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his majesty was out of humour with a prince whose shoulders were too sacred for royal indignation.

"So you see," concluded Lord Castleton, lowering his voice, "that your uncle, amongst all his other causes of sorrow, may think at least that his name is spared in his son's. And the young man himself may find reform easier, when freed from that despair of the possibility of redemption, which Mrs. Grundy inflicts upon those who-Courage, then; life is long!"

"My very words!" I cried; "and so repeated by you, Lord Castleton, they seem prophetic."

"Take my advice, and don't lose sight of your cousin, while his pride is yet humbled, and his heart perhaps

softened. I don't say this only for his sake. No, it is your poor uncle I think of noble old fellow. And now, I think it right to pay Lady Ellinor the respect of repairing, as well as I can, the havoc three sleepless nights have made on the exterior of a gentleman who is on the shady side of remorseless forty."

Lord Castleton here left me, and I wrote to my father, begging him to meet us at the next stage, (which was the nearest point from the high road to the Tower,) and I sent off the letter by a messenger on horseback. That task done, I leant my head upon my hand, and a profound sadness settled upon me, despite all my efforts to face the future, and think only of the duties of life-not its sorrows.

CHAPTER LXXXIII.

Before nine o'clock, Lady Ellinor arrived, and went straight into Miss Trevanion's room. I took refuge in my uncle's. Roland was awake and calm, but so feeble that he made no effort to rise; and it was his calm, indeed, that alarmed me the most-it was like the calm of nature thoroughly exhausted. He obeyed me mechanically, as a patient takes from your hand the draught, of which he is almost unconscious, when I pressed him to take food. He smiled on me faintly when I spoke to him; but made me a sign that seemed to implore silence. Then he turned his face from me, and buried it in the pillow; and I thought that he slept again, when, raising himself a little, and feeling for my hand, he said in a scarcely audible voice,

"Where is he?"

"Would you see him, sir?"

"No, no; that would kill me-and then-what would become of him?"

"He has promised me an interview, and in that interview I feel assured he will obey your wishes, whatever they are."

Roland made no answer. "Lord Castleton has arranged all, so that his name and madness (thus let us call it) will never be known." "Pride, pride! pride still!"mured the old soldier. "The name,

-mur

the name-well, that is much; but the living soul!-I wish Austin were here."

"I have sent for him, sir."

Roland pressed my hand, and was again silent. Then he began to mutter, as I thought, incoherently, about "the Peninsular and obeying orders; and how some officer woke Lord Wellesley at night, and said that something or other (I could not catch what-the phrase was technical and military) was impossible; and how Lord Wellesley asked 'Where's the order-book? and looking into the order-book, said, 'Not at all impossible, for it is in the order-book; and so Lord Wellesley turned round and went to sleep again." Then suddenly Roland half rose, and said in a voice clear and firm, "But Lord Wellesley, though a great captain, was a fallible man, sir, and the order-book was his own mortal handiwork. Get me the Bible !"

Oh Roland, Roland! and I had feared that thy mind was wandering!

So I went down and borrowed a Bible in large characters, and placed it on the bed before him, opening the shutters, and letting in God's day upon God's word.

I had just done this, when there was a slight knock at the door. I opened it, and Lord Castleton stood

without. He asked me, in a whisper,
if he might see my uncle. I drew
him in gently, and pointed to the sol-
dier of life "learning what was not
impossible" from the unerring Order-
Book.

Lord Castleton gazed with a changing countenance, and, without disturbing my uncle, stole back. I followed him, and gently closed the door.

"You must save his son," he said in a faltering voice-"you must; and tell me how to help you. That sight! -no sermon ever touched me more. Now come down, and receive Lady Ellinor's thanks. We are going. She wants me to tell my own tale to my old friend, Mrs. Grundy: so I go with them. Come."

61

indeed woke my sense, and made my blood run çold to hear, the tramp of the horses, the grating of the wheels, the voice at the door that said "All was ready."

