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though ruined, he was still far too high a person to be addressed on such a matter by letter, through a common state messenger, he resolved to send his own secretary, as more becoming the importance of the mission. Accordingly, after being closeted upon it several hours, and furnished with all requisite information both in regard to the subject and the character and former history of the marquess, I was detached on this important embassy.

This attempt at conciliation, and the reasons for selecting me to conduct it, as more reverential and complimentary towards the person to be conciliated, gave me a lesson in party politics which opened new views to me, both as to men and things. Granville congratulated me upon it, as a proof of my advancing fortune under Lord Castleton; and that notion, spite of all resolves, was always closely united to the idea of her whom, for the fiftieth time, I had renounced.

Be this as it might, Granville's intimation was by no means lost upon me; for though I was still possessed by a hopeless attachment, yet I felt more and more that it was hopeless, and this left room for ambition to expand itself. The sanguine temper, therefore, of a young mind, obtained its usual play on this commission of Lord Castleton, and the views of futurity which it gave me much enlivened my journey, at least as far as Ferry-bridge:

for there, even without an important incident that occurred, my thoughts would have taken a far different range.

I certainly did not, as formerly, quit the old road to York, for the sake of a more picturesque country and a finer view of the river ;* but as I got into the latitude of Foljambe, I found my eyes invariably glancing to the left, and my heart beat high, and palpitated more violently than I wished, when I read on a direction-post at the end of a lane, "The cross-road to Foljambe."

At that moment a carriage, of foreign, and, as I thought, German make, came rattling up, the horses of which were from the same house as mine, but the postillion, who had been lately hired, beckoned his fellow-whip, who drove me, to stop, in order to put him in the right road to Foljambe.

"You should have turned to the left on leaving the bridge," said my boy, " and you will scarcely make out the cross-road."

To make things sure, therefore, the boys asked permission to exchange jobs, which was granted by me, and the gentleman of the foreign carriage, who I now perceived, by his air, was a man of very distinguished manner and countenance. He seemed about five-and-twenty, and wore a laced manteau, and cap of handsome sable. The arms on his carriage were of many quarterings, and the shield con* See Vol. I., p. 169.

taining them was borne on the breast of a black eagle, spreading over the whole pannel.

When the boys had changed, and the foreign carriage had moved on, I naturally asked my driver if he knew who the gentleman was whom he had been driving. Think of my surprise, I might say my agitation, when he told me, upon the information of his valet, that he was a German prince, and cousin to a sort of king.

"Good heavens!" I involuntarily exclaimed, " and do you know his name?

"I cannot pernounce it," said the boy, mounting his horse," but it was something about Sacks, and something else which I cannot remember.”

"Was it Saxe Eisenach ?" asked I, with agitation.

"That were like it," answered the postillion, and flourising his whip, the chaise moved on.

"Good heavens!" again cried I-" he is her cousin, and is going to enjoy her society in the ease of family intimacy ;" and I threw myself back in my chaise, with I know not what forebodings.

My reverie upon this lasted many minutes; when reason recovering, I rallied and asked myself—why not? Why should not the most natural thing in the world, a visit from a near relation, take place? But above all, what was it to me? O! but he was so handsome, so striking in his manner, so well dressed! Well, and again, what was that to me?

Alas! I did not like to answer the question. Yet, having asked, I wished to answer it withnothing"-but the word, like the Amen of Macbeth, stuck in my throat.

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I tried to rouse myself, but conjecture upon conjecture pressed upon me all the way to York. My mission, Lord Rochfort, and Lord Castleton himself, were forgotten, and I could think of nothing but Bertha and her handsome cousin-a prince, too!

Was I relieved when I got to York? Let those answer who have ever felt the pangs of, what I thought, despised love, made sharper by jealousy.

On going to the coffee-room to order a mutton chop, and see the London papers, just come in, the first thing I read was the following among the arrivals: Prince Adolphus of Saxe Eisenach, who immediately took post for Yorkshire, it is said, upon a very tender errand, as a treaty of marriage with his cousin, Miss Hastings, the beautiful heiress of Foljambe Park, has long been on the tapis."

The paper fell from my hands. I turned pale, and was seized with tremor. O! how well was I cured!

When I recovered from the shock, I consoled myself in the only manner by which I could be consoled. I would not believe it. How was it possible that this could be, and I not informed of it? Could Granville or Lady Hungerford not

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know it? Alas! I thought they did know it, though they refused to communicate it to me, thinking perhaps that ignorance was bliss; and hence, at once, the solution of the mystery I had so often endeavoured to get them to disclose.

And yet it could not be concealed, and therefore why not tell it? Here was another doubt. But again, on the other hand, what so likely? The connection and intercourse always kept up; the engraving of the young hussar, and his coat armour, hung in the place of honour, in Bertha's summerhouse at Foljambe; the packet from Prince Adolphus, which Bertha took from her father when I was last at the park; the mutual advantages of the match; the probable wishes, and perhaps dying injunctions, of Bertha's mother; and above all, the seeming personal merit of the young prince Oh! how were not the heart and head made the sport of all these contending arguments!

But at length an apparently all-conquering one put an end to doubt. The secret was now out, why Bertha had rejected Sir Harry Melford and Lord Albany, and always kept so aloof from the world; and the unwillingness of her father to encourage their offers, was here well explained. It was clear that she and the prince had long been betrothed.

This settled the question for a while, till doubt was again revived by the total ignorance in which

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