WITHOUT A PROFESSION.

AUTHOR OF

BY

CHARLES ROWCROFT,

TALES OF THE COLONIES OR THE ADVENTURES
OF AN EMIGRANT."

IN THREE VOLUMES.

VOL. I.

LONDON

SAUNDERS AND OTLEY, CONDUIT STREET.

THE

MAN WITHOUT A PROFESSION.

CHAPTER I.

"Now sit thee down, and tell me all this story;
And tell it not, I pray thee, as some do,
Who prate conceitedly more of themselves

Than of the subject matter of their tale,
But tell thy tale straight on; and bear in mind,
It is not of thyself that I would hear,

But of this child."

THE LORD AND THE SERVING-MAN.

In the winter of 1803, a lady and gentleman sat by a cheerful fire in the old-fashioned library of a country house. The gentleman, who had rather a military air, had reached his fortieth year; the lady, who was still hand