My

they met mine; and then involuntarily Then Fanny lifted her eyes, and and hastily she moved a few steps towards me, and I clasped my right beating, and remained still. Lord hand to my heart, as if to still its Castleton had watched us both. I felt that watch was upon us, though I had till then shunned his looks; now, as I turned my eyes from Fanny's, that look came soft, compassionate, full upon me Suddenly, and with an unutterable benignant. On entering the sitting-room, Lady turned to Lady Ellinor, and saidexpression of nobleness, the marquis Ellinor came up, and fairly embraced me. I need not repeat her thanks, story. A friend of mine-a man of "Pardon me for telling you an old still less the praises, which fell cold my own years, had the temerity and hollow on my ear. My gaze to hope that he might one day or other rested on Fanny where she stood apart win the affections of a lady young -her eyes, heavy with fresh tears, bent enough to be his daughter, and whom on the ground. And the sense of all circumstances and his own heart led her charms-the memory of the ten- him to prefer from all her sex. der, exquisite kindness she had shown friend had many rivals; and you will to the stricken father; the generous not wonder-for you have seen the pardon she had extended to the cri- lady. Among them was a young genminal son; the looks she had bent tleman, who for months had been an inupon me on that memorable night- mate of the same house-(Hush, Lady looks that had spoken such trust in Ellinor! you will hear me out; the my presence-the moment in which interest of my story is to come)-who she had clung to me for protection, respected the sanctity of the house he and her breath been warm upon my had entered, and left it when he felt cheek, all these rushed over me; he loved-for he was poor, and the and I felt that the struggle of months lady rich. Some time after, this genwas undone that I had never loved tleman saved the lady from a great her as I loved her then-when I saw danger, and was then on the eve of her but to lose her evermore! And leaving England -(Hush! againthen there came for the first, and, I hush!) My friend was present when now rejoice to think, for the only these two young persons met, before time, a bitter, ungrateful accusation the probable absence of many years, against the cruelty of fortune and the and so was the mother of the lady to disparities of life. What was it that whose hand he still hoped one day to set our two hearts eternally apart, aspire. He saw that his young rival and made hope impossible? Not wished to say, 'Farewell!' and withnature, but the fortune that gives a out a witness: that farewell was all second nature to the world. could I then think that it is in that suffer him to say. My friend saw that Ah, that his honour and his reason could second nature that the soul is ordained the lady felt the natural gratitude for to seek its trials, and that the ele- a great service, and the natural pity ments of human virtue find their for a generous and unfortunate affecharmonious place! What I answered tion; for so, Lady Ellinor, he only I know not. Neither know I how interpreted the sob that reached his long I stood there listening to sounds ear! What think you my friend did? which seemed to have no meaning, Your high mind at once conjectures. till there came other sounds which He said to himself 'If I am ever

to be blest with the heart which, in spite of disparity of years, I yet hope to win, let me show how entire is the trust that I place in its integrity and innocence let the romance of first youth be closed-the farewell of pure hearts be spoken-unimbittered by the idle jealousies of one mean suspicion. With that thought, which you, Lady Ellinor, will never stoop to blame, he placed his hand on that of the noble mother, drew her gently towards the door, and, calmly confident of the result, left these two young natures to the unwitnessed impulse of maiden honour and manly duty."

All this was said and done with a grace and earnestness that thrilled the listeners word and action suited each to each with so inimitable a harmony, that the spell was not broken till the voice ceased and the door closed.

That mournful bliss for which I had so pined was vouchsafed: I was alone with her to whom, indeed, honour and reason forbade me to say more than the last farewell.

It was some time before we recovered -before we felt that we were alone.

O ye moments! that I can now recall with so little sadness in the mellow and sweet remembrance, rest ever holy and undisclosed in the solemn recesses of the heart. Yes! whatever confession of weakness was interchanged, we were not unworthy of the trust that permitted the mournful consolation of the parting. No trite love-tale-with vows not to be fulfilled, and 'hopes that the future must belie-mocked the realities of the life that lay before us. Yet on the confines of the dream, we saw the day rising cold upon the world: and if children as we wellnigh were we shrunk somewhat from the light, we did not blaspheme the sun, and cry "There is darkness in the dawn!"

