles, we may get through this scrape better than I
+hoped for."
+
+"I believe you are right, sir; for I heard one of the men as I passed
+observe, 'what will they say in Buffalo when it's over?'."
+
+"Send Mathers here, corporal; and do you order four rank and file, with
+side-arms to be in readiness immediately."
+
+"Mathers, you have heard the news," said O'Flaherty, as the sergeant
+entered.  "Can the Fort hold out against such a force as Jackson reports?
+You doubt; well, so do I; so let's see what's to be done.  Can you
+remember, was it not the Buffalo militia that were so tremendously
+thrashed by the Delawares last autumn?"
+
+"Yes, sir, they chased them for two days and nights, and had they not
+reached the town of Buffalo, the Delawares would not have left a scalp
+in the regiment."
+
+"Can you recollect the chief's name--it was Carran--something, eh?"
+
+"Caudan-dacwagae."
+
+"Exactly.  Where is he supposed to be now?"
+
+"Up in Detroit, sir, they say, but no one knows.  Those fellows are here
+to-day, and there to-morrow."
+
+"Well then, sergeant, here's my plan."  Saying these words, O'Flaherty
+proceeded to walk towards his quarters, accompanied by the sergeant, with
+whom he conversed for some time eagerly--occasionally replying, as it
+appeared, to objections, and offering explanations as the other seemed to
+require them.  The colloquy lasted half an hour--and although the veteran
+sergeant seemed difficult of conviction, it ended by his saying, as he
+left the room,
+
+"Well, sir, as you say, it can only come to hard knocks at worst.  Here
+goes--I'll send off the scout party to make the fires and choose the men
+for the out picquets, for no time is to be lost."
+
+In about an hour's time from the scene I have mentioned, a number of
+militia officers, of different grades, were seated round a bivouac fire,
+upon the bank of the Niagara river.  The conversation seemed of an angry
+nature, for the voices of the speakers were loud and irrascible, and
+their gestures evidenced a state of high excitement.
+
+"I see," said one, who seemed the superior of the party--"I see well
+where this will end.  We shall have another Queenston affair, as we had
+last fall with the Delawares."
+
+"I only say," replied another, "that if you wish our men to stand fire
+to-morrow morning, the less you remind them of the Delawares the better.
+What is that noise?  Is not that a drum beating?"
+
+The party at these words sprung to their legs, and stood in an attitude
+of listening for some seconds.
+
+"Who goes there?" sung out a sentinel from his post; and then, after a
+moment's delay, added--"Pass flag of truce to Major Brown's quarters."
+
+Scarcely were the words spoken, when three officers in scarlet, preceded
+by a drummer with a white flag, stood before the American party.
+
+"To whom may I address myself?" said one of the British--who, I may
+inform my reader, en passant, was no other than O'Flaherty--"To whom may
+I address myself as the officer in command?"
+
+"I am Major Brown," said a short, plethoric little man, in a blue uniform
+and round hat--"And who are you?"
+
+"Major O'Flaherty, of his majesty's fifth foot," said Tom, with a very
+sonorous emphasis on each word--"the bearer of a flag of truce and an
+amicable proposition from Major-General Allen, commanding the garrison of
+Fort Peak."
+
+The Americans, who were evidently taken by surprise at their intentions
+of attack being known, were silent, while he continued--
+
+"Gentlemen, it may appear somewhat strange that a garrison, possessing
+the natural strength of a powerful position--supplied with abundant
+ammunition and every muniment of war--should despatch a flag of truce on
+the eve of an attack, in preference to waiting for the moment, when a
+sharp and well-prepared reception might best attest its vigilance and
+discipline.  But the reasons for this step are soon explained.  In the
+first place, you intend a surprise.  We have been long aware of your
+projected attack.  Our spies have tracked you from your crossing the
+river above the whirlpool to your present position.  Every man of your
+party is numbered by us; and, what is still more, numbered by our allies
+--yes, gentlemen, I must repeat it, "allies"--though, as a Briton, I
+blush at the word.  Shame and disgrace for ever be that man's portion,
+who first associated the honourable usages of war with the atrocious and
+bloody cruelties of the savage.  Yet so it is: the Delawares of the
+hills"--here the Yankees exchanged very peculiar looks--"have this
+morning arrived at Fort Peak, with orders to ravage the whole of your
+frontier, from Fort George to Lake Erie.  They brought us the information
+of your approach, and their chief is, while I speak, making an infamous
+proposition, by which a price is to paid for every scalp he produces in
+the morning.  Now, as the general cannot refuse to co-operate with the
+savages, without compromising himself with the commander-in-chief,
+neither can he accept of such assistance without some pangs of
+conscience.  He has taken the only course open to him: he has despatched
+myself and my brother officers here"--O'Flaherty glanced at two privates
+dressed up in his regimentals--"to offer you terms"--
+
+O'Flaherty paused when he arrived thus far, expecting that the opposite
+party would make some reply; but they continued silent: when suddenly,
+from the dense forest, there rung forth a wild and savage yell, that rose
+and fell several times, like the pibroch of the highlander, and ended at
+last in a loud whoop, that was echoed and re-echoed again and again for
+several seconds after.
+
+"Hark!" said O'Flaherty, with an accent of horror--"Hark! the war-cry of
+the Delawares!  The savages are eager for their prey.  May it yet be time
+enough to rescue you from such a fate!  Time presses--our terms are
+these--as they do not admit of discussion, and must be at once accepted
+or rejected, to your own ear alone can I impart them."
+
+Saying which, he took Major Brown aside, and, walking apart from the
+others, led him, by slow steps, into the forest.  While O'Flaherty
+continued to dilate upon the atrocities of Indian war, and the revengeful
+character of the savages, he contrived to be always advancing towards the
+river side, till at length the glare of a fire was perceptible through
+the gloom.  Major Brown stopped suddenly, and pointed in the direction of
+the flame.
+
+"It is the Indian picquet," said O'Flaherty, calmly; "and as the facts I
+have been detailing may be more palpable to your mind, you shall see them
+with your own eyes.  Yes, I repeat it, you shall, through the cover of
+this brushwood, see Caudan-dacwagae himself--for he is with them in
+person."
+
+As O'Flaherty said this, he led Major Brown, now speechless with terror,
+behind a massive cork tree, from which spot they could look down upon the
+river side, where in a small creek sat five or six persons in blankets,
+and scarlet head-dresses; their faces streaked with patches of yellow and
+red paint, to which the glare of the fire lent fresh horror.  In the
+midst sat one, whose violent gestures and savage cries gave him the very
+appearance of a demon, as he resisted with all his might the efforts of
+the others to restrain him, shouting like a maniac all the while, and
+struggling to rise.
+
+"It is the chief," said O'Flaherty; "he will wait no longer.  We have
+bribed the others to keep him quiet, if possible, a little time; but I
+see they cannot succeed."
+
+A loud yell of triumph from below interrupted Tom's speech.  The
+infuriated savage--who was no other than Mr. Malone--having obtained the
+rum bottle, for which he was fighting with all his might--his temper not
+being improved in the struggle by occasional admonitions from the red end
+of a cigar, applied to his naked skin by the other Indians--who were his
+own soldiers acting under O'Flaherty's orders.
+
+"Now," said Tom, "that you have convinced yourself, and can satisfy your
+brother officers, will you take your chance? or will you accept the
+honoured terms of the General--pile your arms, and retreat beyond the
+river before day-break?  Your muskets and ammunition will offer a bribe
+to the cupidity of the savage, and delay his pursuit till you can reach
+some place of safety."
+
+Major Brown heard the proposal in silence, and at last determined upon
+consulting his brother officers.
+
+"I have outstaid my time," said O'Flaherty, "but stop; the lives of so
+many are at stake, I consent."  Saying which, they walked on without
+speaking, till they arrived where the others were standing around the
+watch-fire.
+
+As Brown retired to consult with the officers, Tom heard with pleasure
+how much his two companions had worked upon the Yankees' fears, during
+his absence, by details of the vindictive feelings of the Delawares, and
+their vows to annihilate the Buffalo militia.
+
+Before five minutes they had decided.  Upon a solemn pledge from
+O'Flaherty that the terms of the compact were to be observed as he stated
+them, they agreed to march with their arms to the ford, where, having
+piled them, they were to cross over, and make the best of their way home.
+
+By sunrise the next morning, all that remained of the threatened attack
+on Fort Peak, were the smouldering ashes of some wood fires--eighty
+muskets piled in the fort--and the yellow ochre, and red stripes that
+still adorned the countenance of the late Indian chief,--but now snoring
+Lieutenant Maurice Malone.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVII.
+
+THE COURIER'S PASSPORT.
+
+A second night succeeded the long dreary day of the diligence, and the
+only one agreeable reflection arose in the feeling that every mile
+travelled, was diminishing the chance of pursuit, and removing me still
+further from that scene of trouble and annoyance that was soon to furnish
+gossip for Paris--under the title of "The Affaire O'Leary."
+
+How he was ever to extricate himself from the numerous and embarrassing
+difficulties of his position, gave me, I confess, less uneasiness than
+the uncertainty of my own fortunes.  Luck seemed ever to befriend him--me
+it had always accompanied far enough through life to make its subsequent
+desertion more painful.  How far I should blame myself for this,
+I stopped not to consider; but brooded over the fact in a melancholy
+and discontented mood.  The one thought uppermost in my mind was, how
+will Lady Jane receive me--am I forgotten--or am I only remembered as
+the subject of that unlucky mistake, when, under the guise of an elder
+son, I was feted and made much of.  What pretensions I had, without
+fortune, rank, influence, or even expectations of any kind, to seek the
+hand of the most beautiful girl of the day, with the largest fortune as
+her dowry, I dare not ask myself--the reply would have dashed all my
+hopes, and my pursuit would have at once been abandoned.  "Tell the
+people you are an excellent preacher," was the advice of an old and
+learned divine to a younger and less experienced one--"tell them so every
+morning, and every noon, and every evening, and at last they will begin
+to believe it."  So thought I.  I shall impress upon the Callonbys that
+I am a most unexceptionable "parti."  Upon every occasion they shall hear
+it--as they open their newspapers at breakfast--as they sip their soup at
+luncheon--as they adjust their napkin at dinner--as they chat over their
+wine at night.  My influence in the house shall be unbounded--my
+pleasures consulted--my dislikes remembered.  The people in favour with
+me shall dine there three times a-week--those less fortunate shall be put
+into schedule A.  My opinions on all subjects shall be a law--whether I
+pronounce upon politics, or discuss a dinner: and all this I shall
+accomplish by a successful flattery of my lady--a little bullying of my
+lord--a devoted attention to the youngest sister--a special cultivation
+of Kilkee--and a very "prononce" neglect of Lady Jane.  These were my
+half-waking thoughts, as the heavy diligence rumbled over the pave into
+Nancy; and I was aroused by the door being suddenly jerked open, and a
+bronzed face, with a black beard and moustache, being thrust in amongst
+us.
+
+"Your passports, Messieurs," as a lantern was held up in succession
+across our faces, and we handed forth our crumpled and worn papers to the
+official.
+
+The night was stormy and dark--gusts of wind sweeping along, bearing with
+them the tail of some thunder cloud--mingling their sounds with a falling
+tile from the roofs, or a broken chimney-pot.  The officer in vain
+endeavoured to hold open the passports while he inscribed his name; and
+just as the last scrawl was completed, the lantern went out.  Muttering a
+heavy curse upon the weather, he thrust them in upon us en masse, and,
+banging the door to, called out to the conducteur, "en route."
+
+Again we rumbled on, and, ere we cleared the last lamps of the town, the
+whole party were once more sunk in sleep, save myself.  Hour after hour
+rolled by, the rain pattering upon the roof, and the heavy plash of the
+horses' feet contributing their mournful sounds to the melancholy that
+was stealing over me.  At length we drew up at the door of a little
+auberge; and, by the noise and bustle without, I perceived there was a
+change of horses.  Anxious to stretch my legs, and relieve, if even for a
+moment, the wearisome monotony of the night, I got out and strode into
+the little parlour of the inn.  There was a cheerful fire in an open
+stove, beside which stood a portly figure in a sheepskin bunta and a
+cloth travelling cap, with a gold band; his legs were cased in high
+Russia leather boots, all evident signs of the profession of the wearer,
+had even his haste at supper not bespoke the fact that he was a
+government courier.
+
+"You had better make haste with the horses, Antoine, if you don't wish
+the postmaster to hear of it," said he, as I entered, his mouth filled
+with pie crust and vin de Beaune, as he spoke.
+
+A lumbering peasant, with a blouse, sabots, and a striped nightcap,
+replied in some unknown patois; when the courier again said--
+
+"Well, then, take the diligence horses; I must get on at all events; they
+are not so presse, I'll be bound; besides it will save the gens-d'armes
+some miles of a ride if they overtake them here."
+
+"Have we another vise of our passports here, then?" said I, addressing
+the courier, "for we have already been examined at Nancy?"
+
+"Not exactly a vise," said the courier, eyeing me most suspiciously as
+he spoke, and then continuing to eat with his former voracity.
+
+"Then, what, may I ask, have we to do with the gens-d'armes?"
+
+"It is a search," said the courier, gruffly, and with the air of one who
+desired no further questioning.
+
+I immediately ordered a bottle of Burgundy, and filling the large goblet
+before him, said, with much respect,
+
+"A votre bonne voyage, Monsier le Courier."
+
+To this he at once replied, by taking off his cap and bowing politely as
+he drank off the wine.
+
+"Have we any runaway felon or a stray galerien among us?" said I,
+laughingly, "that they are going to search us?"
+
+"No, monsieur," said the courier; "but there has been a government order
+to arrest a person on this road connected with the dreadful Polish plot,
+that has just eclated at Paris.  I passed a vidette of cavalry at Nancy,
+and they will be up here in half an hour."
+
+"A Polish plot!  Why, I left Paris only two days ago, and never heard of
+it."
+
+"C'est bien possible, Monsieur?  Perhaps, after all, it may only be an
+affair of the police; but they have certainly arrested one prisoner at
+Meurice, charged with this, as well as the attempt to rob Frascati, and
+murder the croupier."
+
+"Alas," said I, with a half-suppressed groan, "it is too true; that
+infernal fellow O'Leary has ruined me, and I shall be brought back to
+Paris, and only taken from prison to meet the open shame and ignominy of
+a public trial."
+
+What was to be done?--every moment was precious.  I walked to the door to
+conceal my agitation.  All was dark and gloomy.  The thought of escape
+was my only one; but how to accomplish it!  Every stir without suggested
+to my anxious mind the approaching tread of horses--every rattle of the
+harness seemed like the clink of accoutrements.
+
+While I yet hesitated, I felt that my fate was in the balance.
+Concealment where I was, was impossible; there were no means of
+obtaining horses to proceed.  My last only hope then rested in the
+courier; he perhaps might be bribed to assist me at this juncture.
+Still his impression as to the enormity of the crime imputed, might
+deter him; and there was no time for explanation, if even he would listen
+to it.  I returned to the room; he had finished his meal, and was now
+engaged in all the preparations for encountering a wet and dreary night.
+I hesitated; my fears that if he should refuse my offers, all chance of
+my escape was gone, deterred me for a moment.  At length as he wound a
+large woollen shawl around his throat, and seemed to have completed his
+costume, I summoned nerve for the effort, and with as much boldness in my
+manner as I could muster, said--
+
+"Monsieur le Courier, one word with you."  I here closed the door, and
+continued.  "My fortunes--my whole prospects in life depend upon my
+reaching Strasbourg by to-morrow night.  You alone can be the means of my
+doing so.  Is there any price you can mention, for which you will render
+me this service?--if so, name it."
+
+"So then, Monsieur," said the Courier, slowly--"so, then, you are the--"
+
+"You have guessed it," said I, interrupting.  "Do you accept my
+proposal?"
+
+"It is impossible," said he, "utterly impossible; for even should I be
+disposed to run the risk on my own account, it would avail you nothing;
+the first town we entered your passport would be demanded, and not being
+vised by the minister to travel en courier, you would at once be detained
+and arrested."
+
+"Then am I lost," said I, throwing myself upon a chair; at the same
+instant my passport, which I carried in my breast pocket, fell out at the
+feet of the courier.  He lifted it and opened it leisurely.  So engrossed
+was I by my misfortunes, that for some minutes I did not perceive, that
+as he continued to read the passport, he smiled from time to time, till
+at length a hearty fit of laughing awoke me from my abstraction.  My
+first impulse was to seize him by the throat; controlling my temper,
+however, with an effort, I said--
+
+"And pray, Monsieur, may I ask in what manner the position I stand in
+at this moment affords you so much amusement?  Is there any thing so
+particularly droll--any thing so excessively ludicrous in my situation--
+or what particular gift do you possess that shall prevent me throwing you
+out of the window?"
+
+"Mais, Monsieur," said he, half stifled with laughter, "do you know the
+blunder I fell into? it is really too good.  Could you only guess who I
+took you for, you would laugh too."
+
+Here he became so overcome with merriment, that he was obliged to sit
+down, which he did opposite to me, and actually shook with laughter.
+
+"When this comedy is over," thought I, "we may begin to understand each
+other."  Seeing no prospect of this, I became at length impatient, and
+jumping on my legs, said--
+
+"Enough, sir, quite enough of this foolery.  Believe me, you have every
+reason to be thankful that my present embarrassment should so far engross
+me, that I cannot afford time to give you a thrashing."
+
+"Pardon, mille pardons," said he humbly; "but you will, I am sure,
+forgive me when I tell you that I was stupid enough to mistake you for
+the fugitive Englishman, whom the gens-d'armes are in pursuit of.  How
+good, eh?"
+
+"Oh! devilish good--but what do you mean?"
+
+"Why, the fellow that caused the attack at Frascati, and all that, and--"
+
+"Yes--well, eh?  Did you think I was him?"
+
+"To be sure I did, till I saw your passport."
+
+"Till you saw my passport!"  Why, what on earth can he mean? thought I.
+"No, but," said I, half jestingly, "how could you make such a blunder?"
