said I, "only a would-be one. I am a gentleman by birth,
family, and fortune; but taking it into my head, in a foolish hour,
that I should like the excitement of an actor's life, I fled from home,
quitted friends, relatives, affluence, and ease, to follow a strolling
company. At another time I may relate to you all the disguises I assumed
to escape detection. Immense sums were offered for my apprehension--why
do I say _were?_--ay, Cullinane, are offered. I will not deceive you. It
is in your power this instant, by surrendering me to my family, to earn
five thousand dollars!"

"Do ye think I'd be--"

"No, I do not. In proof of my confidence in you, hear my story. We
travelled through the States at first by unfrequented routes till we
reached the North, when, gaining courage, I ventured to take a high
range of characters, and, I will own it, with success. At last we came
to Canada, in which country, although the reward had not been announced,
my father had acquainted all the principal people with my flight,
entreating them to do their utmost to dissuade me from a career so far
below my rank and future prospects. Among others, he wrote to an old
friend and schoolfellow, the Governor-General, requesting his aid in
this affair. I was always able, from other sources, to learn every
step that was taken with this object; so that I not only knew this, but
actually possessed a copy of my father's letter to Lord Poynder,
wherein this passage occurred: 'Above all things, my dear Poynder, no
publicity, no exposure! Remember the position Cornelius will one day
hold, and let him not be ashamed when he may meet you in after-life. If
the silly boy can be induced, by his own sense of dignity, to abandon
this unworthy pursuit, so much the better; but coercion would, I fear,
give faint hope of eradicating the evil.' Now, as I perceived that no
actual force was to be employed against me, I did not hesitate to
appear in the part for which the bills announced me. Have you ever read
Shakespeare?"

"No, sir," said Joe, respectfully.

"Well, no matter. I was to appear as Hamlet,--this is the dress of that
character,--little suspecting, indeed, how the applause I was accustomed
to receive was to be changed. To be brief. In the very centre of the
dress-circle was the Governor himself, he came with his whole staff, but
with out any previous intimation. No sooner had I made my entrance on
the scene,--scarcely had I begun that magnificent solilo