All that we attempted was to comfort and strengthen each other for that which must be not seeking to conceal the grief we felt, but promising, with simple faith, to struggle against the grief. If vow were pledged between us that was the voweach for the other's sake would strive to enjoy the blessings Heaven left us still. Well may I say that we were children! I know not, in the broken words that passed between us, in the sorrowful hearts which those words revealed-I know not if there were that which they who own, in human passion, but the storm and the whirlwind, would call the love of maturer years-the love that gives fire to the song, and tragedy to the stage; but I know that there was neither a word nor a thought which made the sorrow of the children a rebellion to the heavenly Father.

And again the door unclosed, and Fanny walked with a firm step to her mother's side, and, pausing there, extended her hand to me, and said, as I bent over it, "Heaven WILL be with you!"

A word from Lady Ellinor; a frank smile from him-the rival; one last, last glance from the soft eyes of Fanny, and then solitude rushed upon me-rushed, as something visible, palpable, overpowering. I felt it in the glare of the sunbeam-I heard it in the breath of the air: like a ghost it rose there-where she had filled the space with her presence but a moment before? A something seemed gone from the universe for ever; a change like that of death passed through my being; and when I woke to feel that my being lived again, I knew that it was my youth and its poet-land that were no more, and that I had passed with an unconscious step, which never could retrace its way, into the hard world of laborious man!

63

THE GAME LAWS IN SCOTLAND.

THOSE who have been accustomed to watch the tactics of the Manchester party cannot have overlooked or for gotten the significant coincidence, in point of time, between Mr. Bright's attack on the Game Laws, and the last grand assault upon the barrier which formerly protected British agriculture. That wily lover of peace among all orders of men saw how much it would assist the ultimate designs of his party to excite distrust and enmity between the two great divisions of the protectionist garrison-the owners and the cultivators of land; and the anti-game-law demonstration was planned for that purpose. The manœuvre was rendered useless by the sudden and unconditional surrender of the fortress by that leader, whose system of defence has ever been, as Capefigue says "céder incessamment." It is impossible, however, to disguise the true source of the sudden sympathy for the farmers' grievances, which in 1845 and 1846 yearned in the compassionate bowels of the agrarian leaders, and led to the lengthened inquiries of Mr. Bright's committee.

But it seems we are not yet done with the game-law agitation. It is true the last rampart of protection is levelled to the ground; but the subjugation of the country interest to the potentates of the factory is not yet accomplished. The owners of the soil have not yet bowed low enough to the Baal of free trade; their influence is not altogether obliterated, nor their privileges sufficiently curtailed; and therefore Mr. Bright and the Anti-Game-Law Association have buckled on their armour once more, and the tenantry are again invited to join in the crusade against those who, they are assured, have always been their inveterate oppressors; and, to cut off as much as possible the remotest chance of an amicable settlement, it is proclaimed that no concession will be accepted-no proposal of adjustment listened to-short of the total and immediate abolition of every statute on the subject of game.

The truth is, that this branch of

the agitation trade is too valuable to be lost sight of by those who earn their bread or their popularity in that line of business. Hundreds of honest peasants, rotting in unwholesome gaols, their wives and children herded in thousands to the work house-hardworking tenants sequestered by a grasping and selfish aristocracythese are all too fertile topics for the platform philanthropist to be risked by leaving open any door for conciliation; and therefore the terms demanded are such as it is well known cannot be accepted.

