n, I say, Stirn!" But Stirn
had forced his way through the hedge and vanished. Thus left to his own
powers of narrative at secondhand, Mr. Hazeldean now told all he had to
communicate,--the assault upon Randal Leslie, and the prompt punishment
inflicted by Stirn; his own indignation at the affront to his young
kinsman, and his good-natured merciful desire to save the culprit from
public humiliation.

The parson, mollified towards the rude and hasty invention of the
beer-drinking, took the squire by the hand. "Ah, Mr. Hazeldean, forgive
me," he said repentantly; "I ought to have known at once that it was
only some ebullition of your heart that could stifle your sense of
decorum. But this is a sad story about Lenny brawling and fighting on
the Sabbath-day. So unlike him, too. I don't know what to make of it."

"Like or unlike," said the squire, "it has been a gross insult to young
Leslie, and looks all the worse because I and Audley are not just the
best friends in the world. I can't think what it is," continued Mr.
Hazeldean, musingly; "but it seems that there must be always some
association of fighting connected with that prim half-brother of mine.
There was I, son of his own mother,--who might have been shot through
the lungs, only the ball lodged in the shoulder! and now his wife's
kinsman--my kinsman, too--grandmother a Hazeldean,--a hard-reading,
sober lad, as I am given to understand, can't set his foot into the
quietest parish in the three kingdoms, but what the mildest boy that
ever was seen makes a rush at him like a mad bull. It is FATALITY!"
cried the squire, solemnly.

"Ancient legend records similar instances of fatality in certain
houses," observed Riccabocca. "There was the House of Pelops, and
Polynices and Eteocles, the sons of OEdipus."

"Pshaw!" said the parson; "but what's to be done?"

"Done?" said the squire; "why, reparation must be made to young
Leslie. And though I wished to spare Lenny, the young ruffian, a public
disgrace--for your sake, Parson Dale, and Mrs. Fairfield's--yet a good
caning in private--"

"Stop, sir!" said Riccabocca, mildly, "and hear me." The Italian then,
with much feeling and considerable tact, pleaded the cause of his poor
protege, and explained how Lenny's error arose only from mistaken zeal
for the squire's service, and in the execution of the orders received
from Mr. Stirn.

"That alters the matter," said the squire, softened; "and all that is
necessary now will