nigh over.

after the great struggles and sorrows of their lives were well Those who are interested in what they have seen of Margaret Hastings and Arundel Raby, and are curious concerning their previous lives, will find an account of them in the following pages.

PART II.

MARRIAGE AND BIRTH.

CHAPTER I.

MY GRANDFATHER'S FAMILY AND THE EARL OF CARLETON'S.

"Thou hast lived, my ancestor, well and happily; neither poor nor rich; learned enough; eloquent enough; ever with a sound mind in a sound body." MARCUS ANTONIUS FLAMINIUS. Trans. SOUTHEY,

"It behoves the high

For their own sakes to do things worthily."

BEN JONSON.

My grandfather, the Reverend Henry Hastings, Rector of Carleton, had been a school and college friend of the late Earl of Carleton (the father of the present earl and Mr. Arundel Raby), and they continued their friendship through life. In early youth, Henry Hastings was far more happily situated than his noble companion, for he was brought up in that "little heaven below," a numerous, intelligent, and affectionate domestic circle. With the young Viscount Merle it was very different. He was an only child, and the heir of large estates; but his home in childhood was wretched, and in boyhood he had no home at all. His father, Francis, fifth Earl of Carleton, was what all the world called a very strange man-an oddity. Some few who knew a little of his private life, said that he was the victim of an uncontrolled temper, a domestic tyrant, a misanthrope, a miser; those who knew him best, servants and persons who had been about him from childhood, said that he was not quite sane; and a few of the plain-speaking kind had been heard to say, that the Earl of Carleton was madder than many a man in Bedlam. He had had a gentle wife whom he killed with terror; and he had often frightened his child into fits; but he went about the world as if it were perfectly safe for the world that he should do so. Once, indeed, the countess's family endeavoured to protect her and her child, by procuring a commission of lunacy against him; but he showed then, that he was only mad north-north-west." He controlled himself so well, that he was pronounced to be of sound mind; and his wife's relations were suspected by the world of conspiracy against him. From that time he showed

a violent antipathy to his wife, whom he contrived to keep always under his own roof, by refusing to let her have her child if she went away. By a perversion of nature, common enough among insane people, his son became an object of suspicion and dislike to him. It was reported that he once attempted the boy's life in a fit of passion. It would be a useless and a revolting task to give any further particulars of the earl's domestic conduct. It remains an open question to this day, whether he was really insane or only very wicked.

On the death of his mother, the young viscount was sent to Eton. His father was glad to have him out of sight. He then shut up Carleton Castle and went abroad, where he was occasionally heard of by English travellers, as the hero of stories that made their hair stand on end.

The "wicked lord," as he was called, was miserly. This showed itself in various ways, but especially in his treatment of his son while at school and at the university. If it had not been for Lady Morton, his father's sister, the boy would often have been without decent clothing, pocket-money, or the common necessaries of a gentleman's son. Lady Morton took a great deal of notice of her nephew, and he generally spent the vacations at her house. I believe I am not assigning to Lady Morton any more of the world's wisdom than is her due, when I say she was actuated to this line of conduct as much by policy as by real affection for her brother's child. Frederick, Viscount Merle, was heir to an earldom and 40,000l. a year. Though his father was a "horrid brute," an undoubted madman," and the boy depended on her and Sir Joseph for many things besides golden "tips," yet the time would certainly come when he would be one of the best matches in England. Lady Morton had five daughters;—and having the gift of prevision on their account, was very glad to make family affection do double duty. She thought a little indulgence and a few guineas well expended on so promising a nephew. And what thought the young viscount? He thought his aunt and uncle were very kind, and he liked his pretty cousins; but he was a clear-sighted as well as an affectionate