carry our banner loftily, and _I_ may with safety go on my humble
path unnoticed."

Jack had always been his favorite brother: his joyous nature, his
sailor-like frankness, his spirit, and his willingness to oblige,
contrasted very favorably with Temple's sedate, cautious manner, and
the traces of a selfishness that never forgot itself. Had Jack been the
second son instead of the youngest, Augustus would have abdicated in his
favor at once, but he could not make such a sacrifice for Temple. All
the less that the very astute diplomatist continually harped on the sort
of qualities which were required to dispense an ample fortune, and more
than insinuated how much such a position would become himself, while
another might only regard it as a burden and a worry. It was certainly
a great shock to him to learn that there was a claimant to his family
fortune and estate: the terrible feeling that they were to appear before
the world as impostors--holding a station and dispensing a wealth to
which they had no right--almost overcame him. The disgrace of a public
exposure, the notoriety it would evoke, were about the most poignant
sufferings such a man could be brought to endure. He to whom a newspaper
comment, a mere passing notice of his name, was a source of pain and
annoyance,--that he should figure in a great trial, and his downfall be
made the theme of moral reflections in a leading article! How was this
to be borne? What could break the fall from a position of affluence and
power to a condition of penury and insignificance? Nothing,--if not the
spirit which, by meeting disaster half-way, seemed at least to accept
the inevitable with courage, and so carry a high heart in the last
moments of defeat.

Augustus well knew what a mistaken estimate the world had ever formed of
his timid, bashful nature, and this had given his manner a semblance of
pride and hauteur which made the keynote of his character. It was all
in vain that he tried to persuade people that he had not an immeasurable
self-conceit. They saw it in his every word and gesture, in his coolness
when they approached him, in his almost ungraciousness when they were
courteous to him. "Many will doubtless declare," said he, "that this
reverse of fortune is but a natural justice on one who plumed himself
too much on his prosperity, and who arrogated too far on the accident
of his wealth. If so, I can but say they will not judge me fairly. They
will know nothing of where