h
it was conducted, and with regard to Sir Morgan Walladmor: for else it
was known to all the country beside. How it was that nobody spoke of it
to Sir Morgan, I cannot say: you will wonder that I did not. The truth
is--that, when it came to my knowledge, it was too late (as I saw) to
interfere without misery to both parties, and ruin to one. The chief
objections to the connexion were of course the want of adequate rank
and prospects on the part of Captain Nicholas, and the uncertainty of
his birth. These, in any common case, were no doubt sufficient
objections: still, as Captain Nicholas had raised himself at so very
early an age to the rank of a gentleman, I did not see that they were
insuperable: or, however valid against such an attachment in its first
origin, were less entitled to attention when it had reached its present
stage.

"Miss Walladmor was nearly eighteen, when Sir Morgan came to know of
the affair. He was grieved, and seemed to view it as one of the
judgments upon himself, but did not express any displeasure. Just about
that time Sir Charles Davenant was introduced to Miss Walladmor in the
character of suitor. From the first she declined his addresses with a
firmness that should naturally have at once discouraged a man of his
discernment. But he had encouragement from other quarters:--Sir Morgan
gave him no encouragement; but others amongst Miss Walladmor's
relatives did. Edward Nicholas was too noble to harbour so mean a
passion as jealousy: still he trembled for the effect of a long
persecution upon so gentle a nature as Miss Walladmor's: but in this he
was wrong: for, though the gentlest of creatures, she is one of the
firmest in any point which she conceives essential to her honor. And
this he now found unhappily in a case too nearly affecting himself.

"All at once many stories of outrages, scandalous and even bloody acts,
were revived against the company of smugglers with whom Captain
Nicholas had passed his youth: and with these stories the name of
Edward Nicholas, as the name of their leader, was studiously coupled.
Both Miss Walladmor and her lover being generally favourites amongst
the country people about Walladmor, it was a matter of some wonder to
me whence such stories, which were clearly devised for their
persecution, could arise; and at length I traced them to Gillie Godber.
However they got into some circulation; and, now that the rank of Miss
Walladmor and the universal interest in th