, vouched for the absence of the
owners. The same dreamy lethargy that seemed to rest over the deserted
city appeared to pervade everything; and save a certain subdued activity
among the officials of the Castle,--a kind of ground-swell movement
that boded something important,--there was nothing stirring. The great
measure of the Union, which had been carried on the night of the riots,
had, however, annihilated the hopes of the Irish Liberal party; and many
who once had taken a leading part in politics had now deserted public
life forever.

They with whom I associated cared but little for these things. There
were but two or three Irish in the regiment, and they had long since
lost all their nationality in the wear and tear of the service; so that
I heard nothing of what occupied the public mind, and lived on, in the
very midst of the threatening hurricane, in a calm as deep as death
itself.

I had seen neither Barton nor Basset since the day of my leave-taking;
and, stranger still, never could meet with Darby, who seemed to have
deserted Dublin. The wreck of the party he belonged to seemed now
effectually accomplished, and the prospect of Irish independence was
lost, as it seemed, forever.

I was sitting one evening in the window of Bubbleton's quarters,
thinking over these things; not without self-reproach for the life I
was leading, so utterly adverse to the principles I had laid down for my
guidance. I thought of poor De Meudon, and all his ambitious dreams for
my success, and I felt my cheek flush with shame for my base desertion
of the cause to which, with his dying breath, he devoted me. I brought
up in memory those happy evenings as we wandered through the fields,
talking over the glorious campaigns of Italy or speculating on the
mighty changes we believed yet before us; and then I thought of the
reckless orgies in which my present life was passed. I remembered how
his full voice would falter when one great name fell from his lips;
and with what reverence he touched his chapeau as the word "Bonaparte"
escaped from him; and how my heart thrilled to think of an enthusiasm
that could light up the dying embers of a broken heart, and make it
flash out in vivid brilliancy once more,--and longed to feel as he did.

For the first time for some weeks I found myself alone. Bubbleton was
on guard; and though I had promised to join him at supper, I lingered
at home to think and ponder over the past,--I scarcely dared to f