+
+"Why, your confused manner--your impatience to get on--your hurried
+questions, all convinced me.  In fact, I'd have wagered any thing you
+were the Englishman."
+
+"And what, in heaven's name, does he think me now?" thought I, as I
+endeavoured to join the laugh so ludicrous a mistake occasioned.
+
+"But we are delaying sadly," said the courier.  "Are you ready?"
+
+"Ready?--ready for what?"
+
+"To go on with me, of course.  Don't you wish to get early to
+Strasbourg?"
+
+"To be sure I do."
+
+"Well, then, come along.  But, pray, don't mind your luggage, for my
+caleche is loaded.  Your instruments can come in the diligence."
+
+"My instruments in the diligence!  He's mad--that's flat."
+
+"How they will laugh at Strasbourg at my mistake."
+
+"That they will," thought I.  "The only doubt is, will you join in the
+merriment?"
+
+So saying, I followed the courier to the door, jumped into his caleche,
+and in another moment was hurrying over the pave at a pace that defied
+pursuit, and promised soon to make up for all our late delay.  Scarcely
+was the fur-lined apron of the caleche buttoned around me, and the German
+blinds let down, when I set to work to think over the circumstance that
+had just befallen me.  As I had never examined my passport from the
+moment Trevanion handed it to me in Paris, I knew nothing of its
+contents; therefore, as to what impression it might convey of me, I was
+totally ignorant.  To ask the courier for it now might excite suspicion;
+so that I was totally at sea how to account for his sudden change in my
+favour, or in what precise capacity I was travelling beside him.  Once,
+and once only, the thought of treachery occurred to me.  Is he about to
+hand me over to the gens-d'armes? and are we now only retracing our steps
+towards Nancy?  If so, Monsieur le Courier, whatever be my fate, your's
+is certainly an unenviable one.  My reflections on this head were soon
+broken in upon, for my companion again returned to the subject of his
+"singular error," and assured me that he was as near as possible leaving
+me behind, under the mistaken impression of my being "myself;" and
+informed me that all Strasbourg would be delighted to see me, which
+latter piece of news was only the more flattering, that I knew no one
+there, nor had ever been in that city in my life; and after about an
+hour's mystification as to my tastes, habits, and pursuits, he fell fast
+asleep, leaving me to solve the difficult problem as to whether I was not
+somebody else, or the only alternative--whether travelling en courier
+might not be prescribed by physicians as a mode of treating insane
+patients.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVIII.
+
+A NIGHT IN STRASBOURG.
+
+With the dawn of day my miseries recommenced; for after letting down the
+sash, and venting some very fervent imprecations upon the postillion for
+not going faster than his horses were able, the courier once more
+recurred to his last night's blunder, and proceeded very leisurely to
+catechise me as to my probable stay at Strasbourg, when I should go from
+there, &c.  As I was still in doubt what or whom he took me for, I
+answered with the greatest circumspection--watching, the while, for any
+clue that might lead me to a discovery of myself.  Thus, occasionally
+evading all pushing and home queries, and sometimes, when hard pressed,
+feigning drowsiness, I passed the long and anxious day--the fear of being
+overtaken ever mingling with the thoughts that some unlucky admission of
+mine might discover my real character to the courier, who, at any post
+station, might hand me over to the authorities.  Could I only guess at
+the part I am performing, thought I, and I might manage to keep up the
+illusion; but my attention was so entirely engrossed by fencing off all
+his threats, that I could find out nothing.  At last, as night drew near,
+the thought that we were approaching Strasbourg rallied my spirits,
+suggesting an escape from all pursuit, as well as the welcome prospect of
+getting rid of my present torturer, who, whenever I awoke from a doze,
+reverted to our singular meeting with a pertinacity that absolutely
+seemed like malice.
+
+"As I am aware that this is your first visit to Strasbourg," said the
+courier, "perhaps I can be of service to you in recommending a hotel.
+Put up, I advise you, at the 'Bear'--a capital hotel, and not ten
+minutes' distance from the theatre."
+
+I thanked him for the counsel; and, rejoicing in the fact that my
+prototype, whoever he might be, was unknown in the city, began to feel
+some little hope of getting through this scrape, as I had done so many
+others.
+
+"They have been keeping the 'Huguenots' for your arrival, and all
+Strasbourg is impatient for your coming."
+
+"Indeed!" said I, mumbling something meant to be modest.  "Who the devil
+am I, then, to cause all this fracas?  Heaven grant, not the new
+'prefect,' or the commander of the forces."
+
+"I am told the 'Zauberflotte' is your favourite opera?"
+
+"I can't say that I ever heard it--that is, I mean that I could say--well
+got up."
+
+Here I floundered on having so far forgot myself as to endanger every
+thing.
+
+"How very unfortunate!  Well, I hope you will not long have as much to
+say.  Meanwhile, here we are--this is the 'Bear.'"
+
+We rattled into the ample porte cochere of a vast hotel--the postillion
+cracking his enormous whip, and bells ringing on every side, as if the
+crown prince of Russia had been the arrival, and not a poor sub. in the
+__th.
+
+The courier jumped out, and running up to the landlord, whispered a few
+words in his ear, to which the other answered by a deep "ah, vraiment!"
+and then saluted me with an obsequiousness that made my flesh quake.
+
+"I shall make 'mes hommages' in the morning," said the courier, as he
+drove off at full speed to deliver his despatches, and left me to my own
+devices to perform a character, without even being able to guess what it
+might be.  My passport, too, the only thing that could throw any light
+upon the affair, he had taken along with him, promising to have it vised,
+and save me any trouble.
+
+Of all my difficulties and puzzling situations in life, this was
+certainly the worst; for however often my lot had been to personate
+another, yet hitherto I had had the good fortune to be aware of what and
+whom I was performing.  Now I might be any body from Marshal Soult to
+Monsieur Scribe; one thing only was certain, I must be a "celebrity."
+The confounded pains and trouble they were taking to receive me, attested
+that fact, and left me to the pleasing reflection that my detection,
+should it take place, would be sure of attracting a very general
+publicity.  Having ordered my supper from the landlord, with a certain
+air of reserve, sufficient to prevent even an Alsace host from obtruding
+any questions upon me, I took my opportunity to stroll from the inn down
+to the river side.  There lay the broad, rapid Rhine, separating me, by
+how narrow a gulph, from that land, where, if I once arrived, my safety
+was certain.  Never did that great boundary of nations strike me so
+forcibly, as now when my own petty interests and fortunes were at stake.
+Night was fast settling upon the low flat banks of the stream, and
+nothing stirred, save the ceaseless ripple of the river.  One fishing
+barque alone was on the water.  I hailed the solitary tenant of it, and
+after some little parley, induced him to ferry me over.  This, however,
+could only be done when the night was farther advanced--it being against
+the law to cross the river except at certain hours, and between two
+established points, where officers of the revenue were stationed.  The
+fisherman was easily bribed, however, to evade the regulation, and only
+bargained that I should meet him on the bank before daybreak.  Having
+settled this point to my satisfaction, I returned to my hotel in better
+spirits; and with a Strasbourg pate, and a flask of Nierensteiner, drank
+to my speedy deliverance.
+
+How to consume the long, dreary hours between this time and that of my
+departure, I knew not; for though greatly fatigued, I felt that sleep was
+impossible; the usual resource of a gossip with the host was equally out
+of the question; and all that remained was the theatre, which I happily
+remembered was not far from the hotel.
+
+It was an opera night, and the house was crowded to excess; but with some
+little management, I obtained a place in a box near the stage.  The piece
+was "Les Franc Macons," which was certainly admirably supported, and drew
+down from the audience--no mean one as judges of music--the loudest
+thunders of applause.  As for me, the house was a great a curiosity as
+the opera.  The novel spectacle of some hundred (thousand?) people
+relishing and appreciating the highest order of musical genius, was
+something totally new and surprising to me.  The curtain at length fell
+upon the fifth act.
+
+And now the deafening roar of acclamation was tremendous; and amid a
+perfect shout of enthusiasm, the manager announced the opera for the
+ensuing evening.  Scarcely had this subsided, when a buzz ran through the
+house; at first subdued, but gradually getting louder--extending from the
+boxes to the balcone--from the balcone to the parterre--and finally even
+to the galleries.  Groups of people stood upon the benches, and looked
+fixedly in one part of the house; then changed and regarded as eagerly
+the other.
+
+What can this mean? thought I.  Is the theatre on fire?  Something surely
+has gone wrong!
+
+In this conviction, with the contagious spirit of curiosity, I mounted
+upon a seat, and looked about me on every side; but unable still to catch
+the object which seemed to attract the rest, as I was about to resume my
+place, my eyes fell upon a well-known face, which in an instant I
+remembered was that of my late fellow-traveller the courier.  Anxious to
+avoid his recognition, I attempted to get down at once; but before I
+could accomplish it, the wretch had perceived and recognised me; and I
+saw him, even with a gesture of delight, point me out to some friends
+beside him.
+
+"Confound the fellow," muttered I; "I must leave this at once, or I shall
+be involved in some trouble."
+
+Scarcely was my my resolve taken, when a new burst of voices arose from
+the pit--the words 'l'Auteur," "l'Auteur," mingling with loud cries for
+"Meerberger," "Meerberger," to appear.  So, thought I, it seems the great
+composer is here.  Oh, by Jove!  I must have a peep at him before I go.
+So, leaning over the front rail of the box, I looked anxiously about to
+catch one hasty glimpse of one of the great men of his day and country.
+What was my surprise, however, to perceive that about two thousand eyes
+were firmly rivetted upon the box I was seated in; while about half the
+number of tongues called out unceasingly, "Mr. Meerberger--vive
+Meerberger--vive l'Auteur des Franc Macons--vive Franc Macons," &c.
+Before I could turn to look for the hero of the scene, my legs were taken
+from under me, and I felt myself lifted by several strong men and held
+out in front of the box, while the whole audience, rising en masse,
+saluted me--yes, me, Harry Lorrequer--with a cheer that shook the
+building.  Fearful of precipitating myself into the pit beneath, if I
+made the least effort, and half wild with terror and amazement, I stared
+about like a maniac, while a beautiful young woman tripped along the edge
+of the box, supported by her companion's hand, and placed lightly upon my
+brow a chaplet of roses and laurel.  Here the applause was like an
+earthquake.
+
+"May the devil fly away with half of ye," was my grateful response, to as
+full a cheer of applause as ever the walls of the house re-echoed to.
+
+"On the stage--on the stage!" shouted that portion of the audience who,
+occupying the same side of the house as myself, preferred having a better
+view of me; and to the stage I was accordingly hurried, down a narrow
+stair, through a side scene, and over half the corps de ballet who were
+waiting for their entree.  Kicking, plunging, buffetting like a madman,
+they carried me to the "flats," when the manager led me forward to the
+foot lights, my wreath of flowers contrasting rather ruefully with my
+bruised cheeks and torn habiliments.  Human beings, God be praised, are
+only capable of certain efforts--so that one-half the audience were
+coughing their sides out, while the other were hoarse as bull-frogs from
+their enthusiasm in less than five minutes.
+
+"You'll have what my friend Rooney calls a chronic bronchitis for this,
+these three weeks," said I, "that's one comfort," as I bowed my way back
+to the "practicable" door, through which I made my exit, with the
+thousand faces of the parterre shouting my name, or, as fancy dictated,
+that of one of "my" operas.  I retreated behind the scenes, to encounter
+very nearly as much, and at closer quarters, too, as that lately
+sustained before the audience.  After an embrace of two minutes duration
+from the manager, I ran the gauntlet from the prima donna to the last
+triangle of the orchestra, who cut away a back button of my coat as a
+"souvenir."  During all this, I must confess, very little acting was
+needed on my part.  They were so perfectly contented with their self-
+deception, that if I had made an affidavit before the mayor--if there be
+such a functionary in such an insane town--they would not have believed
+me.  Wearied and exhausted at length, by all I had gone through, I sat
+down upon a bench, and, affecting to be overcome by my feelings,
+concealed my face in my handkerchief.  This was the first moment of
+relief I experienced since my arrival; but it was not to last long,
+for the manager, putting down his head close to my ear, whispered--
+
+"Monsieur Meerberger, I have a surprise for you--such as you have not had
+for some time, I venture to say"--
+
+"I defy you on this head," thought I.  "If they make me out king Solomon
+now, it will not amaze me"--
+
+"And when I tell you my secret," continued he, "you will acknowledge I
+cannot be of a very jealous disposition.  Madame Baptiste has just told
+me she knew you formerly, and that--she--that is, you--were--in fact, you
+understand--there had been--so to say--a little 'amourette' between you."
+
+I groaned in spirit as I thought, now am I lost without a chance of
+escape--the devil take her reminiscences.
+
+"I see," continued le bon mari, "you cannot guess of whom I speak; but
+when I tell you of Amelie Grandet, your memory will, perhaps, be better."
+
+"Amelie Grandet!" said I, with a stage start.  I need not say that I had
+never heard the name before.  "Amelie Grandet here!"
+
+"Yes, that she is," said the manager, rubbing his hands; "and my wife,
+too"--
+
+"Married!--Amelie Grandet married!  No, no; it is impossible--I cannot
+believe it.  But were it true--true, mark me--for worlds would I not meet
+her."
+
+"Comment il est drole," said the manager, soliloquising aloud; "for my
+wife takes it much easier, seeing they never met each other since they
+were fifteen."
+
+"Ho, ho!" thought I, "the affair is not so bad either--time makes great
+changes in that space."  "And does she still remember me?" said I, in a
+very Romeo-in-the-garden voice.
+
+"Why, so far as remembering the little boy that used to play with her in
+the orchard at her mother's cottage near Pirna, and with whom she used to
+go boating upon the Elbe, I believe the recollection is perfect.  But
+come along--she insists upon seeing you, and is this very moment waiting
+supper in our room for you."
+
+"A thorough German she must be," thought I, "with her sympathies and her
+supper--her reminiscences and her Rhine wine hunting in couples through
+her brain."
+
+Summoning courage from the fact of our long absence from each other, I
+followed the manager through a wilderness of pavilions, forests, clouds
+and cataracts, and at length arrived at a little door, at which he
+knocked gently.
+
+"Come in," said a soft voice inside.  We opened, and beheld a very
+beautiful young woman, in Tyrolese costume.  She was to perform in the
+afterpiece--her low boddice and short scarlet petticoat displaying the
+most perfect symmetry of form and roundness of proportion.  She was
+dressing her hair before a low glass as we came in, and scarcely turned
+at our approach; but in an instant, as if some sudden thought had struck
+her, she sprung fully round, and looking at me fixedly for above a
+minute--a very trying one for me--she glanced at her husband, whose
+countenance plainly indicated that she was right, and calling out,
+"C'est lui--c'est bien lui," threw herself into my arms, and sobbed
+convulsively.
+
+"If this were to be the only fruits of my impersonation," thought I, "it
+is not so bad--but I am greatly afraid these good people will find out a
+wife and seven babies for me before morning."
+
+Whether the manager thought that enough had been done for stage effect,
+I know not; but he gently disengaged the lovely Amelie, and deposited her
+upon a sofa, to a place upon which she speedily motioned me by a look
+from a pair of very seducing blue eyes.
+
+"Francois, mon cher, you must put off La Chaumiere.  I can't play
+to-night."
+
+"Put it off!  But only think of the audience, ma mie--they will pull down
+the house."
+
+"C'est possible," said she, carelessly.  "If that give them any pleasure,
+I suppose they must be indulged; but I, too, must have a little of my own
+way.  I shall not play."
+
+The tone this was said in--the look--the easy gesture of command--no less
+than the afflicted helplessness of the luckless husband, showed me that
+Amelie, however docile as a sweetheart, had certainly her own way as
+wife.
+
+While Le cher Francois then retired, to make his proposition to the
+audience, of substituting something for the Chaumiere--the "sudden
+illness of Madame Baptiste having prevented her appearance,"--we began to
+renew our old acquaintance, by a thousand inquiries from that long-past
+time, when we were sweethearts and lovers.
+
+"You remember me then so well?" said I.
+
+"As of yesterday.  You are much taller, and your eyes darker; but still--
+there is something.  You know, however, I have been expecting to see you
+these two days; and tell me frankly how do you find me looking?"
+
+"More beautiful, a thousand times more beautiful than ever--all save in
+one thing, Amelie."
+
+"And that is--"
+
+"You are married."
+
+"How you jest.  But let us look back.  Do you ever think on any of our
+old compacts?"  Here she pulled a leaf from a rose bud in her bouquet,
+and kissed it.  "I wager you have forgotten that."
+
+How I should have replied to this masonic sign, God knows; but the
+manager fortunately entered, to assure us that the audience had kindly
+consented not to pull down the house, but to listen to a five act tragedy
+instead, in which he had to perform the principal character.  "So, then,
+don't wait supper, Amelie; but take care of Monsieur Meerberger till my
+return."
+
+Thus, once more were we left to our souvenirs, in which, whenever hard
+pushed myself, I regularly carried the war into the enemy's camp, by
+allusions to incidents, which I need not observe had never occurred.
+After a thousand stories of our early loves, mingled with an occasional
+sigh over their fleeting character--now indulging a soft retrospect of
+the once happy past--now moralising on the future--Amelie and I chatted
+away the hours till the conclusion of the tragedy.
+
+By this time, the hour was approaching for my departure; so, after a very
+tender leave-taking with my new friend and my old love, I left the
+theatre, and walked slowly along to the river.
+
+"So much for early associations," thought I; "and how much better pleased
+are we ever to paint the past according to our own fancy, than to
+remember it as it really was.  Hence all the insufferable cant about
+happy infancy, and 'the glorious schoolboy days,' which have generally no
+more foundation in fact than have the 'Chateaux en Espagne' we build up
+for the future.  I wager that the real Amant d'enfance, when he arrives,
+is not half so great a friend with the fair Amelie as his unworthy
+shadow.  At the same time, I had just as soon that Lady Jane should have
+no 'premiers amours' to look back upon, except such as I have performed a
+character in."
