fter this, never jealous but on trifles.

The colonel was just as busy on his side, in preparing for the chances
of the morrow: these chances however were never tried; for Captain
Carrington and his confederates had made their arrangements. Mr
Sullivan was already dressed, his wife clinging to him in frantic
despair, when a letter was left at his door, the purport of which was
that Colonel Ellice had discovered that his companions had been joking
with him, when they had asserted that during his state of inebriety, he
had offered any rudeness to Mrs Sullivan. As therefore no offence had
been committed, Colonel Ellice took it for granted that Mr Sullivan
would be satisfied with the explanation.

Mrs Sullivan, who devoured the writing over her husband's shoulder,
sunk down on her knees in gratitude, and was raised to her husband's
arms, who, as he embraced her, acknowledged his injustice.

The same party who wrote this epistle also framed another in imitation
of Mr Sullivan's hand-writing, in which Mr Sullivan acquainted the
Colonel, that having been informed by a mutual friend that he had been
in error relative to Colonel Ellice's behaviour of the night before, he
begged to withdraw the challenge, and apologise for having suspected the
colonel of incivility, etcetera. That having been informed that Colonel
Ellice embarked at an early hour, he regretted that he would not be able
to pay his respects to him, and assure him, etcetera.

The receipt of this letter, just as the colonel had finished a cup of
coffee, preparatory to starting, made him, as a single man, quite as
happy as the married couple; he hastened to put the letter into the
hands of Captain Carrington, little thinking that he was handing it over
to the writer.

"You observe, Captain Carrington, he won't come to the scratch. Perhaps
as well for him that he does not," said the colonel, chuckling in his
glee.

The breakfast was early; the colonel talked big, and explained the whole
affair to the ladies, quite unconscious that every one in the company
knew that the hoax had been played upon him. Before noon, every one had
re-embarked on board of their respective ships, and their lofty sails
were expanded to a light and favouring breeze.

VOLUME TWO, CHAPTER EIGHTEEN.

_Isabel_. Any where to avoid matrimony: the thought of a husband is
terrible to me.

_Inis_. But if you might choose for yourself, I fancy matrimony would
be no such frig