_Northern Echo_.

The possibility of my becoming assistant editor to the editor of the
_Pall Mall Gazette_ seemed at that time about as remote as that of
the Moderator of the Free Church of Scotland receiving a cardinal's hat
from the Pope of Rome. Nevertheless, no sooner had Mr. Gladstone been
seated in power than Mr. George Smith handed over the _Pall Mall
Gazette_ to his son-in-law, Mr. Henry Yates Thompson. Mr. Greenwood
departed to found and edit the _St. James' Gazette_, and Mr. Morley
became editor. Even then I never dreamed of going to the _Pall
Mall_. Two other North-country editors and I, thinking that Mr.
Morley was left in rather a difficulty by the secession of several of
the _Pall Mall_ staff, agreed to send up occasional contributions
solely for the purpose of enabling Mr. Morley to get through the
temporary difficulty in which he was placed by being suddenly summoned
to edit a daily paper under such circumstances.

Midsummer had hardly passed before Mr. Thompson came down to Darlington
and offered me the assistant editorship. The proprietor of the
_Northern Echo_ kindly waived his right to my services in deference
to the request of Mr. Morley. As a result I left the _Northern
Echo_ in September, 1880, and my presentiment was fulfilled. At the
time when it was first impressed upon my mind, no living being probably
anticipated the possibility of such a change occurring in the _Pall
Mall Gazette_ as would render it possible for me to become assistant
editor, so that the presentiment could in no way have been due to any
possible calculation of chances on my part.

_The Editorship of the "Pall Mall Gazette."_

The second presentiment to which I shall refer was also connected with
the _Pall Mall Gazette_, and was equally clear and without any
suggestion from outward circumstances. It was in October, 1883. My wife
and I were spending a brief holiday in the Isle of Wight, and I remember
that the great troopers, which had just brought back Lord Wolseley's
army from the first Egyptian campaign, were lying in the Solent when we
crossed. One morning about noon we were walking in the drizzling rain
round St. Catherine's Point. It was a miserable day, the ground slippery
and the footpath here and there rather difficult to follow. Just as we
were at about the ugliest part of our climb I felt distinctly, as it
were, a voice within myself saying: You will have to look sharp and make
ready, because by a certain dat