+
+The plash of oars near me broke up my reflections, and the next moment
+found me skimming the rapid Rhine, as I thought for the last time.  What
+will they say in Strasbourg to-morrow?  How will they account for the
+mysterious disappearance of Monsieur Meerberger?  Poor Amelie Grandet!
+For so completely had the late incidents engrossed my attention, that I
+had for the moment lost sight of the most singular event of all--how I
+came to be mistaken for the illustrious composer.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIX.
+
+A SURPRISE.
+
+It was late upon the following day ere I awoke from the long deep sleep
+that closed my labours in Strasbourg.  In the confusion of my waking
+thoughts, I imagined myself still before a crowded and enthusiastic
+audience--the glare of the foot-lights--the crash of the orchestra--the
+shouts of "l'Auteur," "l'Auteur," were all before me, and so completely
+possessed me, that, as the waiter entered with hot water, I could not
+resist the impulse to pull off my night-cap with one hand, and press the
+other to my heart in the usual theatrical style of acknowledgments for a
+most flattering reception.  The startled look of the poor fellow as he
+neared the door to escape, roused me from my hallucination, and awakened
+me to the conviction that the suspicion of lunacy might be a still
+heavier infliction than the personation of Monsieur Meerberger.
+
+With thoughts of this nature, I assumed my steadiest demeanour--ordered
+my breakfast in the most orthodox fashion--eat it like a man in his
+senses; and when I threw myself back in the wicker conveniency they call
+a caleche, and bid adieu to Kehl, the whole fraternity of the inn would
+have given me a certificate of sanity before any court in Europe.
+
+"Now for Munich," said I, as we rattled along down the steep street of
+the little town.  "Now for Munich, with all the speed that first of
+postmasters and slowest of men, the Prince of Tour and Taxis, will afford
+us."
+
+The future engrossed all my thoughts; and puzzling as my late adventures
+had been to account for, I never for a moment reverted to the past.  "Is
+she to be mine?" was the ever-rising question in my mind.  The thousand
+difficulties that had crossed my path might long since have terminated a
+pursuit where there was so little of promise, did I not cherish the idea
+in my heart, that I was fated to succeed.  Sheridan answered the ribald
+sneers of his first auditory, by saying, "Laugh on; but I have it in me,
+and by ____ it shall come out."  So I whispered to myself:--Go on Harry.
+Luck has been hitherto against you, it is true; but you have yet one
+throw of the dice, and something seems to say, a fortunate one in store;
+and, if so----, but I cannot trust myself with such anticipations.  I am
+well aware how little the world sympathises with the man whose fortunes
+are the sport of his temperament--that April-day frame of mind is ever
+the jest and scoff of those hardier and sterner natures, who, if never
+overjoyed by success, are never much depressed by failure.  That I have
+been cast in the former mould, these Confessions have, alas! plainly
+proved; but that I regret it, I fear also, for my character for sound
+judgment, I must answer "No."
+
+               Better far to be
+                In utter darkness lying,
+               Than be blest with light, and see
+                That light for ever flying
+
+is, doubtless, very pretty poetry, but very poor philosophy.  For myself
+--and some glimpses of sunshine this fair world has afforded me, fleeting
+and passing enough, in all conscience--and yet I am not so ungrateful as
+to repine at my happiness, because it was not permanent, as I am thankful
+for those bright hours of "Love's young dream," which, if nothing more,
+are at least delightful souvenirs.  They form the golden thread in the
+tangled web of our existence, ever appearing amid the darker surface
+around, and throwing a fair halo of brilliancy on what, without it, were
+cold, bleak, and barren.  No, no--
+
+                    The light that lies
+                    In woman's eyes,
+
+were it twice as fleeting--as it is ten times more brilliant--than the
+forked lightning, irradiates the dark gloom within us for many a long day
+after it has ceased to shine upon us.  As in boyhood it is the humanizing
+influence that tempers the fierce and unruly passions of our nature, so
+in manhood it forms the goal to which all our better and higher
+aspirations tend, telling us there is something more worthy than gold,
+and a more lofty pinnacle of ambition than the praise and envy of our
+fellow-men; and we may rest assured, that when this feeling dies within
+us, that all the ideal of life dies with it, and nothing remains save the
+dull reality of our daily cares and occupations.  "I have lived and have
+loved," saith Schiller; and if it were not that there seems some
+tautology in the phrase, I should say, such is my own motto.  If Lady
+Jane but prove true--if I have really succeeded--if, in a word--but why
+speculate upon such chances?--what pretensions have I?--what reasons to
+look for such a prize?  Alas! and alas! were I to catechise myself too
+closely, I fear that my horses' heads would face towards Calais, and that
+I should turn my back upon the only prospect of happiness I can picture
+to myself in this world.  In reflections such as these, the hours rolled
+over, and it was already late at night when we reached the little village
+of Merchem.  While fresh horses were being got ready, I seized the
+occasion to partake of the table d'hote supper of the inn, at the door
+of which the diligence was drawn up.  Around the long, and not over-
+scrupulously clean table, sat the usual assemblage of a German
+"Eilwagen"--smoking, dressing salad, knitting, and occasionally picking
+their teeth with their forks, until the soup should make its appearance.
+Taking my place amid this motley assemblage of mustachioed shopkeepers
+and voluminously-petticoated frows, I sat calculating how long human
+patience could endure such companionship, when my attention was aroused
+by hearing a person near me narrate to his friend the circumstances of my
+debut at Strasbourg, with certain marginal notes of his own that not a
+little surprised me.
+
+"And so it turned out not to be Meerberger, after all,": said the
+listener.
+
+"Of course not," replied the other.  "Meerberger's passport was stolen
+from him in the diligence by this English escroc, and the consequence
+was, that our poor countryman was arrested, the other passport being
+found upon him; while the Englishman, proceeding to Strasbourg, took his
+benefit at the opera, and walked away with above twelve thousand florins.
+
+"Sappermint" said the other, tossing off his beer.  "He must have been a
+clever fellow, though, to lead the orchestra in the Franc Macons."
+
+"That is the most astonishing part of all; for they say in Strasbourg
+that his performance upon the violin was far finer than Paganini's; but
+there seems some secret in it, after all: for Madame Baptiste swears that
+he is Meerberger; and in fact the matter is far from being cleared up--
+nor can it be till he is apprehended."
+
+"Which shall not be for some time to come," said I to myself, as,
+slipping noiselessly from the room, I regained my "caleche," and in ten
+minutes more was proceeding on my journey.  So much for correct
+information, thought I.  One thing, however, is certain--to the chance
+interchange of passports I owe my safety, with the additional
+satisfaction that my little German acquaintance is reaping a pleasant
+retribution for all his worry and annoyance of me in the coupe.
+
+Only he who has toiled over the weary miles of a long journey--
+exclusively occupied with one thought--one overpowering feeling--can
+adequately commiserate my impatient anxiety as the days rolled slowly
+over on the long tiresome road that leads from the Rhine to the south of
+Germany.
+
+The morning was breaking on the fourth day of my journey as the tall
+spires of Munich rose to my view, amid the dull and arid desert of sand
+that city is placed in.  At last! was my exclamation as the postilion
+tapped at the window with his whip, and then pointed towards the city.
+At last!  Oh! what would be the extacy of my feelings now could I
+exchange the torturing anxieties of suspense for the glorious certainty
+my heart throbs for; now my journey is nearing its end to see me claim as
+my own what I now barely aspire to in the sanguine hope of a heart that
+will not despair.  But cheer up, Harry.  It is a noble stake you play
+for; and it is ever the bold gambler that wins.  Scarcely was this
+reflection made half aloud, when a sudden shock threw me from my seat.
+I fell towards the door, which, bursting open, launched me out upon the
+road, at the same moment that the broken axletree of the caleche had
+upset it on the opposite side, carrying one horse along with it, and
+leaving the other with the postillion on his back, kicking and plunging
+with all his might.  After assisting the frightened fellow to dismount,
+and having cut the traces of the restive animal, I then perceived that in
+the melee I had not escaped scatheless.  I could barely stand; and, on
+passing my hand upon my instep, perceived I had sprained my ancle in the
+fall.  The day was only breaking, no one was in sight, so that after a
+few minutes' consideration, the best thing to do, appeared to get the
+other horse upon his legs, and despatching the postillion to Munich, then
+about three leagues distant, for a carriage, wait patiently on the road-
+side for his return.  No sooner was the resolve made than carried into
+execution; and in less than a quarter of an hour from the moment of the
+accident, I was seated upon the bank, watching the retiring figure of the
+postillion, as he disappeared down a hill, on his way to Munich.  When
+the momentary burst of impatience was over, I could not help
+congratulating myself, that I was so far fortunate in reaching the end of
+my journey ere the mischance befell me.  Had it occurred at Stuttgard I
+really think that it would have half driven me distracted.
+
+I was not long in my present situation till a number of peasants, with
+broad-brimmed hats, and many-buttoned coats, passed on their way to work;
+they all saluted me respectfully; but although they saw the broken
+carriage, and might well guess at the nature of my accident, yet not
+one ever thought of proffering his services, or even indulging curiosity,
+by way of inquiry.  "How thoroughly German," thought I; "these people are
+the Turks of Europe, stupified with tobacco and 'starkes bier.'  They
+have no thought for any thing but themselves, and their own immediate
+occupations."  Perceiving at length one whose better dress and more
+intelligent look bespoke a rank above the common, I made the effort with
+such "platt deutsch," as I could muster, to ask if there were any house
+near, where I could remain till the postillion's return? and learned
+greatly to my gratification, that by taking the path which led through a
+grove of pine trees near me, I should find a chateau; but who was the
+proprietor he knew not; indeed the people were only newly come, and he
+believed were foreigners.  English he thought.  Oh, how my heart jumped
+as I said, "can they be the Callonbys; are they many in family; are there
+ladies--young ladies, among them?"--he knew not.  Having hastily arranged
+with my new friend to watch the carriage till my return, I took the path
+he showed me, and smarting with pain at every step, hurried along as best
+I could towards the chateau.  I had not walked many minutes, when a break
+in the wood gave me a view of the old mansion, and at once dispelled the
+illusion that was momentarily gaining upon me.  "They could not be the
+Callonbys."  The house was old; and though it had once been a fine and
+handsome structure, exhibited now abundant traces of decay; the rich
+cornices which supported the roof had fallen in many places, and lay in
+fragments upon the terrace beneath; the portico of the door was half
+tumbling; and the architraves of the windows were broken and dismantled;
+the tall and once richly ornamented chimnies, were bereft of all their
+tracery, and stood bolt upright in all their nakedness above the high
+pitched roof.  A straggling "jet d'eau" was vigorously fighting its way
+amid a mass of creeping shrubs and luxuriant lichens that had grown
+around and above a richly carved fountain, and fell in a shower of
+sparkling dew upon the rank grass and tall weeds around.  The gentle
+murmur was the only sound that broke the stillness of the morning.
+
+A few deities in lead and stone, mutilated and broken, stood like the
+Genii loci, guarding the desolation about them, where an old,
+superannuated peacock, with dropping, ragged tail was the only living
+thing to be seen.  All bespoke the wreck of what once was great and
+noble, and all plainly told me that such could not be the abode of the
+Callonbys.
+
+Half doubting that the house were inhabited, and half scrupling if so to
+disturb its inmates from their rest, I sat down upon the terrace steps
+and fell into a fit of musing on the objects about.  That strange
+propensity of my countrymen to settle down in remote and unfrequented
+spots upon the continent, had never struck me so forcibly; for although
+unquestionably there were evident traces of the former grandeur of the
+place, yet it was a long past greatness; and in the dilapidated walls,
+broken statues, weed grown walls, and dark and tangled pine grove, there
+were more hints for sadness than I should willingly surround myself by in
+a residence.  The harsh grating of a heavy door behind roused me; I
+turned and beheld an old man in a species of tarnished and worm-eaten
+livery, who, holding the door, again gazed at me with a mingled
+expression of fear and curiosity.  Having briefly explained the
+circumstances which had befallen me, and appealed to the broken caleche
+upon the road to corroborate a testimony that I perceived needed such
+aid, the old man invited me to enter, saying that his master and mistress
+were not risen, but that he would himself give me some breakfast, of
+which by this time I stood much in want.  The room into which I was
+ushered, corresponded well with the exterior of the house.  It was large,
+bleak, and ill furnished; the ample, uncurtained windows; the cold, white
+pannelled walls; the uncarpeted floor; all giving it an air of
+uninhabitable misery.  A few chairs of the Louis-quatorze taste, with
+blue velvet linings, faded and worn, a cracked marble table upon legs
+that once had been gilt; two scarcely detectable portraits of a mail-clad
+hero and a scarcely less formidable fair, with a dove upon her wrist,
+formed the principal articles of furniture in the dismal abode, where so
+"triste" and depressing did every thing appear, that I half regretted the
+curiosity that had tempted me from the balmy air, and cheerful morning
+without, to the gloom and solitude around me.
+
+The old man soon re-appeared with a not despicable cup of "Cafe noir,"
+and a piece of bread as large as a teaspoon, and used by the Germans
+pretty much in the same way.  As the adage of the "gift horse" is of
+tolerably general acceptation, I eat and was thankful, mingling my
+acknowledgments from time to time with some questions about the owners of
+the mansion, concerning whom I could not help feeling curious.  The
+ancient servitor, however, knew little or nothing of those he served; his
+master was the honourable baron; but of his name he was ignorant; his
+mistress was young; they had not been many months there; they knew no
+one--had no visitors--he had heard they were English, but did not know it
+himself; they were "Gute leute," "good people," and that was enough for
+him.  How strange did all this seem, that two people, young, too, should
+separate themselves from all the attractions and pleasures of the world,
+and settle down in the dark and dreary solitude, where every association
+was of melancholy, every object a text for sad reflections.  Lost in
+these thoughts I sat down beside the window, and heeded not the old man
+as he noiselessly left the room.  My thoughts ran on over the strange
+phases in which life presents itself, and how little after all external
+influences have to do with that peace of mind whose origin is within.
+The Indian, whose wigwam is beside the cataract, heeds not its thunders,
+nor feels its sprays as they fall in everlasting dews upon him; the Arab
+of the desert sees no bleakness in those never ending plains, upon whose
+horizon his eye has rested from childhood to age.  Who knows but he who
+inhabits this lonely dwelling may have once shone in the gay world,
+mixing in its follies, tasting of its fascination; and to think that now
+--the low murmurs of the pine tops, the gentle rustle of the water
+through the rank grass, and my own thoughts combining, overcame me at
+length, and I slept--how long I know not; but when I awoke, certain
+changes about showed me that some length of time had elapsed; a gay wood
+fire was burning on the hearth; an ample breakfast covered the table; and
+the broadsheet of the "Times" newspaper was negligently reposing in the
+deep hollow of an arm chair.  Before I had well thought how to apologize
+for the cool insouciance of my intrusion, the door opened, and a tall,
+well built man entered; his shooting jacket and gaiters were evidence of
+his English origin, while a bushy moustache and most ample "Henri quatre"
+nearly concealed features, that still were not quite unknown to me; he
+stopped, looked steadily at me, placed a hand on either shoulder, and
+calling out, "Harry--Harry Lorrequer, by all that's glorious!" rushed
+from the room in a transport of laughter.
+
+If my escape from the gallows depended upon my guessing my friend, I
+should have submitted to the last penalty of the law; never was I so
+completely nonplussed.  Confound him what does he mean by running away
+in that fashion.  It would serve him right were I to decamp by one of
+the windows before he comes back; but hark! some one is approaching.
+
+"I tell you I cannot be mistaken," said the man's voice from without.
+
+"Oh, impossible!" said a lady-like accent that seemed not heard by me for
+the first time.
+
+"Judge for yourself; though certainly the last time you saw him may
+confuse your memory a little."
+
+"What the devil does he mean by that?" said I, as the door opened, and a
+very beautiful young woman came forward, who, after a moment's
+hesitation, called out--
+
+"True, indeed, it is Mr. Lorrequer, but he seems to have forgotten me."
+
+The eyes, the lips, the tone of the voice, were all familiar.  What! can
+it be possible?  Her companion who had now entered, stood behind her,
+holding his sides with ill-suppressed mirth; and at length called out--
+
+"Harry, my boy, you scarcely were more discomposed the last morning we
+parted, when the yellow plush--"
+
+"By Jove it is," said I, as I sprang forward, and seizing my fair friend
+in my arms, saluted upon both cheeks my quondam flame, Miss Kamworth, now
+the wife of my old friend Jack Waller, of whom I have made due mention in
+an early chapter of these Confessions.
+
+Were I given a muster roll of my acquaintance to say which of them might
+inhabit this deserted mansion, Jack Waller would certainly have been the
+last I should have selected--the gay, lively, dashing, high-spirited
+Jack, fond of society, dress, equipage, living greatly in the world,
+known to and liked by every body, of universal reputation.  Did you want
+a cavalier to see your wife through a crush at the opera, a friend in a
+duel, a rider for your kicking horse in a stiff steeple chase, a bow oar
+for your boat at a rowing match, Jack was your man.  Such then was my
+surprise at finding him here, that although there were many things I
+longed to inquire about, my first question was--
+
+"And how came you here?"
+
+"Life has its vicissitudes," replied Jack, laughing; "many stranger
+things have come to pass than my reformation.  But first of all let us
+think of breakfast; you shall have ample satisfaction for all your
+curiosity afterwards."
+
+"Not now, I fear; I am hurrying on to Munich."
+
+"Oh, I perceive; but you are aware that--your friends are not there."
+
+"The Callonbys not at Munich!" said I, with a start.
+
+"No; they have been at Saltzburgh, in the Tyrol, for some weeks; but
+don't fret yourself, they are expected to-morrow in time for the court
+masquerade; so that until then at least you are my guest."
+
+Overjoyed at this information, I turned my attention towards madame,
+whom I found much improved; the embonpoint of womanhood had still farther
+increased the charms of one who had always been handsome; and I could not
+help acknowledging that my friend Jack was warrantable in any scheme for
+securing such a prize.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER L.
+
+JACK WALLER'S STORY.
