d
must pull till I fall asleep. My purpose in keeping you from your
pillow at this time of night, is not to relieve myself from trouble;
but to ask whether you are disposed to relieve the government from
serious difficulty, and in a way which I hope will be not disagreeable
to yourself." I concluded that my mission was to be continental, and
my heart danced at the suggestion. In England it was impossible to
continue my search for the being in whom all my thoughts were fixed;
but once beyond the sea I should have the world before me. I asked
whether there was any intention of trying the chances of attack again
on the French frontier.

"None whatever. The greater probability is, that the French will make
some experiment on the strength of ours."

I looked all astonishment. He interpreted my look, and said--"To solve
the enigma at once, It is our wish to send you to Ireland."

I listened in silence while he went into a long detail of the hazard
of the island, arising from the interests of a powerful republican
party, who, inflamed by the successes of France, were preparing to
receive troops and arms from the republic. He finished by saying, in a
tone of compliment, which, from him, was as unusual as I believe it
was sincere, that my exertions in debate had attracted high
consideration in the highest quarter, and that I had been proposed by
the monarch himself for the chief-secretaryship of Ireland. The
premier had assented to the appointment at once; "and here," said he,
"is the warrant, which I have prepared in anticipation of its
acceptance. You are, from this moment, virtual viceroy of Ireland."

This was elevation indeed! I had at once surmounted all the slow
gradations of office. The broadest prospect of official ambition had
suddenly opened before me; popularity, founded on the most solid
grounds, was now waiting only my acceptance; the sense of power,
always dear to the heart of man, glowed in every vein; and it is only
justice to myself to say, that the strongest impulse of all was the
desire to leave my name as a benefactor to a people, who seemed to me
as much gifted by nature as they were unhappy by circumstances.

"How long will it take you to prepare for the journey?" asked the
minister.

"Half an hour," was my reply.

"Bravo! Marston. I see your campaigning has not been thrown away upon
you. You have the soldier's promptitude. We were prepared to allow you
a week. But the sooner you set off the bette