agge made
inquiries for some one who might possess his confidence and have the
legal direction of his affairs. He had changed from this man to that
so often that it was scarcely possible to discover in what quarter the
property was managed. Without any settled plan of procedure, but half
to watch the eventualities that might arise, it was determined that I
should proceed to Castle Carew and present myself as the son and the
heir of the last owner.

If there were circumstances attendant on this step which I by no means
fancied, there was one gratification that more than atoned for them
all: I should see the ancient home of my family; the halls wherein my
father's noble hospitalities had been practised; the chamber which had
been my dear mother's! I own that the sight of the princely domain and
all its attendant wealth, contrasting with my own poverty, served to
extinguish within me the last spark of hope. How could I possibly dream
of success against the power of such adjuncts as these? Were my cause
fortified by every document and evidence, how little would it avail
against the might of vast wealth and resources! Curtis would laugh my
pretensions to scorn, if not treat them with greater violence; and
with such thoughts I found myself one bright morning of June slowly
traversing the approach to the Castle. The sight of the dense dark
woods, the swelling lawns dotted over with grazing cattle, the distant
corn-fields waving beneath a summer wind, and the tall towers of the
Castle itself far off above the trees, all filled my heart with a
strange chaos, in which hope, and fear, and proud ambition, and the very
humblest terrors were all commingled. Although my plan of procedure had
been carefully sketched out for me by Ragge, so confused were all my
thoughts that I forgot everything. I could not even bethink me in what
character and with what pretension I was to present myself, and I was
actually at the very entrance of the Castle, still trying to remember
the part I was to play.

There before me rose the grand and massive edifice, to erect which had
been one of the chief elements of my poor father's ruin. Though far
from architecturally correct in its details, the effect of the whole was
singularly fine. Between two square towers of great size extended a long
facade, in which, from the ornamented style of architraves and brackets,
it was easy to see the chief suite of apartments lay; and in front of
this the ground had be