+
+The day passed quickly over with my newly-found friends, whose curiosity
+to learn my adventures since we parted, anticipated me in my wish to
+learn theirs.  After an early dinner, however, with a fresh log upon the
+hearth, a crusty flask of red hermitage before us, Jack and I found
+ourselves alone and at liberty to speak freely together.
+
+"I scarcely could have expected such would be our meeting, Jack," said I,
+"from the way we last parted."
+
+"Yes, by Jove, Harry; I believe I behaved but shabbily to you in that
+affair; but 'Love and War,' you know; and besides we had a distinct
+agreement drawn up between us."
+
+"All true; and after all you are perhaps less to blame than my own
+miserable fortune that lies in wait to entrap and disappoint me at every
+turn in life.  Tell me what do you know of the Callonbys?"
+
+"Nothing personally; we have met them at dinner, a visit passed
+subsequently between us, 'et voila tout;' they have been scenery hunting,
+picture hunting, and all that sort of thing since their arrival; and
+rarely much in Munich; but how do you stand there? to be or not to be--
+eh?"
+
+"That is the very question of all others I would fain solve; and yet am
+in most complete ignorance of all about it; but the time approaches which
+must decide all.  I have neither temper nor patience for further
+contemplation of it; so here goes; success to the Enterprize."
+
+"Or," said Jack, tossing off his glass at the moment, "or, as they would
+say in Ireland, 'your health and inclinations, if they be virtuous.'"
+
+"And now, Jack, tell me something of your own fortunes since the day you
+passed me in the post-chaise and four."
+
+"The story is soon told.  You remember that when I carried off Mary, I
+had no intention of leaving England whatever: my object was, after making
+her my wife, to open negociations with the old colonel, and after the
+approved routine of penitential letters, imploring forgiveness, and
+setting forth happiness only wanting his sanction to make it heaven
+itself, to have thrown ourselves at his feet 'selon les regles,' sobbed,
+blubbered, blew our noses, and dressed for dinner, very comfortable
+inmates of that particularly snug residence, 'Hydrabad Cottage.'  Now
+Mary, who behaved with great courage for a couple of days, after that got
+low-spirited and depressed; the desertion of her father, as she called
+it, weighed upon her mind, and all my endeavours to rally and comfort
+her, were fruitless and unavailing.  Each day, however, I expected to
+hear something of, or from, the colonel, that would put an end to this
+feeling of suspense; but no--three weeks rolled on, and although I took
+care that he knew of our address, we never received any communication.
+You are aware that when I married, I knew Mary had, or was to have, a
+large fortune; and that I myself had not more than enough in the world
+to pay the common expenses of our wedding tour.  My calculation was this
+--the reconciliation will possibly, what with delays of post--distance--
+and deliberation, take a month--say five weeks--now, at forty pounds per
+week, that makes exactly two hundred pounds--such being the precise limit
+of my exchequer, when blessed with a wife, a man, and a maid, three
+imperials, a cap-case, and a poodle, I arrived at the Royal Hotel, in
+Edinburgh.  Had I been Lord Francis Egerton, with his hundred thousand a
+year, looking for a new 'distraction,' at any price; or still more--were
+I a London shopkeeper, spending a Sunday in Boulogne sur Mer, and trying
+to find out something expensive, as he had only one day to stay, I could
+not have more industriously sought out opportunities for extravagance,
+and each day contrived to find out some two or three acquaintances to
+bring home to dinner.  And as I affected to have been married for a long
+time, Mary felt less genee among strangers, and we got on famously; still
+the silence of the colonel weighed upon her mind, and although she
+partook of none of my anxieties from that source, being perfectly
+ignorant of the state of my finances, she dwelt so constantly upon this
+subject, that I at length yielded to her repeated solicitations, and
+permitted her to write to her father.  Her letter was a most proper one;
+combining a dutiful regret for leaving her home, with the hope that her
+choice had been such as to excuse her rashness, or, at least, palliate
+her fault.  It went to say, that her father's acknowledgment of her, was
+all she needed or cared for, to complete her happiness, and asking for
+his permission to seek it in person.  This was the substance of the
+letter, which upon the whole, satisfied me, and I waited anxiously for
+the reply.  At the end of five days the answer arrived.  It was thus:--
+
+     "'Dear Mary,
+
+     "'You have chosen your own path in life, and having done so, I have
+     neither the right nor inclination to interfere with your decision;
+     I shall neither receive you, nor the person you have made your
+     husband; and to prevent any further disappointment, inform you that,
+     as I leave this to-morrow, any future letters you might think proper
+     to address, will not reach me.
+
+                              "'Yours very faithful,
+                                        C. Kamworth, Hydrabad Cottage.'
+
+"This was a tremendous coup, and not in the least anticipated by either
+of us; upon me the effect was stunning, knowing, as I did, that our fast-
+diminishing finances were nearly expended.  Mary on the other hand, who
+neither knew nor thought of the exchequer, rallied at once from her
+depression, and after a hearty fit of crying, dried her eyes, and putting
+her arm round my neck, said:
+
+"'Well, Jack, I must only love you the more, since papa will not share
+any of my affection.'
+
+"'I wish he would his purse though,' muttered I, as I pressed her in my
+arms, and strove to seem perfectly happy.
+
+"I shall not prolong my story by dwelling upon the agitation this letter
+cost me; however, I had yet a hundred pounds left, and an aunt in Harley-
+street, with whom I had always been a favourite.  This thought, the only
+rallying one I possessed, saved me for the time; and as fretting was
+never my forte, I never let Mary perceive that any thing had gone wrong,
+and managed so well in this respect, that my good spirits raised her's,
+and we set out for London one fine sunshiny morning, as happy a looking
+couple as ever travelled the north road.
+
+"When we arrived at the 'Clarendon,' my first care was to get into a cab,
+and drive to Harley-street.  I rung the bell; and not waiting to ask if
+my aunt was at home, I dashed up stairs to the drawing-room; in I bolted,
+and instead of the precise old Lady Lilford, sitting at her embroidery,
+with her fat poodle beside her, beheld a strapping looking fellow, with a
+black moustache, making fierce love to a young lady on a sofa beside him.
+
+"'Why, how is this--I really--there must be some mistake here.'  In my
+heart I knew that such doings in my good aunt's dwelling were impossible.
+
+"'I should suspect there is, sir,' drawled out he of the moustache, as he
+took a very cool survey of me, through his glass.
+
+"'Is Lady Lilford at home, may I ask,' said I, in a very apologetic tone
+of voice.
+
+"'I haven't the honor of her ladyship's acquaintance,' replied he in a
+lisp, evidently enjoying my perplexity, which was every moment becoming
+more evident.
+
+"'But this is her house,' said I, 'at least--'
+
+"'Lady Lilford is at Paris, sir,' said the young lady, who now spoke for
+the first time.  'Papa has taken the house for the season, and that may
+perhaps account for your mistake.'
+
+"What I muttered by way of apology for my intrusion, I know not; but I
+stammered--the young lady blushed--the beau chuckled, and turned to the
+window, and when I found myself in the street, I scarcely knew whether to
+laugh at my blunder, or curse my disappointment.
+
+"The next morning I called upon my aunt's lawyer, and having obtained her
+address in Paris, sauntered to the 'Junior Club,' to write her a letter
+before post hour.  As I scanned over the morning papers, I could not help
+smiling at the flaming paragraph which announced my marriage, to the only
+daughter and heiress of the Millionaire, Colonel Kamworth.  Not well
+knowing how to open the correspondence with my worthy relative, I folded
+the paper containing the news, and addressed it to 'Lady Lilford, Hotel
+de Bristol, Paris.'
+
+"When I arrived at the 'Clarendon,' I found my wife and her maid
+surrounded by cases and band-boxes; laces, satins and velvets were
+displayed on all sides, while an emissary from 'Storr and Mortimer' was
+arranging a grand review of jewellery on a side table, one half of which
+would have ruined the Rajah of Mysore, to purchase.  My advice was
+immediately called into requisition; and pressed into service, I had
+nothing left for it, but to canvass, criticise, and praise, between
+times, which I did, with a good grace, considering that I anticipated the
+'Fleet,' for every flounce of Valenciennes lace; and could not help
+associating a rich diamond aigrette, with hard labour for life, and the
+climate of New South Wales.  The utter abstraction I was in, led to some
+awkward contre temps; and as my wife's enthusiasm for her purchases
+increased, so did my reverie gain ground.
+
+"'Is it not beautiful, Jack?--how delicately worked--it must have taken a
+long time to do it.'
+
+"'Seven years,' I muttered, as my thoughts ran upon a very different
+topic.
+
+"'Oh, no--not so much,' said she laughing; 'and it must be such a hard
+thing to do.'
+
+"'Not half so hard as carding wool, or pounding oyster shells.'
+
+"'How absurd you are.  Well, I'll take this, it will look so well in--'
+
+"'Botany Bay,' said I, with a sigh that set all the party laughing, which
+at last roused me, and enabled me to join in the joke.
+
+"As, at length, one half of the room became filled with millinery, and
+the other glittered with jewels and bijouterie, my wife grew weary with
+her exertions, and we found ourselves alone.
+
+"When I told her that my aunt had taken up her residence in Paris, it
+immediately occurred to her, how pleasant it would be to go there too;
+and, although I concurred in the opinion for very different reasons, it
+was at length decided we should do so; and the only difficulty now
+existed as to the means, for although the daily papers teem with 'four
+ways to go from London to Paris;' they all resolved themselves into one,
+and that one, unfortunately to me, the most difficult and impracticable--
+by money.
+
+"There was, however, one last resource open--the sale of my commission.
+I will not dwell upon what it cost me to resolve upon this--the
+determination was a painful one, but it was soon come to, and before
+five-o'clock that day, Cox and Greenwood had got their instructions to
+sell out for me, and had advanced a thousand pounds of the purchase.  Our
+bill settled--the waiters bowing to the ground (it is your ruined man
+that is always most liberal)--the post-horses harnessed, and impatient
+for the road, I took my place beside my wife, while my valet held a
+parasol over the soubrette in the rumble, all in the approved fashion of
+those who have an unlimited credit with Coutts and Drummond; the whips
+cracked, the leaders capered, and with a patronizing bow to the
+proprietor of the 'Clarendon,' away we rattled to Dover.
+
+"After the usual routine of sea sickness, fatigue, and poisonous cookery,
+we reached Paris on the fifth day, and put up at the 'Hotel de Londres,'
+Place Vendome.
+
+"To have an adequate idea of the state of my feelings as I trod the
+splendid apartments of this princely Hotel, surrounded by every luxury
+that wealth can procure, or taste suggest, you must imagine the condition
+of a man, who is regaled with a sumptuous banquet on the eve of his
+execution.  The inevitable termination to all my present splendour, was
+never for a moment absent from my thoughts, and the secrecy with which I
+was obliged to conceal my feelings, formed one of the greatest sources of
+my misery.  The coup, when it does come, will be sad enough, and poor
+Mary may as well have the comfort of the deception, as long as it lasts,
+without suffering as I do.  Such was the reasoning by which I met every
+resolve to break to her the real state of our finances, and such the
+frame of mind in which I spent my days at Paris, the only really unhappy
+ones I can ever charge my memory with.
+
+"We had scarcely got settled in the hotel, when my aunt, who inhabited
+the opposite side of the 'Place,' came over to see us and wish us joy.
+She had seen the paragraph in the Post, and like all other people with
+plenty of money, fully approved a match like mine.
+
+"She was delighted with Mary, and despite the natural reserve of the old
+maiden lady, became actually cordial, and invited us to dine with her
+that day, and every succeeding one we might feel disposed to do so.  So
+far so well, thought I, as I offered her my arm to see her home; but if
+she knew of what value even this small attention is to us, am I quite so
+sure she would offer it?--however, no time is to be lost; I cannot live
+in this state of hourly agitation; I must make some one the confidant of
+my sorrows, and none so fit as she who can relieve as well as advise upon
+them.  Although such was my determination, yet somehow I could not pluck
+up courage for the effort.  My aunt's congratulations upon my good luck,
+made me shrink from the avowal; and while she ran on upon the beauty and
+grace of my wife, topics I fully concurred in, I also chimed in with her
+satisfaction at the prudential and proper motives which led to the match.
+Twenty times I was on the eve of interrupting her, and saying, 'But,
+madam, I am a beggar--my wife has not a shilling--I have absolutely
+nothing--her father disowns us--my commission is sold, and in three
+weeks, the 'Hotel de Londres' and the 'Palais Royale,' will be some
+hundred pounds the richer, and I without the fare of a cab, to drive me
+to the Seine to drown myself.'
+
+"Such were my thoughts; but whenever I endeavoured to speak them, some
+confounded fulness in my throat nearly choked me; my temples throbbed, my
+hands trembled, and whether it was shame, or the sickness of despair, I
+cannot say; but the words would not come, and all that I could get out
+was some flattery of my wife's beauty, or some vapid eulogy upon my own
+cleverness in securing such a prize.  To give you in one brief sentence
+an idea of my state, Harry--know, then, that though loving Mary with all
+my heart and soul, as I felt she deserved to be loved, fifty times a day
+I would have given my life itself that you had been the successful man,
+on the morning I carried her off, and that Jack Waller was once more a
+bachelor, to see the only woman he ever loved, the wife of another.
+
+"But, this is growing tedious, Harry, I must get over the ground faster;
+two months passed over at Paris, during which we continued to live at
+the 'Londres,' giving dinners, soirees, dejeuners, with the prettiest
+equipage in the 'Champs Elysees,' we were quite the mode; my wife, which
+is rare enough for an Englishwoman, knew how to dress herself.  Our
+evening parties were the most recherche things going, and if I were
+capable of partaking of any pleasure in the eclat, I had my share, having
+won all the pigeon matches in the Bois de Boulegard, and beat Lord Henry
+Seymour himself in a steeple chase.  The continual round of occupation in
+which pleasure involves a man, is certainly its greatest attraction--
+reflection is impossible--the present is too full to admit any of the
+past, and very little of the future; and even I, with all my terrors
+awaiting me, began to feel a half indifference to the result in the
+manifold cares of my then existence.  To this state of fatalism, for
+such it was becoming, had I arrived, when the vision was dispelled in
+a moment, by a visit from my aunt, who came to say, that some business
+requiring her immediate presence in London, she was to set out that
+evening, but hoped to find us in Paris on her return.  I was
+thunderstruck at the news, for, although as yet I had obtained no manner
+of assistance from the old lady, yet, I felt that her very presence was a
+kind of security to us, and that in every sudden emergency, she was there
+to apply to.  My money was nearly expended, the second and last
+instalment of my commission was all that remained, and much of even that
+I owed to trades-people.  I now resolved to speak out--the worst must be
+known, thought I, in a few days--and now or never be it.  So saying, I
+drew my aunt's arm within my own, and telling her that I wished a few
+minutes conversation alone, led her to one of the less frequented walks
+in the Tuilleries gardens.  When we had got sufficiently far to be
+removed from all listeners, I began then--'my dearest aunt, what I have
+suffered in concealing from you so long, the subject of my present
+confession, will plead as my excuse in not making you sooner my
+confidante.'  When I had got thus far, the agitation of my aunt was such,
+that I could not venture to say more for a minute or two.  At length, she
+said, in a kind of hurried whisper, 'go on;' and although then I would
+have given all I possessed in the world to have continued, I could not
+speak a word.
+
+"'Dear John, what is it, any thing about Mary--for heavens sake speak.'
+
+"'Yes,' dearest aunt, 'it is about Mary, and entirely about Mary.'
+
+"'Ah, dear me, I feared it long since; but then, John, consider she is
+very handsome--very much admired--and--'
+
+"'That makes it all the heavier, my dear aunt--the prouder her present
+position, the more severely will she feel the reverse.'
+
+"'Oh, but surely, John, your fears must exaggerate the danger.'
+
+"'Nothing of the kind--I have not words to tell you--'
+
+"'Oh dear, oh dear, don't say so,' said the old lady blushing, 'for
+though I have often remarked a kind of gay flirting manner she has with
+men--I am sure she means nothing by it--she is so young--and so--'
+
+"I stopped, stepped forward, and looking straight in my aunt's face,
+broke out into a fit of laughter, that she, mistaking for hysterical
+from its violence, nearly fainted upon the spot.
+
+"As soon as I could sufficiently recover gravity to explain to my aunt
+her mistake, I endeavoured to do so, but so ludicrous was the contre
+temps, and so ashamed the old lady for her gratuitous suspicions, that
+she would not listen to a word, and begged me to return to her hotel.
+Such an unexpected turn to my communication routed all my plans, and
+after a very awkward silence of some minutes on both sides, I mumbled
+something about our expensive habits of life, costly equipage, number of
+horses, &c., and hinted at the propriety of retrenchment.
+
+"'Mary rides beautifully,' said my aunt, drily.'
+
+"'Yes, but my dear aunt, it was not exactly of that I was going to speak,
+for in fact--'
+
+"Oh John,' said she, interrupting--'I know your delicacy too well to
+suspect; but, in fact, I have myself perceived what you allude to, and
+wished very much to have some conversation with you on the subject.'
+
+"'Thank God,' said I to myself, 'at length, we understand each other--and
+the ice is broken at last.'
+
+"'Indeed, I think I have anticipated your wish in the matter; but as time
+presses, and I must look after all my packing, I shall say good by for a
+few weeks, and in the evening, Jepson, who stays here, will bring you,
+"what I mean," over to your hotel; once more, then, good by.'
+
+"'Good by, my dearest, kindest friend,' said I, taking a most tender
+adieu of the old lady.  'What an excellent creature she is,' said I, half
+aloud, as I turned towards home--'how considerate, how truly kind--to
+spare me too all the pain of explanation.  Now I begin to breathe once
+more.  If there be a flask of Johannisberg in the "Londres," I'll drink
+your health this day, and so shall Mary;' so saying, I entered the hotel
+with a lighter heart, and a firmer step than ever it had been my fortune
+to do hitherto.
+
+"'We shall miss the old lady, I'm sure, Mary, she is so kind.'
+
+"'Oh! indeed she is; but then, John, she is such a prude.'
