on "the Lodge" furnished also its theme of terror;
and so artfully did he blend his fact and fiction, his true statement,
and his false inference, that the young man read the epistle with an
anxious and beating heart, and longed for the hour, when he should
recall those he held dearest, from such a land of anarchy and
misfortune.

Not satisfied with the immediate object in view, Hemsworth ingeniously
contrived to instil into Frederick's mind misgivings as to the value of
an estate thus circumstanced, representing, not without some truth on
his side, that the only chance of bettering the condition of a peasantry
so sunk and degraded, was by an actual residence in the midst of them, a
penalty, which to the youth, seemed too dear for any requital whatever.

On a separate slip of paper, marked "to be burned when read," Frederick
deciphered the following lines:--

"Above all things, I would caution you regarding a family
who, though merely of the rank of farmer, affect a gentility
which had its origin some dozen centuries back, and has had
ample opportunity to leak out in the meantime; these are
the 'O'Donoghues,' a dangerous set, haughty, ill-
conditioned, and scheming. They will endeavour, if they can,
to obtain influence with your father, and I cannot too
strongly represent the hazard of such an event. Do not, I
entreat you, suffer his compassion, or mistaken benevolence,
to be exercised in their behalf. Were they merely unworthy,
I should say nothing on the subject; but they are highly and
eminently dangerous, in a land, where their claims are
regarded as only in abeyance--deferred, but not obliterated,
by confiscation.

"E. H."

It would in no wise forward the views of our story, were we to detail
to our readers the affecting scenes which preluded Frederick's departure
from London, the explanations he was called on to repeat, as he went
from house to house, for a journey at once so sudden and extraordinary;
for even so late as fifty years ago, a visit to Ireland was a matter of
more moment, and accompanied by more solemn preparation, than many now
bestow on an overland journey to India. The Lady Marys and Bettys of
the fashionable world regarded him pretty much as the damsels of old did
some doughty knight, when setting forth on his way to Palestine. That
filial affection could exact such an instance of devotion, called up
their astonishme