o look for Lady
Julia, but she was gone, when and how I knew not; so I sat down at the
fire to ruminate alone over my present position, and my prospects for
the future.

*****

*****

*****

These few and imperfect passages may put the reader in possession of
some, at least, of the circumstances which accompanied my outset in
life; and if they be not sufficiently explicit, I can only say, that he
knows fully as much of me as at the period in question I did of myself.

At Eton, I had been what is called rather a smart boy, but incorrigibly
idle; at Sandhurst, I showed more ability, and more disinclination to
learn. By the favour of a royal Duke (who had been my godfather), my
commission in a marching regiment was exchanged for a lieutenancy in
the Guards; and at the time I write of I had been some six months in
the service, which I spent in all the whirl and excitement of London
society. My father, who, besides being a distinguished officer, was one
of the most popular men among the clubs, my mother, a London beauty
of some twenty years' standing, were claims sufficient to ensure me no
common share of attention, while I added to the number what, in my own
estimation at least were, certain very decided advantages of a purely
personal nature.

To obviate, as far as might be, the evil results of such a career, my
father secretly asked for the appointment on the staff of the noble
Duke then Viceroy of Ireland, in preference to what my mother
contemplated--my being attached to the royal household. To remove
me alike from the enervating influence of a mother's vanity, and the
extravagant profusion and voluptuous abandonment of London habits, this
was his object. He calculated, too, that by new ties, new associations,
and new objects of ambition, I should be better prepared, and more
desirous of that career of real service to which in his heart he
destined me. These were his notions, at least; the result must be
gleaned from my story.

CHAPTER II. THE IRISH PACKET

A few nights after the conversation I have briefly alluded to, and
pretty much about the same hour, I aroused myself from the depression of
nearly thirty hours' sea-sickness, on hearing that at length we were in
the bay of Dublin. Hitherto I had never left the precincts of the narrow
den denominated my berth; but now I made my way eagerly on deck, anxious
to catch a glimpse, however faint, of that bold coast I had more than
once heard compared with,