+
+"Now I could not help recurring in my mind to some of the conversation in
+the Tuilleries garden, and did not feel exactly at ease.
+
+"'Such a prude, and so very old-fashioned in her notions.'
+
+"'Yes, Mary,' said I, with more gravity than she was prepared for, 'she
+is a prude; but I am not certain that in foreign society, where less
+liberties are tolerated than in our country, if such a bearing be not
+wiser.'  What I was going to plunge into, heaven knows, for the waiter
+entered at the moment, and presenting me with a large and carefully
+sealed package, said, 'de la part de mi ladi Lilfore,'--'but stay, here
+comes, if I am not mistaken, a better eulogy upon my dear aunt, than any
+I can pronounce.'
+
+"How heavy it is, said I to myself, balancing the parcel in my hand.
+'There is no answer,' said I, aloud to the waiter, who stood as if
+expecting one.
+
+"'The servant wishes to have some acknowledgment in writing, sir, that it
+has been delivered into your own hands.'
+
+"Jepson entered,--'well, George, your parcel is all right, and here is a
+Napoleon to drink my health.'
+
+"Scarcely had the servants left the room, when Mary, whose curiosity was
+fully roused, rushed over, and tried to get the packet from me; after a
+short struggle, I yielded, and she flew to the end of the room, and
+tearing open the seals, several papers fell to the ground; before I could
+have time to snatch them up, she had read some lines written on the
+envelope, and turning towards me, threw her arms arouind my neck, and
+said, 'yes Jack, she is, indeed, all you have said; look here,' I turned
+and read--with what feeling I leave to you to guess--the following:--
+
+"'Dear Nephew and Niece,
+
+"'The enclosed will convey to you, with my warmest wishes for your
+happiness, a ticket on the Francfort Lottery, of which I inclose the
+scheme.  I also take the opportunity of saying that I have purchased the
+Hungarian pony for Mary--which we spoke of this morning.  It is at
+Johnston's stable, and will be delivered on sending for it.'
+
+"'Think of that, Jack, the Borghese poney, with the silky tail; mine--Oh!
+what a dear good old soul; it was the very thing of all others I longed
+for, for they told me the princess had refused every offer for it.'
+
+"While Mary ran on in this strain, I sat mute and stupified; the sudden
+reverse my hopes had sustained, deprived me, for a moment, of all
+thought, and it was several minutes before I could rightly take in the
+full extent of my misfortunes.
+
+"How that crazy old maid, for such, alas, I called her to myself now,
+could have so blundered all my meaning--how she could so palpably have
+mistaken, I could not conceive; what a remedy for a man overwhelmed with
+debt--a ticket in a German lottery, and a cream-coloured pony, as if my
+whole life had not been one continued lottery, with every day a blank;
+and as to horses, I had eleven in my stables already.  Perhaps she
+thought twelve would read better in my schedule, when I, next week,
+surrendered as insolvent.
+
+"Unable to bear the delight, the childish delight of Mary, on her new
+acquisition, I rushed out of the house, and wandered for several hours in
+the Boulevards.  At last I summoned up courage to tell my wife.  I once
+more turned towards home, and entered her dressing-room, where she was
+having her hair dressed for a ball at the Embassy.  My resolution failed
+me--not now thought I--to-morrow will do as well--one night more of
+happiness for her and then--I looked on with pleasure and pride, as
+ornament after ornament, brilliant with diamonds and emeralds, shone in
+her hair, and upon her arms, still heightened her beauty, and lit up with
+a dazzling brilliancy her lovely figure.--But it must come--and whenever
+the hour arrives--the reverse will be fully as bitter; besides I am able
+now--and when I may again be so, who can tell--now then be it, said I, as
+I told the waiting-maid to retire; and taking a chair beside my wife, put
+my arm round her.
+
+"'There, John dearest, take care; don't you see you'll crush all that
+great affair of Malines lace, that Rosette has been breaking her heart to
+manage this half hour.'
+
+"'Et puis,' said I.
+
+"'Et puis.  I could not go to the ball, naughty boy.  I am bent on great
+conquest to-night; so pray don't mar such good intentions.'
+
+"'And you should be greatly disappointed were you not to go?'
+
+"'Of course I should; but what do you mean; is there any reason why I
+should not?  You are silent, John--speak--oh speak--has any thing
+occurred to my--'
+
+"'No, no, dearest--nothing that I know has occurred to the Colonel.'
+
+"'Well then, who is it?  Oh tell me at once.'
+
+"'Oh, my dear, there is no one in the case but ourselves;' so saying,
+despite the injunction about the lace, I drew her towards me, and in as
+few words, but as clearly as I was able, explained all our circumstances
+--my endeavour to better them--my hopes--my fears--and now my bitter
+disappointment, if not despair.
+
+"The first shock over, Mary showed not only more courage, but more
+sound sense than I could have believed.  All the frivolity of her former
+character vanished at the first touch of adversity; just as of old,
+Harry, we left the tinsel of our gay jackets behind, when active service
+called upon us for something more sterling.  She advised, counselled, and
+encouraged me by turns; and in half an hour the most poignant regret I
+had was in not having sooner made her my confidante, and checked the
+progress of our enormous expenditure somewhat earlier.
+
+"I shall not now detain you much longer.  In three weeks we sold our
+carriages and horses, our pictures, (we had begun this among our other
+extravagances,) and our china followed; and under the plea of health set
+out for Baden; not one among our Paris acquaintances ever suspecting the
+real reason of our departure, and never attributing any monied
+difficulties to us--for we paid our debts.
+
+"The same day we left Paris, I despatched a letter to my aunt, explaining
+fully all about us, and suggesting that as I had now left the army for
+ever, perhaps she would interest some of her friends--and she has
+powerful ones--to do something for me.
+
+"After some little loitering on the Rhine, we fixed upon Hesse Cassel for
+our residence.  It was very quiet--very cheap.  The country around
+picturesque, and last but not least, there was not an Englishman in the
+neighbourhood.  The second week after our arrival brought us letters from
+my aunt.  She had settled four hundred a year upon us for the present,
+and sent the first year in advance; promised us a visit as soon as we
+were ready to receive her; and pledged herself not to forget when an
+opportunity of serving me should offer.
+
+"From that moment to this," said Jack, "all has gone well with us.  We
+have, it is true, not many luxuries, but we have no wants, and better
+still, no debts.  The dear old aunt is always making us some little
+present or other; and somehow I have a kind of feeling that better luck
+is still in store; but faith, Harry, as long as I have a happy home, and
+a warm fireside, for a friend when he drops in upon me, I scarcely can
+say that better luck need be wished for."
+
+"There is only one point, Jack, you have not enlightened me upon, how
+came you here?  You are some hundred miles from Hesse, in your present
+chateau."
+
+"Oh! by Jove, that was a great omission in my narrative; but come, this
+will explain it; see here"--so saying, he drew from a little drawer a
+large lithographic print of a magnificent castellated building, with
+towers and bastions, keep, moat, and even draw-bridge, and the walls
+bristled with cannon, and an eagled banner floated proudly above them.
+
+"What in the name of the Sphynxes is this?"
+
+"There," said Jack, "is the Schloss von Eberhausen; or, if you like it in
+English, Eberhausen Castle, as it was the year of the deluge; for the
+present mansion that we are now sipping our wine in bears no very close
+resemblance to it.  But to make the mystery clear, this was the great
+prize in the Francfort lottery, the ticket of which my aunt's first note
+contained, and which we were fortunate enough to win.  We have only been
+here a few weeks, and though the affair looks somewhat meagre, we have
+hopes that in a little time, and with some pains, much may be done to
+make it habitable.  There is a capital chasses of some hundred acres;
+plenty of wood and innumerable rights, seignorial, memorial, &c., which,
+fortunately for my neighbours, I neither understand nor care for; and we
+are therefore the best friends in the world.  Among others I am styled
+the graf or count--."
+
+"Well, then, Monsieur Le Comte, do you intend favouring me with your
+company at coffee this evening; for already it is ten o'clock; and
+considering my former claim upon Mr. Lorrequer, you have let me enjoy
+very little of his society."
+
+We now adjourned to the drawing-room, where we gossipped away till past
+midnight; and I retired to my room, meditating over Jack's adventures,
+and praying in my heart, that despite all his mischances, my own might
+end as happily.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LI.
+
+MUNICH.
+
+The rest and quietness of the preceding day had so far recovered me from
+the effects of my accident, that I resolved, as soon as breakfast was
+over, to take leave of my kind friends, and set out for Munich.
+
+"We shall meet to-night, Harry," said Waller, as we parted--"we shall
+meet at the Casino--and don't forget that the Croix Blanche is your
+hotel; and Schnetz, the tailor, in the Grande Place, will provide you
+with every thing you need in the way of dress."
+
+This latter piece of information was satisfactory, inasmuch as the
+greater part of my luggage, containing my uniform, &c., had been left in
+the French diligence; and as the ball was patronised by the court, I was
+greatly puzzled how to make my appearance.
+
+Bad roads and worse horses made me feel the few leagues I had to go the
+most tiresome part of my journey.  But, of course, in this feeling
+impatience had its share.  A few hours more, and my fate should be
+decided; and yet I thought the time would never come.  If the Callonbys
+should not arrive--if, again, my evil star be in the ascendant, and any
+new impediment to our meeting arise--but I cannot, will not, think this--
+Fortune must surely be tired of persecuting me by this time, and, even to
+sustain her old character for fickleness, must befriend me now.  Ah! here
+we are in Munich--and this is the Croix Blanche--what a dingy old
+mansion!  Beneath a massive porch, supported by heavy stone pillars,
+stood the stout figure of Andreas Behr, the host.  A white napkin,
+fastened in one button-hole, and hanging gracefully down beside him--a
+soup-ladle held sceptre-wise in his right hand, and the grinding motion
+of his nether jaw, all showed that he had risen from his table d'hote to
+welcome the new arrival; and certainly, if noise and uproar might explain
+the phenomenon, the clatter of my equipage over the pavement might have
+risen the dead.
+
+While my postillion was endeavouring, by mighty efforts, with a heavy
+stone, to turn the handle of the door, and thus liberate me from my cage,
+I perceived that the host came forward and said something to him--on
+replying, to which, he ceased his endeavours to open the door, and looked
+vacantly about him.  Upon this I threw down the sash, and called out--
+
+"I say, is not this the Croix Blanche?"
+
+"Ya," said the man-mountain with the napkin.
+
+"Well, then, open the door, pray--I'm going to stop here."
+
+"Nein."
+
+"No!  What do you mean by that?  Has not Lord Callonby engaged rooms
+here?"
+
+"Ya."
+
+"Well, then, I am a particular friend of his, and will stay here also."
+
+"Nein."
+
+"What the devil are you at, with your ya and nein?" said I.  "Has your
+confounded tongue nothing better than a monosyllable to reply with."
+
+Whether disliking the tone the controversy was assuming, or remembering
+that his dinner waited, I know not, but at these words my fat friend
+turned leisurely round, and waddled back into the house; where, in a
+moment after, I had the pleasure of beholding him at the head of a long
+table, distributing viands with a very different degree of activity from
+what he displayed in dialogue.
+
+With one vigorous jerk, I dashed open the door, upsetting, at the same
+time, the poor postillion, who had recommenced his operations on the
+lock, and, foaming with passion, strode into the "salle a manger."
+Nothing is such an immediate damper to any sudden explosion of temper, as
+the placid and unconcerned faces of a number of people, who, ignorant of
+yourself and your peculiar miseries at the moment, seem only to regard
+you as a madman.  This I felt strongly, as, flushed in face and tingling
+in my fingers, I entered the room.
+
+"Take my luggage," said I to a gaping waiter, "and place a chair there,
+do you hear?"
+
+There seemed, I suppose, something in my looks that did not admit of much
+parley, for the man made room for me at once at the table, and left the
+room, as if to discharge the other part of my injunction, without saying
+a word.  As I arranged my napkin before me, I was collecting my energies
+and my German, as well as I was able, for the attack of the host, which,
+I anticipated from his recent conduct, must now ensue; but, greatly to my
+surprise, he sent me my soup without a word, and the dinner went on
+without any interruption.  When the desert had made its appearance, I
+beckoned the waiter towards me, and asked what the landlord meant by his
+singular reception of me.  The man shrugged his shoulders, and raised his
+eyebrows, without speaking, as if to imply, "it's his way."
+
+"Well, then, no matter," said I.  "Have you sent my luggage up stairs?"
+
+"No, sir, there is no room--the house is full."
+
+"The house full!  Confound it--this is too provoking.  I have most urgent
+reasons for wishing to stay here.  Cannot you make some arrangement--see
+about it, waiter."  I here slipped a Napoleon into the fellow's hand, and
+hinted that as much more awaited the finale of the negociation.
+
+In about a minute after, I perceived him behind the host's chair,
+pleading my cause with considerable energy; but to my complete chagrin,
+I heard the other answer all his eloquence by a loud "Nein," that he
+grunted out in such a manner as closed the conference.
+
+"I cannot succeed, sir," said the man, as he passed behind me, "but don't
+leave the house till I speak with you again."
+
+What confounded mystery is there in all this, thought I.  Is there any
+thing so suspicious in my look or appearance, that the old bear in the
+fur cap will not even admit me.  What can it all mean.  One thing I'm
+resolved upon--nothing less than force shall remove me.
+
+So saying I lit my cigar, and in order to give the waiter an opportunity
+of conferring with me unobserved by his master, walked out into the porch
+and sat down.
+
+In a few minutes he joined me, and after a stealthy look on each side,
+said--
+
+"The Herr Andreas is a hard man to deal with, and when he says a thing,
+never goes back of it.  Now he has been expecting the new English Charge
+d'Affaires here these last ten days, and has kept the hotel half empty in
+consequence; and as mi Lor Callonby has engaged the other half, why we
+have nothing to do; so that when he asked the postillion if you were mi
+Lor, and found that you were not, he determined not to admit you."
+
+"But why not have the civility to explain that?"
+
+"He seldom speaks, and when he does only a word or two at a time.  He is
+quite tired with what he has gone through to-day, and will retire very
+early to bed; and for this reason I have requested you to remain, for as
+he never ventures up stairs, I will then manage to give you one of the
+ambassador's rooms, which, even if he come, he'll never miss.  So that if
+you keep quiet, and do not attract any particular attention towards you,
+all will go well."
+
+This advice seemed so reasonable, that I determined to follow it--any
+inconvenience being preferable, provided I could be under the same roof
+with my beloved Jane; and from the waiter's account, there seemed no
+doubt whatever of their arrival that evening.  In order, therefore, to
+follow his injunctions to the letter, I strolled out toward the Place in
+search of the tailor, and also to deliver a letter from Waller to the
+chamberlain, to provide me with a card for the ball.  Monsieur Schnetz,
+who was the very pinnacle of politeness, was nevertheless, in fact,
+nearly as untractable as my host of the "Cross."  All his "sujets" were
+engaged in preparing a suit for the English Charge d'Affaires, whose
+trunks had been sent in a wrong direction, and who had despatched a
+courier from Frankfort, to order a uniform.  This second thwarting, and
+from the same source, so nettled me, that I greatly fear, all my respect
+for the foreign office and those who live thereby, would not have saved
+them from something most unlike a blessing, had not Monsieur Schnetz
+saved diplomacy from such desecration by saying, that if I could content
+myself with a plain suit, such as civilians wore, he would do his
+endeavour to accommodate me.
+
+"Any thing, Monsieur Schnetz--dress me like the Pope's Nuncio, or the
+Mayor of London, if you like, but only enable me to go."
+
+Although my reply did not seem to convey a very exalted idea of my taste
+in costume to the worthy artiste, it at least evinced my anxiety for the
+ball; and running his measure over me, he assured me that the dress he
+would provide was both well looking and becoming; adding, "At nine
+o'clock, sir, you'll have it--exactly the same size as his Excellency the
+Charge d'Affaires."
+
+"Confound the Charge d'Affaires!" I added, and left the house.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LII.
+
+INN AT MUNICH.
+
+As I had never been in Munich before, I strolled about the town till
+dusk.  At that time the taste of the present king had not enriched the
+capital with the innumerable objects of art which render it now second to
+none in Europe.  There were, indeed, then but few attractions--narrow
+streets, tall, unarchitectural-looking houses, and gloomy, unimpressive
+churches.  Tired of this, I turned towards my inn, wondering in my mind
+if Antoine had succeeded in procuring me the room, or whether yet I
+should be obliged to seek my lodging elsewhere.  Scarcely had I entered
+the porch, when I found him waiting my arrival, candle in hand.  He
+conducted me at once up the wide oaken stair, then along the gallery,
+into a large wainscotted room, with a most capacious bed.  A cheerful
+wood fire burned and crackled away in the grate--the cloth was already
+spread for supper--(remember it was in Germany)--the newspapers of the
+day were placed before me--and, in a word, every attention showed that I
+had found the true avenue to Antoine's good graces, who now stood bowing
+before me, in apparent ecstasy at his own cleverness.
+
+"All very well done, Antoine, and now for supper--order it yourself for
+me--I never can find my way in a German 'carte de diner;' and be sure to
+have a fiacre here at nine--nine precisely."
+
+Antoine withdrew, leaving me to my own reflections, which now, if not
+gloomy, were still of the most anxious kind.
+
+Scarcely was the supper placed upon the table, when a tremendous tramping
+of horses along the street, and loud cracking of whips, announced a new
+arrival.
+
+"Here they are," said I, as, springing up, I upset the soup, and nearly
+threw the roti into Antoine's face, as he was putting it before me.
+
+Down stairs I rushed, through the hall, pushing aside waiters and
+overturning chambermaids in my course.  The carriage was already at the
+door.  Now for a surprise, thought I, as I worked through the crowd in
+the porch, and reached the door just as the steps were clattered down,
+and a gentleman began to descend, whom twenty expectant voices, now
+informed of his identity, welcomed as the new Charge d'Affaires.
+
+"May all the--"
+
+What I wished for his excellency it would not be polite to repeat, nor
+most discreet even to remember; but, certes, I mounted the stairs with as
+little good will towards the envoy extraordinary as was consistent with
+due loyalty.