the doings of an association which Our attention has been attracted to has for its professed object the abolition of all game laws, and which has recently opened a new campaign in Scotland, under the leadership of the chief magistrate of Edinburgh, and one of the representatives of the city. Of course the construction of such societies is no longer a mystery to any one; and that under our notice appears to be got up on the most approved pattern, and with all the newest improvements. A staff of active officials di-lecturers, pamphleteers, newspaper rects its movements, and collects funds editors are paid or propitiated. From the raw material of Mr. Bright's bluebooks the most exaggerated statements and calculations of the most zealous witnesses are carefully picked out, and worked up into a picture, which is held up to a horrified public as a true representation of the condition of the rural districts; and the game laws become, in the hands of such artists, a monster pestilence, enough to have made the hair of Pharaoh himself to stand on end. It is not to be wondered at if some, who have not had the opportunity of investigating for themselves the effects of these laws, have been misled by the bold ingenuity of the professed fabricators of grievances; but it is a fact which we shall again have occasion to notice, that they have made but little impression on the tenant farmers. Of the few members of that in the agitation, we doubt if there is class who have taken an active share

one who could prove a loss from game on any year's crop to the value of a five-pound note.* The fact is, that while no one will deny the existence of individual cases of hardship from the operation of the game laws, you will hear comparatively little about them among those who are represented as groaning under their intolerable burden. If you would learn the weight of the grievance, you must go to the burghs and town-councils; and there among small grocers and dissenting clergymen, who would be puzzled to distinguish a pheasant from a bird-ofparadise-you will be made acquainted with the extent of the desolation of these "fearful wildfowl:" from them you will learn the true shape and dimensions of "the game-law incubus," which, as one orator of the tribe tells us, "is gradually changing the surface of this once fertile land into a desert.”

But while we are willing to allow for a certain leaven of misled sincerity among the supporters of this association, it is evident that, among its most active and influential leaders, the relief of the farmer or the relaxation of penal laws is not the real object. We shall show from their own writings and speeches the most convincing proof that they contemplate far more extensive and fundamental changes than the mere abolition of the game laws. There is not, indeed, much congruity or system in the opinions which we shall have to quote; but in one point it will be seen that they all concur-a vindictive hostility to the possessors of land, and an eager desire to abridge or destroy the advantages attached, or supposed to be attached, to that description of property. Thus the system of entails-the freedom of real property from legacy and probate duty-the landlord's preferable lien for the rent of his land, figure in the debates of the abolitionist orators, along with other topics equally relevant to the game laws, as oppressive burdens on the industry of the coun

try. The system of the tenure of land, also, is pronounced to be a crying injustice; and one gentleman modestly insists on the necessity of a law for compelling the landlord to make payment to his tenant at the expiry of every lease for any increase in the value of the farm during his occupation. The author of an "Essay on the Evils of Game-Laws," which the association rewarded with their highest premium, and which, therefore, we are fairly entitled to take as an authorized exposition of their sentiments, thus enlarges on "the withering and ruinous thraldom" to which the farmers are subjected by a system of partial legislation.

"No individual," he complains, "of this trade has ever risen to importance and dignity in the state. While merchants of every other class, lawyers, and professional men of every other class, have often reached the highest honours which the crown has to bestow, no farmer has ever yet attained even to a seat in the legisla ture, or to any civic title of distinction; uncertain as the trade is naturally, and harassed and weighed down by those sad enactments the game laws, to be enrolled among the class of farmers is now tantamount to saying, that you belong to a caste which is for ever excluded from the rewards of fair and honourable ambition.”—(Mr. Cheine Shepherd's Essay. Edinburgh, 1847.)

The association of the game laws with the scorns which "patient merit of the unworthy takes," is at least ingenious. We confess, with Mr. Cheine Shepherd, that the aspect of the times is wofully discouraging to any hope that a coronet, "or even the lowest order of knighthood," will in our days become the usual reward for skill

"In small-boned lambs, the horse-hoe, or the

drill."

We cannot flatter him with the prospect of becoming a Cincinnatus; or that we shall live to see the time when muck shall make marquisates as well as money; and perhaps the best ad

"The game agitators are individuals who suffer a little, and see their brethren suffering more, and who have their feelings annoyed; and those who are not hurt at all by game, but will strike at any public wrong."-Speech of Mr. Munro, one of the Council of the Association

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