"Don't defer her happiness, then," said he, half-sternly; "I'll sit down
on the rocks here and con over my less pleasant correspondence." One was
from his lawyer, to state that outlawry could no longer be resisted,
and that if his friends would not come forward at once with some
satisfactory promise of arrangement, the law must take its course. "My
friends," said he, with a bitter laugh, "which be they?" The next he
opened was from the army agents, dryly setting forth that as he had
left the service it was necessary he should take some immediate steps
to liquidate some regimental claims against him, of which they begged to
enclose the particulars. He laughed bitterly and scornfully as he tore
the letter to fragments and threw the pieces into the water. "How well
they know the man they threaten!" cried he defiantly. "I'd like to know
how much a drowning man cares for his duns?" He laughed again. "Now for
Drayton. I hope this will be pleasanter than its predecessors." It was
not very long, and it was as follows:

"The Rag, Tuesday.

"Dear Harry,--Your grateful compliments on the dexterity of
my correspondence in the Meteor arrived at an unlucky
moment, for some fellow had just written to the editor a
real statement of the whole affair, and the next day came a
protest, part French, part English, signed by Edward
Rochefort, Lieutenant-Colonel; Gustavus Brooke, D.L.;
George Law, M.D.; Albericde Raymond, Vicomte, and Jules de
Lassagnac. They sent for me to the office to see the
document, and I threw all imaginable discredit on its
authenticity, but without success. The upshot is, _I_ have
lost my place as 'own correspondent,' and you are in a very
bad way. The whole will appear in print to-morrow, and be
read from Hudson's Bay to the alaya. I have done my best to
get the other papers to disparage the statement, and have
written all the usual bosh about condemning a man in his
absence, and entreating the public to withhold its judgment,
&c. &c; but they all seem to feel that the tide of popular
sentiment is too strong to resist, and you must be
pilloried; prepare yourself, then, for a pitiless pelting,
which, as parliament is not sitting, will probably have a
run of three or four weeks.

"In any other sort of scrape, the fellows at the club here
would have stood by you, but they shrink from the danger of