+
+When once more in my room, I congratulated myself that now at least no
+more "false starts" could occur--"the eternal Charge d'Affaires, of whom
+I have been hearing since my arrival, cannot come twice--he is here now,
+and I hope I'm done with him."
+
+The supper--some greasiness apart--was good--the wine excellent.  My
+spirits were gradually rising, and I paced my room in that mingled state
+of hope and fear, that amid all its anxieties, has such moments of
+ecstasy.  A new noise without--some rabble in the street; hark, it comes
+nearer--I hear the sound of wheels; yes, there go the horses--nearer and
+nearer.  Ah, it is dying away again--stay--yes, yes--here it is--here
+they are.  The noise and tumult without now increased every instant--the
+heavy trot of six or eight horses shook the very street, and I heard the
+round, dull, rumbling sound of a heavy carriage, as it drew up at last at
+the door of the inn.  Why it was I know not, but this time I could not
+stir--my heart beat almost loud enough for me to hear--my temples
+throbbed, and then a cold and clammy perspiration came over me, and I
+sank into a chair.  Fearing that I was about to faint, sick as I was, I
+felt angry with myself, and tried to rally, but could not, and only at
+length was roused by hearing that the steps were let down, and shortly
+after the tread of feet coming along the gallery towards my room.
+
+They are coming--she is coming, thought I.  Now then for my doom!
+
+There was some noise of voices outside.  I listened, for I still felt
+unable to rise.  The talking grew louder--doors were opened and shut--
+then came a lull--then more slamming of doors, and more talking--then all
+was still again--and at last I heard the steps of people as if retiring,
+and in a few minutes after the carriage door was jammed to, and again the
+heavy tramp of the horses rattled over the pave.  At this instant Antoine
+entered.
+
+"Well, Antoine," said I, in a voice trembling with weakness and
+agitation, "not them yet?"
+
+"It was his Grace the Grand Mareschal," said Antoine, scarcely heeding my
+question, in the importance of the illustrious visitor who had arrived.
+
+"Ah, the Grand Mareschal," said I, carelessly; "does he live here?"
+
+"Sappermint nein, Mein Herr; but he has just been to pay his respects to
+his Excellency the new Charge d'Affaires."
+
+In the name of all patience, I ask, who could endure this?  From the hour
+of my arrival I am haunted by this one image--the Charge d'Affaires.  For
+him I have been almost condemned to go houseless, and naked; and now the
+very most sacred feelings of my heart are subject to his influence.  I
+walked up and down in an agony.  Another such disappointment, and my
+brain will turn, thought I, and they may write my epitaph--"Died of love
+and a Charge d'Affaires."
+
+"It is time to dress," said the waiter.
+
+"I could strangle him with my own hands," muttered I, worked up into a
+real heat by the excitement of my passion.
+
+"The Charge--"
+
+"Say that name again, villain, and I'll blow your brains out," cried I,
+seizing Antoine by the throat, and pinning him against the wall; "only
+dare to mutter it, and you'll ever breathe another syllable."
+
+The poor fellow grew green with terror, and fell upon his knees before
+me.
+
+"Get my dressing things ready," said I, in a more subdued tone.  "I did
+not mean to terrify you--but beware of what I told you."
+
+While Antoine occupied himself with the preparations for my toilette, I
+sat broodingly over the wood embers, thinking of my fate.
+
+A knock came to the door.  It was the tailor's servant with my clothes.
+He laid down the parcel and retired, while Antoine proceeded to open it,
+and exhibit before me a blue uniform with embroidered collar and cuffs--
+the whole, without being gaudy, being sufficiently handsome, and quite as
+showy as I could wish.
+
+The poor waiter expressed his unqualified approval of the costume, and
+talked away about the approaching ball as something pre-eminently
+magnificent.
+
+"You had better look after the fiacre, Antoine," said I; "it is past
+nine."
+
+He walked towards the door, opened it, and then, turning round, said, in
+a kind of low, confidential whisper, pointing, with the thumb of his left
+hand, towards the wall of the room as he spoke--
+
+"He won't go--very strange that."
+
+"Who do you mean?" said I, quite unconscious of the allusion.
+
+"The Charge d'Aff--"
+
+I made one spring at him, but he slammed the door to, and before I could
+reach the lobby, I heard him rolling from top to bottom of the oak
+staircase, making noise enough in his fall to account for the fracture of
+every bone in his body.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LIII.
+
+THE BALL.
+
+As I was informed that the King would himself be present at the ball, I
+knew that German etiquette required that the company should arrive before
+his Majesty; and although now every minute I expected the arrival of the
+Callonbys, I dared not defer my departure any longer.
+
+"They are certain to be at the ball," said Waller, and that sentence
+never left my mind.
+
+So saying, I jumped into the fiacre, and in a few minutes found myself in
+the long line of carriages that led to the "Hof saal."  Any one who has
+been in Munich will testify for me, that the ball room is one of the most
+beautiful in Europe, and to me who for some time had not been living much
+in the world, its splendour was positively dazzling.  The glare of the
+chandeliers--the clang of the music--the magnificence of the dresses--the
+beauty of the Bavarian women too, all surprized and amazed me.  There
+were several hundred people present, but the king not having yet arrived,
+dancing had not commenced.  Feeling as I then did, it was rather a relief
+to me than otherwise, that I knew no one.  There was quite amusement
+enough in walking through the saloons, observing the strange costumes,
+and remarking the various groups as they congregated around the trays of
+ices and the champagne glacee.  The buzz of talking and the sounds of
+laughter and merriment prevailed over even the orchestra; and, as the gay
+crowds paraded the rooms, all seemed pleasure and excitement.  Suddenly a
+tremendous noise was heard without--then came a loud roll of the drums,
+which lasted for several seconds, and the clank of musketry--then a
+cheer;--it is the king.
+
+The king! resounded on all sides; and in another moment the large
+folding-doors at the end of the saal were thrown open, and the music
+struck up the national anthem of Bavaria.
+
+His majesty entered, accompanied by the queen, his brother, two or three
+archduchesses, and a long suite of officers.
+
+I could not help remarking upon the singular good taste with which the
+assembly--all anxious and eager to catch a glimpse of his majesty--
+behaved on this occasion.  There was no pressing forward to the "estrade"
+where he stood,--no vulgar curiosity evinced by any one, but the group
+continued, as before, to gather and scatter.  The only difference being,
+that the velvet chair and cushion, which had attracted some observers
+before, were, now that they were tenanted by royalty, passed with a deep
+and respectful salutation.  How proper this, thought I, and what an
+inducement for a monarch to come among his people, who remember to
+receive him with such true politeness.  While these thoughts were passing
+through my mind, as I was leaning against a pillar that supported the
+gallery of the orchestra, a gentleman whose dress, covered with gold and
+embroidery, bespoke him as belonging to the court, eyed me aside with his
+lorgnette and then passed rapidly on.  A quadrille was now forming near
+me, and I was watching, with some interest, the proceeding, when the same
+figure that I remarked before, approached me, bowing deeply at every
+step, and shaking a very halo of powder from his hair at each reverence.
+
+"May I take the liberty of introducing myself to you?" said he.--"Le
+Comte Benningsen."  Here he bowed again, and I returned the obeisance
+still deeper.  "Regretted much that I was not fortunate enough to make
+your acquaintance this evening, when I called upon you."
+
+"Never heard of that," said I to myself.
+
+"Your excellency arrived this evening?"
+
+"Yes," said I, "only a few hours since."
+
+"How fond these Germans are of titles," thought I.  Remembering that in
+Vienna every one is "his grace," I thought it might be Bavarian
+politeness to call every one his excellency.
+
+"You have not been presented, I believe?"
+
+"No," said I; "but I hope to take an early opportunity of paying 'mes
+homages' to his majesty."
+
+"I have just received his orders to present you now," replied he, with
+another bow.
+
+"The devil, you have," thought I.  "How very civil that."  And, although
+I had heard innumerable anecdotes of the free-and-easy habits of the
+Bavarian court, this certainly surprized me, so that I actually, to
+prevent a blunder, said, "Am I to understand you, Monsieur le Comte, that
+his majesty was graciously pleased"--
+
+If you will follow me," replied the courtier, motioning with his chapeau;
+and in another moment I was elbowing my way through the mob of marquisses
+and duchesses, on my way to the raised platform where the king was
+standing.
+
+"Heaven grant I have not misunderstood all he has been saying," was my
+last thought as the crowd of courtiers fell back on either side, and I
+found myself bowing before his majesty.  How the grand mareschal entitled
+me I heard not; but when the king addressed me immediately in English,
+saying,
+
+"I hope your excellency has had a good journey?"
+
+I felt, "Come, there is no mistake here, Harry; and it is only another
+freak of fortune, who is now in good humour with you."
+
+The king, who was a fine, tall, well-built man, with a large, bushy
+moustache, possessed, though not handsome, a most pleasing expression;
+his utterance was very rapid, and his English none of the best, so that
+it was with the greatest difficulty I contrived to follow his questions,
+which came thick as hail upon me.  After some commonplaces about the
+roads, the weather, and the season, his majesty said,
+
+"My Lord Callonby has been residing some time here.  You know him?"  And
+then, not waiting for a reply, added, "Pleasant person--well informed--
+like him much, and his daughters, too, how handsome they are."  Here I
+blushed, and felt most awkwardly, while the king continued.
+
+"Hope they will remain some time--quite an ornament to our court.
+Monsieur le Comte, his excellency will dance?"  I here muttered an
+apology about my sprained ankle, and the king turned to converse with
+some of the ladies of the court.  His majesty's notice brought several
+persons now around me, who introduced themselves; and, in a quarter of an
+hour, I felt myself surrounded by acquaintances, each vieing with the
+other in showing me attention.
+
+Worse places than Munich, Master Harry, thought I, as I chaperoned a fat
+duchess, with fourteen quarterings, towards the refreshment-room, and had
+just accepted invitations enough to occupy me three weeks in advance.
+
+"I have been looking every where for your excellency," said the grand
+mareschal, bustling his way to me, breathless and panting.  "His majesty
+desires you will make one of his party at whist, so pray come at once."
+
+"Figaro qua, Figaro la," muttered I.  "Never was man in such request.
+God grant the whole royal family of Bavaria be not mad, for this looks
+very like it.  Lady Jane had better look sharp, for I have only to throw
+my eyes on an archduchess, to be king of the Tyrol some fine morning."
+
+"You play whist, of course; every Englishman does," said the king.  "You
+shall be my partner."
+
+Our adversaries were the Prince Maximilian, brother to his Majesty and
+the Prussian Ambassador.  As I sat down at the table, I could not help
+saying in my heart, "now is your time, Harry, if my Lord Callonby should
+see you, your fortune is made."  Waller passed at this moment, and as he
+saluted the king, I saw him actually start with amazement as he beheld
+me--"better fun this than figuring in the yellow plush, Master Jack," I
+muttered as he passed on actually thunder-struck with amazement.  But the
+game was begun, and I was obliged to be attentive.  We won the first
+game, and the king was in immense good humour as he took some franc
+pieces from the Prussian minister, who, small as the stake was, seemed
+not to relish losing.  His majesty now complimented me upon my play, and
+was about to add something when he perceived some one in the crowd, and
+sent an Aide de camp for him.
+
+"Ah, my Lord, we expected you earlier," and then said some words in too
+low a tone for me to hear, motioning towards me as he spoke.  If Waller
+was surprised at seeing me where I was, it was nothing to the effect
+produced upon the present party, whom I now recognized as Lord Callonby.
+Respect for the presence we were in, restrained any expression on either
+side, and a more ludicrous tableau than we presented can scarcely be
+conceived.  What I would have given that the whist party was over, I need
+not say, and certainly his majesty's eulogy upon my play came too soon,
+for I was now so "destrait and unhinged," my eyes wandering from the
+table to see if Lady Jane was near, that I lost every trick, and finished
+by revoking.  The king rose half pettishly, observing that "Son
+Excellence a apparement perdu la tete," and I rushed forward to shake
+hands with Lord Callonby, totally forgetting the royal censure in my
+delight at discovering my friend.
+
+"Lorrequer, I am indeed rejoiced to see you, and when did you arrive."
+
+"This evening."
+
+"This evening! and how the deuce have you contrived already, eh? why you
+seem quite chez vous here?"
+
+"You shall hear all," said I hastily, "but is Lady Callonby here?"
+
+"No.  Kilkee only is with me, there he is figuranting away in a gallope.
+The ladies were too tired to come, particularly as they dine at court to-
+morrow, the fatigue would be rather much."
+
+"I have his majesty's order to invite your Excellency to dinner to-
+morrow," said the grand Mareschal coming up at this instant.
+
+I bowed my acknowledgments, and turned again to Lord Callonby, whose
+surprise now seemed to have reached the climax.
+
+"Why Lorrequer, I never heard of this? when did you adopt this new
+career?"
+
+Not understanding the gist of the question, and conceiving that it
+applied to my success at court, I answered at random, something about
+"falling upon my legs, good luck, &c.," and once more returned to the
+charge, enquiring most anxiously for Lady Callonby's health.
+
+"Ah! she is tolerably well.  Jane is the only invalid, but then we hope
+Italy will restore her."  Just at this instant, Kilkee caught my eye, and
+rushing over from his place beside his partner, shook me by both hands,
+saying,
+
+"Delighted to see you here Lorrequer, but as I can't stay now, promise to
+sup with me to-night at the 'Cross'."
+
+I accepted of course, and the next instant, he was whirling along in his
+waltze, with one of the most lovely German girls I ever saw.  Lord
+Callonby saw my admiration of her, and as it were replying to my gaze,
+remarked,
+
+"Yes, very handsome indeed, but really Kilkee is going too far with it.
+I rely upon you very much to reason him out of his folly, and we have all
+agreed that you have most influence over him, and are most likely to be
+listened to patiently."
+
+Here was a new character assigned me, the confidential friend and adviser
+of the family, trusted with a most delicate and important secret, likely
+to bring me into most intimate terms of intercourse with them all, for
+the "we" of Lord Callonby bespoke a family consultation, in which I was
+deputed as the negociator.  I at once promised my assistance, saying, at
+the same time, that if Kilkee really was strongly attached, and had also
+reason to suppose that the Lady liked him, it was not exactly fair; that
+in short, if the matter had gone beyond flirtation, any interference of
+mine would be imprudent, if not impertinent.  Lord Callonby smiled
+slightly as he replied,
+
+"Quite right, Lorrequer, I am just as much against constraint as
+yourself, if only no great barriers exist; but here with a difference of
+religion, country, language, habits, in fact, everything that can create
+disparity, the thing is not to be thought of."
+
+I suspected that his Lordship read in my partial defence of Kilkee, a
+slight attempt to prop up my own case, and felt confused and embarrassed
+beyond measure at the detection.
+
+"Well, we shall have time enough for all this.  Now let us hear something
+of my old friend Sir Guy.  How is he looking?"
+
+"I am unfortunately unable to give you any account of him.  I left Paris
+the very day before he was expected to arrive there."
+
+"Oh then, I have all the news myself in that case, for in his letter
+which I received yesterday, he mentions that we are not to expect him
+before Tuesday."
+
+"Expect him.  Is he coming here then?"
+
+"Yes.  Why, I thought you were aware of that, he has been long promising
+to pay us a visit, and at last, by great persuasion, we have succeeded in
+getting him across the sea, and, indeed, were it not that he was coming,
+we should have been in Florence before this."
+
+A gleam of hope shot through my heart as I said to myself, what can this
+visit mean? and the moment after I felt sick, almost to fainting, as I
+asked if "my cousin Guy were also expected."
+
+"Oh yes.  We shall want him I should think" said Lord Callonby with a
+very peculiar smile.
+
+I thought I should have fallen at these few words.  Come, Harry, thought
+I, it is better to learn your fate at once.  Now or never; death itself
+were preferable to this continued suspense.  If the blow is to fall, it
+can scarcely sink me lower than I now feel: so reasoning, I laid my hand
+upon Lord Callonby's arm, and with a face pale as death, and a voice all
+but inarticulate, said,
+
+"My Lord, you will pardon, I am sure--"
+
+"My dear Lorrequer," said his lordship interrupting me, "for heaven's
+sake sit down.  How ill you are looking, we must nurse you, my poor
+fellow."
+
+I sank upon a bench--the light danced before my eyes--the clang of the
+music sounded like the roar of a waterfall, and I felt a cold
+perspiration burst over my face and forehead; at the same instant, I
+recognized Kilkee's voice, and without well knowing why, or how,
+discovered myself in the open air.
+
+"Come, you are better now," said Kilkee, "and will be quite well when you
+get some supper, and a little of the tokay, his majesty has been good
+enough to send us."
+
+"His majesty desires to know if his excellency is better," said an aide
+de camp.
+
+I muttered my most grateful acknowledgments.
+
+"One of the court carriages is in waiting for your excellency," said a
+venerable old gentleman in a tie wig, whom I recognized as the minister
+for foreign affairs--as he added in a lower tone to Lord Callonby, "I
+fear he has been greatly overworked lately--his exertions on the subject
+of the Greek loan are well known to his majesty."
+
+"Indeed," said Lord Callonby, with a start of surprise, "I never heard of
+that before."
+
+If it had not been for that start of amazement, I should have died of
+terror.  It was the only thing that showed me I was not out of my senses,
+which I now concluded the old gentleman must be, for I never had heard of
+the Greek loan in my life before.
+
+"Farewell, mon cher colleague," said the venerable minister as I got into
+the carriage, wondering as well I might what singular band of brotherhood
+united one of his majesty's __th with the minister for foreign affairs of
+the Court of Bavaria.
+
+When I arrived at the White-cross, I found my nerves, usually proof to
+any thing, so shaken and shattered, that fearing with the difficult game
+before me any mistake, however trivial, might mar all my fortunes for
+ever, I said a good night to my friends, and went to bed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LIV.
+
+A DISCOVERY.
+
+"A note for Monsieur," said the waiter, awaking me at the same time from
+the soundest sleep and most delightful dream.  The billet was thus:--
+
+"If your excellency does not intend to slumber during the next twenty-
+four hours, it might be as well to remember that we are waiting
+breakfast.  Ever yours,
+
+"Kilkee."
