th certain casual hints about the habits and customs
of the natives, as might well be supposed sufficient to deter a more
adventurous traveller than the old baronet; and while he pressed him to
come, and see for himself, he at the same time plied him with newspapers
and journals, whose columns were crammed with the fertile theme of
outrage; the editorial comments on which often indicated a barbarism
even deeper than the offence they affected to deplore. The accident
which ultimately led to Sir Marmaduke's hurried journey, was a casualty
which Hemsworth had overlooked, and when he heard that the family were
actually domesticated at "the Lodge," his regrets were indeed great. It
was only on the day before the intelligence reached him--for the letter
had followed him from place to place for a fortnight--that he had the
misfortune to break his leg, by a fall from a cliff in deer shooting.
Whatever the urgency of the measure, he was totally incapable of
undertaking a journey to Ireland, whither, under other circumstances, he
would have hastened with all speed. Hemsworth's correspondent, of whom
we shall have occasion to speak more, hereafter, was the sub-agent of
the estate,--a creature of his own, in every sense, and far more in his
interest, than in that of his principal. He told him, in forcible terms,
how Sir Marmaduke had commenced his work of Irish reformation; that,
already, both the baronet and his daughter had undertaken the task
of improvement among the tenantry; that rents were to be lowered,
school-houses erected, medical aid provided for the sick and suffering,
more comfortable dwellings built, more liberal wages allowed; he
narrated, how rapidly the people, at first suspicious and distrustful,
were learning to feel confidence in their benefactor, and anxious to
avail themselves of his benevolence; but more than all, he dwelt
upon the conviction, which every hour gained ground among them, that
Hemsworth had misrepresented the landlord, and that, so far from being
himself the instrument of, he had been the obstacle to, their welfare
and happiness. The letter concluded with a pressing entreaty for his
speedy return to "the Lodge," as, should he be longer absent, the
mischief would become past remedy.

Never did agent receive an epistle more alarming; he saw the game, for
which he had been playing half a lifetime, slip from him at the very
moment of winning. For above twenty years his heart was set upon
becoming th