good time, if not, I have a younger brother willing enough to keep up the honours of the family, and if I should chance to get knocked on the head, he will have you to thank for his promotion."

"Me!" said Vaughan, in surprise. "Yes, you," returned Mordaunt, laughing; did you not talk over your projects eternally, and did not I listen, not till I was weary, but till you set me mad to follow your example. Who was to stay lounging at home when half the world was up in arms, and for Spain too?" -"Right, Mordaunt," said Vaughan; "it is a fine country and a fine people; the French must not get possession of it." Right," interrupted Mordaunt; "and was it possible to sit down quietly a mere country squire, hunting and shooting for the rest of one's days, when one might be so much the better

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employed running down foreign game. But here, we are arrived at my billet; am I not superbly lodged?" throwing open the door of a large apartment, fitted up with unusual elegance." But a week ago my couch was spread in the open air; and a few drenching showers, which had no respect of persons, made me once or twice think of old England. My host is a genuine Don of the first feather, and, by the taste displayed before you, you may easily perceive that a female hand has had its share in the arrangements. He has a wife and two exquisite daughters, who sing like sirens, and of whom I catch a glimpse every morning as they go to mass. I and a few of us are always welcome at the Spaniard's table, and the Donna has now and then a delightful Tertullia, of which I never omit one."

by your leaving your heart with one or all of your fair hostesses," said Vaughan, laughing. "That may happen, too," replied his friend, "though I have not yet quite determined which. And here is a mandolin belonging to one of them, which I took occasion to borrow in the hope that she might be tempted to come and look for it. I have become quite sublime on the instrument, and might set up for a wandering minstrel, should other resources fail. But now for your history; have you nothing to relate, private or public, since your arrival in this land of adventure? Have you come thus far untouched, escaped all wounds, outward and inward?”

Vaughan confined his communication to the general circumstances relative to himself; yet, in speaking of Lisbon, he accidentally touched on the interest

VOL. II.

D

which he took in the fate of the young nun. It was still sufficiently fresh in his memory for him to have lost none of his indignation on the subject. "And

now what do you think," said Vaughan, "such a fellow deserves? He has, of course, deserted this unfortunate girl." "Very possibly," said Mordaunt; I am no judge of those matters; but this I will say, that, whatever his deserts may be, you, at least, don't seem inclined to spare him,—and, were you a priest, I certainly should not advise him to apply to you for absolution." "You treat the business lightly," said Vaughan; “but no man of conscience or honour could acquit himself under such circumstances?"

Hey, why do you fix your eyes upon me? What have I to do with it?" I

"I

don't know, I have no right," interrupted Vaughan, a suspicion just then

flashing across his mind; " but you seem irritated." "Come, come, you are not my confessor," said Mordaunt, holding out his hand; "there's no resisting your cross-examination. In short, you see the hero of the romance before you. But I believe I tell you nothing new, for I shrewdly suspect it was a piece of Clara's own intelligence."

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Vaughan disclaimed the suspicion with a sincerity that his friend found it impossible to doubt. Well, well, I never quarrel about a matter of opinion; I am prepared to listen to a string of reproaches. Here I sit, and now say what you will," throwing himself with an air of affected submission upon a couch at the end of the room. "No," said Vaughan, "I have none to make. I have told my tale; it is true and simple, and requires no comment. You