+
+"It is true, then," said I--following up the delusion of my dream.  "It
+is true, I am really domesticated once more with the Callonbys.  My suit
+is prospering, and at length the long-sought, long-hoped for moment is
+come--"
+
+"Well, Harry," said Kilkee, as he dashed open the door.  "Well, Harry,
+how are you, better than last night, I hope?"
+
+"Oh yes, considerably.  In fact, I can't think what could have been the
+matter with me; but I felt confoundedly uncomfortable."
+
+"You did!  Why, man, what can you mean; was it not a joke?"
+
+"A joke," said I, with a start.
+
+"Yes, to be sure.  I thought it was only the sequel of the other humbug."
+
+"The sequel of the other humbug!"  Gracious mercy! thought I, getting
+pale with horror, is it thus he ventures to designate my attachment to
+his sister?
+
+"Come, come, it's all over now.  What the devil could have persuaded you
+to push the thing so far?"
+
+"Really, I am so completely in the dark as to your meaning that I only
+get deeper in mystery by my chance replies.  What do you mean?"
+
+"What do I mean!  Why, the affair of last night of course.  All Munich is
+full of it, and most fortunately for you, the king has taken it all in
+the most good-humoured way, and laughs more than any one else about it."
+
+Oh, then, thought I, I must have done or said something last night during
+my illness, that I can't remember now.  "Come, Kilkee, out with it.  What
+happened last night, that has served to amuse the good people of Munich?
+for as I am a true man, I forget all you are alluding to."
+
+"And don't remember the Greek Loan--eh?"
+
+"The Greek Loan!"
+
+"And your Excellency's marked reception by his Majesty?  By Jove though,
+it was the rarest piece of impudence I ever heard of; hoaxing a crowned
+head, quizzing one of the Lord's anointed is un peu trop fort."
+
+"If you really do not wish to render me insane at once, for the love of
+mercy say, in plain terms, what all this means."
+
+"Come, come, I see you are incorrigible; but as breakfast is waiting all
+this time, we shall have your explanations below stairs."
+
+Before I had time for another question Kilkee passed his arm within mine,
+and led me along the corridor, pouring out, the entire time a whole
+rhapsody about the practical joke of my late illness, which he was
+pleased to say would ring from one end of Europe to the other.
+
+Lord Callonby was alone in the breakfast-room when we entered, and the
+moment he perceived me called out,
+
+"Eh, Lorrequer, you here still?  Why, man, I thought you'd have been over
+the frontier early this morning?"
+
+"Indeed, my lord, I am not exactly aware of any urgent reason for so
+rapid a flight."
+
+"You are not!  The devil, you are not.  Why, you must surely have known
+his majesty to be the best tempered man in his dominions then, or you
+would never have played off such a ruse, though I must say, there never
+was anything better done.  Old Heldersteen, the minister for foreign
+affairs, is nearly deranged this morning about it--it seems that he was
+the first that fell into the trap; but seriously speaking, I think it
+would be better if you got away from this; the king, it is true, has
+behaved with the best possible good feeling; but--"
+
+"My lord, I have a favour to ask, perhaps, indeed in all likelihood the
+last I shall ever ask of your lordship, it is this--what are you alluding
+to all this while, and for what especial reason do you suggest my
+immediate departure from Munich?"
+
+"Bless my heart and soul--you surely cannot mean to carry the thing on
+any further--you never can intend to assume your ministerial functions by
+daylight?"
+
+"My what!--my ministerial functions."
+
+"Oh no, that were too much--even though his majesty did say--that you
+were the most agreeable diplomate he had met for a long time."
+
+"I, a diplomate."
+
+"You, certainly.  Surely you cannot be acting now; why, gracious mercy,
+Lorrequer! can it be possible that you were not doing it by design, do
+you really not know in what character you appeared last night?"
+
+"If in any other than that of Harry Lorrequer, my lord, I pledge my
+honour, I am ignorant."
+
+"Nor the uniform you wore, don't you know what it meant?"
+
+"The tailor sent it to my room."
+
+"Why, man, by Jove, this will kill me," said Lord Callonby, bursting into
+a fit of laughter, in which Kilkee, a hitherto silent spectator of our
+colloquy, joined to such an extent, that I thought he should burst a
+bloodvessel.  "Why man, you went as the Charge d'Affaires."
+
+"I, the Charge d'Affaires!"
+
+"That you did, and a most successful debut you made of it."
+
+While shame and confusion covered me from head to foot at the absurd and
+ludicrous blunder I had been guilty of, the sense of the ridiculous was
+so strong in me, that I fell upon a sofa and laughed on with the others
+for full ten minutes.
+
+"Your Excellency is, I am rejoiced to find, in good spirits," said Lady
+Callonby, entering and presenting her hand.
+
+"He is so glad to have finished the Greek Loan," said Lady Catherine,
+smiling with a half malicious twinkle of the eye.  Just at this instant
+another door opened, and Lady Jane appeared.  Luckily for me, the
+increased mirth of the party, as Lord Callonby informed them of my
+blunder, prevented their paying any attention to me, for as I half sprung
+forward toward her, my agitation would have revealed to any observer, the
+whole state of my feelings.  I took her hand which she extended to me,
+without speaking, and bowing deeply over it, raised my head and looked
+into her eyes, as if to read at one glance, my fate, and when I let fall
+her hand, I would not have exchanged my fortune for a kingdom.
+
+"You have heard, Jane, how our friend opened his campaign in Munich last
+night."
+
+"Oh, I hope, Mr. Lorrequer, they are only quizzing.  You surely could
+not--"
+
+"Could not.  What he could not--what he would not do, is beyond my
+calculation to make out," said Kilkee, laughing, "anything in life, from
+breaking an axletree to hoaxing a king;" I turned, as may be imagined, a
+deaf ear to this allusion, which really frightened me, not knowing how
+far Kilkee's information might lead, nor how he might feel disposed to
+use it.  Lady Jane turned a half reproachful glance at me, as if rebuking
+my folly; but in the interest she thus took in me, I should not have
+bartered it for the smile of the proudest queen in Christendom.
+
+Breakfast over, Lord Callonby undertook to explain to the Court the
+blunder, by which I had unwittingly been betrayed into personating the
+newly arrived minister, and as the mistake was more of their causing than
+my own, my excuses were accepted, and when his lordship returned to the
+hotel, he brought with him an invitation for me to dine at Court in my
+own unaccredited character.  By this time I had been carrying on the
+siege as briskly as circumstances permitted; Lady Callonby being deeply
+interested in her newly arrived purchases, and Lady Catherine being good-
+natured enough to pretend to be so also, left me, at intervals, many
+opportunities of speaking to Lady Jane.
+
+As I feared that such occasions would not often present themselves, I
+determined on making the best use of my time, and at once led the
+conversation towards the goal I aimed at, by asking, "if Lady Jane had
+completely forgotten the wild cliffs and rocky coast of Clare, amid the
+tall mountains and glaciered peaks of the Tyrol?"
+
+"Far from it," she replied.  "I have a most clear remembrance of bold
+Mogher and the rolling swell of the blue Atlantic, and long to feel its
+spray once more upon my cheek; but then, I knew it in childhood--your
+acquaintance with it was of a later date, and connected with fewer happy
+associations."
+
+"Fewer happy associations--how can you say so?  Was it not there the
+brightest hours of my whole life were passed, was it not there I first
+met--"
+
+"Kilkee tells me," said Lady Jane, interrupting me shortly, "that Miss
+Bingham is extremely pretty."
+
+This was turning my flank with a vengeance; so I muttered something about
+differences of tastes, &c. and continued, "I understand my worthy cousin
+Guy, had the good fortune to make your acquaintance in Paris."
+
+It was now her turn to blush, which she did deeply, and said nothing.
+
+"He is expected, I believe, in a few days at Munich," said I, fixing my
+eyes upon her, and endeavouring to read her thoughts; she blushed more
+deeply, and the blood at my own heart ran cold, as I thought over all I
+had heard, and I muttered to myself "she loves him."
+
+"Mr. Lorrequer, the carriage is waiting, and as we are going to the
+Gallery this morning, and have much to see, pray let us have your
+escort."
+
+"Oh, I am sure," said Catherine, "his assistance will be considerable--
+particularly if his knowledge of art only equals his tact in botany.
+Don't you think so, Jane?"--But Jane was gone.
+
+They left the room to dress, and I was alone--alone with my anxious, now
+half despairing thoughts, crowding and rushing upon my beating brain.
+She loves him, and I have only come to witness her becoming the wife of
+another.  I see it all, too plainly;--my Uncle's arrival--Lord Callonby's
+familiar manner--Jane's own confession.  All--all convince me, that my
+fate is decided.  Now, then, for one last brief explanation, and I leave
+Munich, never to see her more.  Just as I had so spoken, she entered.
+Her gloves had been forgotten in the room, and she came in not knowing
+that I was there.  What would I not have given at that moment, for the
+ready witted assurance, the easy self-possession, with which I should
+have made my advances had my heart not been as deeply engaged as I now
+felt it.  Alas!  My courage was gone; there was too much at stake, and
+I preferred, now, that the time was come, any suspense, any vacillation,
+to the dreadful certainty of refusal.
+
+These were my first thoughts, as she entered; how they were followed, I
+cannot say.  The same evident confusion of my brain, which I once felt
+when mounting the breach in a storm-party, now completely beset me; and
+as then, when death and destruction raged on every side, I held on my way
+regardless of every obstacle, and forgetting all save the goal before me;
+so did I now, in the intensity of my excitement, disregard every thing,
+save the story of my love, which I poured forth with that fervour which
+truth only can give.  But she spoke not,--her averted head,--her cold and
+tremulous hand, and half-drawn sigh were all that replied to me, as I
+waited for that one word upon which hung all my fortune.  At length her
+hand, which I scarcely held within my own, was gently withdrawn.  She
+lifted it to her eyes, but still was silent.
+
+"Enough," said I, "I seek not to pain you more.  The daring ambition that
+prompted me to love you, has met its heaviest retribution.  Farewell,--
+You, Lady Jane, have nothing to reproach yourself with--You never
+encouraged, you never deceived me.  I, and I alone have been to blame,
+and mine must be the suffering.  Adieu, then once more, and now for
+ever."
+
+She turned slowly round, and as the handkerchief fell from her hand,--her
+features were pale as marble,--I saw that she was endeavouring to speak,
+but could not; and at length, as the colour came slowly back to her
+cheek, her lips moved, and just as I leaned forward, with a beating heart
+to hear, her sister came running forward, and suddenly checked herself in
+her career, as she said, laughingly,--
+
+"Mille pardons, Jane, but his Excellency must take another occasion to
+explain the quadruple alliance, for mamma has been waiting in the
+carriage these ten minutes."
+
+I followed them to the door, placed them in the carriage, and was turning
+again towards the house, when Lady Callonby said--
+
+"Oh, Mr. Lorrequer, we count upon you--you must not desert us."
+
+I muttered something about not feeling well.
+
+"And then, perhaps, the Greek loan is engaging your attention," said
+Catherine; "or, mayhap, some reciprocity treaty is not prospering."
+
+The malice of this last sally told, for Jane blushed deeply, and I felt
+overwhelmed with confusion.
+
+"But pray come--the drive will do you good."
+
+"Your ladyship will, I am certain, excuse"--
+
+Just as I had got so far, I caught Lady Jane's eye, for the first time
+since we had left the drawing-room.  What I read there, I could not, for
+the life of me, say; but, instead of finishing my sentence, I got into
+the carriage, and drove off, very much to the surprise of Lady Callonby,
+who, never having studied magnetism, knew very little the cause of my
+sudden recovery.
+
+The thrill of hope that shot through my heart succeeding so rapidly the
+dark gloom of my despairing thoughts, buoyed me up, and while I whispered
+to myself, "all may not yet be lost," I summoned my best energies to my
+aid.  Luckily for me, I was better qualified to act as cicerone in a
+gallery than as a guide in a green-house; and with the confidence that
+knowledge of a subject ever inspires, I rattled away about art and
+artists, greatly to the edification of Lady Callonby--much to the
+surprise of Lady Catherine--and, better than all, evidently to the
+satisfaction of her, to win whose praise I would gladly have risked my
+life.
+
+"There," said I, as I placed my fair friend before a delicious little
+madonna of Carl Dolci--"there is, perhaps, the triumph of colouring--for
+the downy softness of that cheek--the luscious depth of that blue eye--
+the waving richness of those sunny locks, all is perfect--fortunately so
+beautiful a head is not a monopoly, for he painted many copies of this
+picture."
+
+"Quite true," said a voice behind, "and mine at Elton is, I think, if
+anything, better than this."
+
+I turned, and beheld my good old uncle, Sir Guy, who was standing beside
+Lady Callonby.  While I welcomed my worthy relative, I could not help
+casting a glance around to see if Guy were also there, and not perceiving
+him, my heart beat freely again.
+
+My uncle, it appeared, had just arrived, and lost no time in joining us
+at the gallery.  His manner to me was cordial to a degree; and I
+perceived that, immediately upon being introduced to Lady Jane, he took
+considerable pains to observe her, and paid her the most marked
+attention.
+
+The first moment I could steal unnoticed, I took the opportunity of
+asking if Guy were come.  That one fact were to me all, and upon the
+answer to my question, I hung with deep anxiety.
+
+"Guy here!--no, not yet.  The fact is, Harry, my boy, Guy has not got on
+here as well as I could have wished.  Everything had been arranged among
+us--Callonby behaved most handsomely--and, as far as regarded myself, I
+threw no impediment in the way.  But still, I don't know how it was, but
+Guy did not advance, and the matter now"--
+
+"Pray, how does it stand?  Have you any hopes to put all to rights
+again?"
+
+"Yes, Harry, I think, with your assistance, much may be done."
+
+"Oh, count upon me by all means," said I, with a sneering bitterness,
+that my uncle could not have escaped remarking, had his attention not
+been drawn off by Lady Callonby.
+
+What have I done--what sin did I meditate before I was born, that I
+should come into the world branded with failure in all I attempt?  Is it
+not enough that my cousin, my elder by some months, should be rich while
+I am poor--honoured and titled, while I am unknown and unnoticed?--but is
+he also to be preferred to me in every station in life?  Is there no
+feeling of the heart so sacred that it must not succumb to primogeniture?
+
+"What a dear old man Sir Guy is," said Catherine, interrupting my sad
+reflections, "and how gallant; he is absolutely flirting with Lady Jane."
+
+And quite true it was.  The old gentleman was paying his devoirs with a
+studied anxiety to please, that went to my very heart as I witnessed it.
+The remainder of that day to me was a painful and suffering one.  My
+intention of suddenly leaving Munich had been abandoned, why, I knew not.
+I felt that I was hoping against hope, and that my stay was only to
+confirm, by the most "damning proof," how surely I was fated to
+disappointment.  My reasonings all ended in one point.  If she really
+love Guy, then my present attentions can only be a source of unhappiness
+to her; if she do not, is there any prospect that from the bare fact of
+my attachment, so proud a family as the Callonbys will suffer their
+daughter to make a mere "marriage d'inclination?"
+
+There was but one answer to this question, and I had at last the courage
+to make it: and yet the Callonbys had marked me out for their attentions,
+and had gone unusually out of their way to inflict injury upon me, if all
+were meant to end in nothing.  If I only could bring myself to think that
+this was a systematic game adopted by them, to lead to the subsequent
+arrangement with my cousin!--if I could but satisfy my doubts on this
+head----What threats of vengeance I muttered, I cannot remember, for I
+was summoned at that critical moment to attend the party to the palace.
+
+The state of excitement I was in, was an ill preparative for the rigid
+etiquette of a court dinner.  All passed off, however, happily, and the
+king, by a most good-natured allusion to the blunder of the night before,
+set me perfectly at ease on that head.
+
+I was placed next to Lady Jane at dinner; and half from wounded pride,
+half from the momentarily increasing conviction that all was lost,
+chatted away gaily, without any evidence of a stronger feeling than the
+mere vicinity of a pretty person is sure to inspire.  What success this
+game was attended with I know not; but the suffering it cost me, I shall
+never cease to remember.  One satisfaction I certainly did experience--
+she was manifestly piqued, and several times turned towards the person on
+the other side of her, to avoid the tone of indifference in which I
+discussed matters that were actually wringing my own heart at the moment.
+Yet such was the bitterness of my spirit, that I set down this conduct
+on her part as coquetry; and quite convinced myself that any slight
+encouragement she might ever have given my attentions, was only meant
+to indulge a spirit of vanity, by adding another to the list of her
+conquests.
+
+As the feeling grew upon me, I suppose my manner to her became more
+palpably cutting, for it ended at last in our discontinuing to speak, and
+when we retired from the palace, I accompanied her to the carriage in
+silence, and wished her a cold and distant good night, without any
+advance to touch her hand at parting--and yet that parting, I had
+destined for our last.
+
+The greater part of that night I spent in writing letters.  One was to
+Jane herself owning my affection, confessing that even the "rudesse" of
+my late conduct was the fruit of it, and finally assuring her that
+failing to win from her any return of my passion, I had resolved never to
+meet her more--I also wrote a short note to my uncle, thanking him for
+all he had formerly done in my behalf, but coldly declining for the
+future, any assistance upon his part, resolving that upon my own efforts
+alone should I now rest my fortunes.  To Lord Callonby I wrote at greater
+length, recapitulating the history of our early intimacy, and accusing
+him of encouraging me in expectations, which, as he never intended to
+confirm them, were fated to prove my ruin.  More--much more I said, which
+to avow, I should gladly shrink from, were it not that I have pledged
+myself to honesty in these "Confessions," and as they depict the
+bitterness and misery of my spirit, I must plead guilty to them here.  In
+a word, I felt myself injured.  I saw no outlet for redress, and the only
+consolation open to my wounded pride and crushed affection, was to show,
+that if I felt myself a victim, at least I was not a dupe.  I set about
+packing up for the journey, whither, I knew not.  My leave was nearly
+expired, yet I could not bear the thought of rejoining the regiment.
