. The masterly eloquence of Percy
carried the day, and he hoped young Myrvin was free from all further
attacks. He was mistaken: another party, headed by the defeated but
enraged Lord, who had been roused to a state of fury by young Hamilton's
appearance, surrounded the unhappy young man in the college court, and
preventing all egress, heaped every sarcastic insult upon him, words
that could not fail to sting his haughty spirit to the quick. Myrvin's
eye flashed with sudden and unwonted lustre, and ere Herbert, who with
his brother had hastily joined the throng, could prevent it, he had
raised his arm and felled his insulting opponent to the ground. A wild
uproar ensued, the civil officers appeared, and young Myrvin was
committed, under the charge of wilfully, and without provocation,
attacking the person of the right honourable Marquis of --.

The indignation of Percy and Herbert was now at its height; and without
hesitation the former sought the principal of his college, and in a few
brief but emphatic sentences placed the whole affair before him in its
true light, condemning with much feeling the cowardly and cruel conduct
of the true aggressors, and so convinced the worthy man of the injustice
done towards the person of young Myrvin, that he was instantly
released, with every honour that could soothe his troubled feelings,
and a severe reprimand bestowed on the real authors of the affray.

Percy pursued his advantage; the noble heart of the young Welshman was
touched by this generous interference in his behalf, and when the
brothers followed him in his solitary walk the following day, he
resisted them not. Gratefully he acknowledged the debt he owed them,
confessed he would rather have received such a benefit from them than
from any others in the college, and at length, unable to resist the
frankly proffered friendship of Percy, the silent entreaty of Herbert,
he grasped with convulsive pressure their offered hands, and promised
faithfully he would avoid them no more. From that hour the weight of his
reverses was less difficult to bear. In the society, the conversation of
Herbert, he forgot his cares; innate nobleness was visible in Myrvin's
every thought, act, and word, and he became dear indeed to the soul of
Herbert Hamilton, even as a brother he loved him. Warm, equally warm
perhaps, was the mutual regard of Myrvin and Percy, though the latter
was not formed for such deep unchanging emotion evinced in the charac