+My only desire was to leave Munich, and that speedily.  When all my
+arrangements were completed I went down noiselessly to the inn yard to
+order post-horses by day-break, there to my surprise I found all activity
+and bustle.  Though so late at night, a courier had arrived from England
+for Lord Callonby, with some important dispatches from the Government;
+this would, at any other time, have interested me deeply; now I heard
+the news without a particle of feeling, and I made all the necessary
+dispositions for my journey, without paying the slightest attention to
+what was going on about me.  I had just finished, when Lord Callonby's
+valet came to say, that his lordship wished to see me immediately in his
+dressing room.  Though I would gladly have declined any further
+interview, I saw no means of escape, and followed the servant to his
+lordship's room.
+
+There I found Lord Callonby in his dressing gown and night cap,
+surrounded by papers, letters, despatch boxes, and red tape-tied parcels,
+that all bespoke business.
+
+"Lorrequer, sit down, my boy, I have much to say to you, and as we have
+no time to lose, you must forego a little sleep.  Is the door closed?
+I have just received most important news from England, and to begin,"
+here his lordship opened a letter and read as follow:--
+
+"My Lord--They are out at last--the majority on Friday increased to forty
+yesterday evening, when they resigned; the Duke has, meanwhile, assumed
+the reins till further arrangements can be perfected, and despatches are
+now preparing to bring all our friends about us.  The only rumours as yet
+are, L___, for the Colonies, H___, to the Foreign Office, W____ President
+of the Council, and we anxiously hope yourself Viceroy to Ireland.  In
+any case lose no time in coming back to England.  The struggle will be a
+sharp one, as the outs are distracted, and we shall want you much.  Ever
+yours, my dear lord,
+
+"Henry ____."
+
+"This is much sooner than I looked for, Lorrequer, perhaps almost than I
+wished; but as it has taken place, we must not decline the battle; now
+what I wanted with you is this--if I go to Ireland I should like your
+acceptance of the Private Secretary's Office.  Come, come, no objections;
+you know that you need not leave the army, you can become unattached,
+I'll arrange all that; apropos, this concerns you, it is from the Horse
+Guards, you need not read it now though, it is merely your gazette to the
+company; your promotion, however, shall not stop there; however, the
+important thing I want with you is this, I wish you to start for England
+to-morrow; circumstances prevent my going from this for a few days.  You
+can see L____ and W____, &c., and explain all I have to say; I shall
+write a few letters, and some hints for your own guidance; and as Kilkee
+never would have head for these matters, I look to your friendship to do
+it for me."
+
+Looking only to the post, as the proposal suited my already made resolve
+to quit Munich, I acceded at once, and assured Lord Callonby that I
+should be ready in an hour.
+
+"Quite right, Lorrequer, but still I shall not need this, you cannot
+leave before eleven or twelve o'clock, in fact I have another service to
+exact at your hands before we part with you; meanwhile, try and get some
+sleep, you are not likely to know anything of a bed before you reach the
+Clarendon."  So saying, he hurried me from the room, and as he closed the
+door, I heard him muttering his satisfaction, that already so far all had
+been well arranged.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LV.
+
+CONCLUSION.
+
+Sleep came on me, without my feeling it, and amid all the distracting
+cares and pressing thoughts that embarrassed me, I only awoke when the
+roll of the caleche sounded beneath my window, and warned me that I must
+be stirring and ready for the road.
+
+Since it is to be thus, thought I, it is much better that this
+opportunity should occur of my getting away at once, and thus obviate all
+the unpleasantness of my future meeting with Lady Jane; and the thousand
+conjectures that my departure, so sudden and unannounced might give rise
+to.  So be it, and I have now only one hope more--that the terms we last
+parted on, may prevent her appearing at the breakfast table; with these
+words I entered the room, where the Callonbys were assembled, all save
+Lady Jane.
+
+"This is too provoking; really, Mr. Lorrequer," said Lady Callonby, with
+her sweetest smile, and most civil manner, "quite too bad to lose you
+now, that you have just joined us."
+
+"Come, no tampering with our party," said Lord Callonby, "my friend here
+must not be seduced by honied words and soft speeches, from the high road
+that leads to honours and distinctions--now for your instructions."  Here
+his lordship entered into a very deep discussion as to the conditions
+upon which his support might be expected, and relied upon, which Kilkee
+from time to time interrupted by certain quizzing allusions to the low
+price he put upon his services, and suggested that a mission for myself
+should certainly enter into the compact.
+
+At length breakfast was over, and Lord Callonby said, "now make your
+adieux, and let me see you for a moment in Sir Guy's room, we have a
+little discussion there, in which your assistance is wanting."  I
+accordingly took my farewell of Lady Callonby, and approached to do so to
+Lady Jane, but much to my surprise, she made me a very distant salute,
+and said in her coldest tone, "I hope you may have a pleasant journey."
+Before I had recovered my surprise at this movement, Kilkee came forward
+and offered to accompany me a few miles of the road.  I accepted readily
+the kind offer, and once more bowing to the ladies, withdrew.  And thus
+it is, thought I, that I leave all my long dreamed of happiness, and such
+is the end of many a long day's ardent expectation.  When I entered my
+uncle's room, my temper was certainly not in the mood most fit for
+further trials, though it was doomed to meet them.
+
+"Harry, my boy, we are in great want of you here, and as time presses, we
+must state our case very briefly.  You are aware, Sir Guy tells me, that
+your cousin Guy has been received among us as the suitor of my eldest
+daughter.  It has been an old compact between us to unite our families by
+ties still stronger than our very ancient friendship, and this match has
+been accordingly looked to, by us both with much anxiety.  Now, although
+on our parts I think no obstacle intervenes, yet I am sorry to say, there
+appear difficulties in other quarters.  In fact, certain stories have
+reached Lady Jane's ears concerning your cousin, which have greatly
+prejudiced her against him, and we have reason to think most unfairly;
+for we have succeeded in tracing some of the offences in question, not to
+Guy, but to a Mr. Morewood, who it seems has personated your cousin upon
+more than one occasion, and not a little to his disadvantage.  Now we
+wish you to sift these matters to the bottom, by your going to Paris as
+soon as you can venture to leave London--find out this man, and if
+possible, make all straight; if money is wanting, he must of course have
+it; but bear one thing in mind, that any possible step which may remove
+this unhappy impression from my daughter's mind, will be of infinite
+service, and never forgotten by us.  Kilkee too has taken some dislike to
+Guy.  You have only, however, to talk to him on the matter, and he is
+sure to pay attention to you."
+
+"And, Harry," said my uncle, "tell Guy, I am much displeased that he is
+not here, I expected him to leave Paris with me, but some absurd wager at
+the Jockey Club detained him."
+
+"Another thing, Harry, you may as well mention to your cousin, that Sir
+Guy has complied with every suggestion that he formerly threw out--he
+will understand the allusion."
+
+"Oh yes," said my uncle, "tell him roundly, he shall have Elton Hall; I
+have fitted up Marsden for myself; so no difficulty lies in that
+quarter."
+
+"You may add, if you like, that my present position with the government
+enables me to offer him a speedy prospect of a Regiment, and that I think
+he had better not leave the army."
+
+"And say that by next post Hamercloth's bond for the six thousand shall
+be paid off, and let him send me a note of any other large sum he owes."
+
+"And above all things, no more delays.  I must leave this for England
+inevitably, and as the ladies will probably prefer wintering in Italy--"
+
+"Oh certainly," said my uncle, "the wedding must take place."
+
+"I scarcely can ask you to come to us on the occasion, though I need not
+say how greatly we should all feel gratified if you could do so," said my
+Lord.
+
+While this cross fire went on from both sides, I looked from one to the
+other of the speakers.  My first impression being, that having perceived
+and disliked my attention to Lady Jane, they adopted this "mauvaise
+plaisanterie" as a kind of smart lesson for my future guidance.  My next
+impression was that they were really in earnest, but about the very
+stupidest pair of old gentlemen that ever wore hair powder.
+
+"And this is all," said I, drawing a long breath, and inwardly uttering a
+short prayer for patience.
+
+"Why, I believe, I have mentioned everything," said Lord Callonby,
+"except that if anything occurs to yourself that offers a prospect of
+forwarding this affair, we leave you a carte blanche to adopt it."
+
+"Of course, then," said I, "I am to understand that as no other
+difficulties lie in the way than those your Lordship has mentioned, the
+feelings of the parties, their affections are mutual."
+
+"Oh, of course, your cousin, I suppose, has made himself agreeable; he
+is a good looking fellow, and in fact, I am not aware, why they should
+not like each other, eh Sir Guy?"
+
+"To be sure, and the Elton estates run half the shire with your
+Gloucester property; never was there a more suitable match."
+
+"Then only one point remains, and that being complied with, you may
+reckon upon my services; nay, more, I promise you success.  Lady Jane's
+own consent must be previously assured to me, without this, I most
+positively decline moving a step in the matter; that once obtained,
+freely and without constraint, I pledge myself to do all you require."
+
+"Quite fair, Harry, I perfectly approve of your scruples," so saying, his
+Lordship rose and left the room.
+
+"Well, Harry, and yourself, what is to be done for you, has Callonby
+offered you anything yet?"
+
+"Yes sir, his Lordship has most kindly offered me the under secretaryship
+in Ireland, but I have resolved on declining it, though I shall not at
+present say so, lest he should feel any delicacy in employing me upon the
+present occasion."
+
+"Why, is the boy deranged--decline it--what have you got in the world,
+that you should refuse such an appointment."
+
+The colour mounted to my cheeks, my temples burned, and what I should
+have replied to this taunt, I know not, for passion had completely
+mastered me.  When Lord Callonby again entered the room, his usually calm
+and pale face was agitated and flushed; and his manner tremulous and
+hurried; for an instant he was silent, then turning towards my uncle,
+he took his hand affectionately, and said,
+
+"My good old friend, I am deeply, deeply grieved; but we must abandon
+this scheme.  I have just seen my daughter, and from the few words which
+we have had together, I find that her dislike to the match is invincible,
+and in fact, she has obtained my promise never again to allude to it.  If
+I were willing to constrain the feelings of my child, you yourself would
+not permit it.  So here let us forget that we ever hoped for, ever
+calculated on a plan in which both our hearts were so deeply interested."
+
+These words, few as they were, were spoken with deep feeling, and for the
+first time, I looked upon the speaker with sincere regard.  They were
+both silent for some minutes; Sir Guy, who was himself much agitated,
+spoke first.
+
+"So be it then, Callonby, and thus do I relinquish one--perhaps the only
+cheering prospect my advanced age held out to me.  I have long wished to
+have your daughter for my niece, and since I have known her, the wish has
+increased tenfold."
+
+"It was the chosen dream of all my anticipations," said Lord Callonby,
+"and now Jane's affections only--but let it pass."
+
+"And is there then really no remedy, can nothing be struck out?"
+
+"Nothing."
+
+"I am not quite so sure, my Lord," said I tremulously.
+
+"No, no, Lorrequer, you are a ready witted fellow I know, but this passes
+even your ingenuity, besides I have given her my word."
+
+"Even so."
+
+"Why, what do you mean, speak out man," said Sir Guy, "I'll give you ten
+thousand pounds on the spot if you suggest a means of overcoming this
+difficulty."
+
+"Perhaps you might not accede afterwards."
+
+"I pledge myself to it."
+
+"And I too," said Lord Callonby, "if no unfair stratagem be resorted to
+towards my daughter.  If she only give her free and willing consent, I
+agree."
+
+"Then you must bid higher, uncle, ten thousand won't do, for the bargain
+is well worth the money."
+
+"Name your price, boy, and keep your word."
+
+"Agreed then," holding my uncle to his promise, "I pledge myself that his
+nephew shall be husband of Lady Jane Callonby, and now, my Lord, read
+Harry vice Guy in the contract, and I am certain my uncle is too faithful
+to his plighted word, and too true to his promise not to say it shall
+be."
+
+The suddenness of this rash declaration absolutely stunned them both, and
+then recovering at the same moment, their eyes met.
+
+"Fairly caught, Guy" said Lord Callonby, "a bold stroke if it only
+succeeds."
+
+"And it shall, by G--," said my uncle, "Elton is yours, Harry, and with
+seven thousand a year, and my nephew to boot, Callonby won't refuse you."
+
+There are moments in life in which conviction will follow a bold "coup de
+main," that never would have ensued from the slow process of reasoning.
+Luckily for me, this was one of those happy intervals.  Lord Callonby
+catching my uncle's enthusiasm, seized me by the hand and said,
+
+"With her consent, Lorrequer, you may count upon mine, and faith
+if truth must be told, I always preferred you to the other."
+
+What my uncle added, I waited not to listen to; but with one bound sprung
+from the room--dashed up stairs to Lady Callonby's drawing-room--looked
+rapidly around to see if SHE were there, and then without paying the
+slightest attention to the questions of Lady Callonby and her younger
+daughter, was turning to leave the room, when my eye caught the flutter
+of a Cachmere shawl in the garden beneath.  In an instant the window was
+torn open--I stood upon the sill, and though the fall was some twenty
+feet, with one spring I took it, and before the ladies had recovered from
+their first surprise at my unaccountable conduct, put the finishing
+stroke to their amazement, by throwing my arms around Lady Jane, and
+clasping her to my heart.
+
+I cannot remember by what process I explained the change that had taken
+place in my fortunes.  I had some very vague recollection of vows of
+eternal love being mingled with praises of my worthy uncle, and the state
+of my affections and finances were jumbled up together, but still
+sufficiently intelligible to satisfy my beloved Jane--that this time at
+least, I made love with something more than my own consent to support me.
+Before we had walked half round the garden, she had promised to be mine;
+and Harry Lorrequer, who rose that morning with nothing but despair and
+darkness before him, was now the happiest of men.
+
+Dear reader, I have little more to confess.  Lord Callonby's politics
+were fortunately deemed of more moment than maidenly scruples, and the
+treasury benches more respected than the trousseau.  Our wedding was
+therefore settled for the following week.  Meanwhile, every day seemed
+to teem with its own meed of good fortune.  My good uncle, under whose
+patronage, forty odd years before, Colonel Kamworth had obtained his
+commission, undertook to effect the reconciliation between him and the
+Wallers, who now only waited for our wedding, before they set out for
+Hydrabad cottage, that snug receptacle of Curry and Madeira, Jack
+confessing that he had rather listen to the siege of Java, by that fire-
+side, than hear an account of Waterloo from the lips of the great Duke
+himself.
+
+I wrote to Trevanion to invite him to Munich for the ceremony, and the
+same post which informed me that he was en route to join us, brought also
+a letter from my eccentric friend O'Leary, whose name having so often
+occurred in these confessions, I am tempted to read aloud, the more so as
+its contents are no secret, Kilkee having insisted upon reading it to a
+committee of the whole family assembled after dinner.
+
+     "Dear Lorrequer,
+
+     "The trial is over, and I am acquitted, but still in St. Pelagie;
+     for as the government were determined to cut my head off if guilty,
+     so the mob resolved to murder me if innocent.  A pleasant place
+     this: before the trial, I was the most popular man in Paris; my face
+     was in every print shop; plaster busts of me, with a great organ
+     behind the ear, in all the thoroughfares; my autograph selling at
+     six and twenty sous, and a lock of my hair at five francs.  Now that
+     it is proved I did not murder the "minister at war," (who is in
+     excellent health and spirits) the popular feeling against me is very
+     violent; and I am looked upon as an imposter, who obtained his
+     notoriety under false pretences; and Vernet, who had begun my
+     picture for a Judas, has left off in disgust.  Your friend Trevanion
+     is a trump; he procured a Tipperary gentleman to run away with Mrs.
+     Ram, and they were married at Frankfort, on Tuesday last.  By the
+     by, what an escape you had of Emily: she was only quizzing you all
+     the time.  She is engaged to be married to Tom O'Flaherty, who is
+     here now.  Emily's imitation of you, with the hat a little on one
+     side, and a handkerchief flourishing away in one hand, is capital;
+     but when she kneels down and says, 'dearest Emily, &c.' you'd swear
+     it was yourself."--[Here the laughter of the auditory prevented
+     Kilkee proceeding, who, to my utter confusion, resumed after a
+     little.]--"Don't be losing your time making up to Lord Callonby's
+     daughter"--[here came another burst of laughter]--"they say here you
+     have not a chance, and moreover she's a downright flirt."--["It is
+     your turn now, Jane," said Kilkee, scarcely able to proceed.]--
+     "Besides that, her father's a pompous old Tory, that won't give a
+     sixpence with her; and the old curmudgeon, your uncle, has as much
+     idea of providing for you, as he has of dying."--[This last sally
+     absolutely convulsed all parties.]--"To be sure Kilkee's a fool, but
+     he is no use to you."--["Begad I thought I was going to escape,"
+     said the individual alluded to, "but your friend O'Leary cuts on
+     every side of him."]  The letter, after some very grave reflections
+     upon the hopelessness of my pursuit, concluded with a kind pledge to
+     meet me soon, and become my travelling companion.  Meanwhile, added
+     he, "I must cross over to London, and look after my new work, which
+     is to come out soon, under the title of 'the Loiterings of Arthur
+     O'Leary.'"
+
+This elegant epistle formed the subject of much laughter and conversation
+amongst us long after it was concluded; and little triumph could be
+claimed by any party, when nearly all were so roughly handled.  So passed
+the last evening I spent in Munich--the next morning I was married.
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+EBOOK EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
+
+Accept of benefits with a tone of dissatisfaction
+Mistaking your abstraction for attention
+My English proves me Irish
+My French always shows me to be English
+Nine-inside  leathern "conveniency," bumping ten miles an hour
+Pleased are we ever to paint the past according to our own fancy
+Sure if he did, doesn’t he take it out o' me in the corns?
+They were so perfectly contented with their self-deception
+Unwashed hands, and a heavy gold ring upon his thumb
+
+
+
+
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CONFESSIONS OF LORREQUER, V6 ***
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+******** This file should be named chl6w10.txt or chl6w10.zip *********
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