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our hero sprang from his seat, and advancing towards that nobleman with a firm step and an assured carriage, addressed him as follows, in the presence and hearing of his three companions :

"Lord Clanelly, I have found you at last, and I am glad of it. I have looked for you long in vain ;

this is the first time, my Lord, that we have met since by your insulting and disgraceful conduct to a near and dear relation of mine, you first merited my deep scorn and utter contempt. Yes, I now tell you to your face, my Lord, that I do view you with the deepest scorn and the most utter contempt. Since then you have become still more an object of abhorrence to me, by being the means by which my brother, Lord Fletcher, was hurried out of the world; but, my Lord, you have not been content with this; you have dared to speak ill of my brother since his death, and it is for this that I now demand instant satisfaction at your hands. It is not necessary to go far;-I am ready;-the nearest field and the shortest distance. Are you prepared?"

Lord Clanelly and his companions, whose train of ideas had been upon subjects so totally different, and who still retained their betting-books in their hands, were at first disposed to look upon our hero as an

apparition or a madman; but there was an earnestness and intensity in our hero's address, which was not to be mistaken.

Lord Clanelly drew himself up to his full height with an air of dignified hauteur and indignant pride. He was about to reply, when Fitz-Waterton, who loved to be foremost when there was anything like fighting going on, stepped in exclaiming―

"On my honour and credit, here's a pretty proposal, truly! Do you think that Lord Clanelly is to fight you at a minute's notice, without knowing who are to be his seconds, where he is to get his arms, or anything else about it?”

"I am ready to do so," was the only expression which fell from Lord Clanelly's lips.

Here Fivebars interfered pacifically, remarking that he as yet saw no cause of quarrel; that the grievances of which our hero complained were some of them of too old a date to be now revived, and others of too slight a nature to be made the cause of a duel which might end in bloodshed.

"And it shall end in bloodshed!" muttered our hero. "No cause of serious quarrel, forsooth? There shall be then no mistake. Lord Clanelly, I hereby tell you, in the presence of these gentlemen, that

you are a scoundrel—that you are a low-minded unprincipled villain, and an abject and contemptible wretch!"

"I am ready for you," again repeated Lord Clanelly, and both parties seemed bent on the immediate decision of the question by arms upon the spot. The other persons present, however, could not of course allow of this. Fivebars came forward, as the second of Lord Clanelly, and proposed the following morning for the duel. It was agreed that Charenton should be the spot; the hour, seven in the morning; and for other particulars our hero referred Fivebars to Lord Arthur Mullingham, who would, he felt confident, undertake the office of second to him in this affair. He only expressed a wish that if the pistols did not promise to terminate the business quickly, it should be decided by the sword.

CHAPTER XX.

READER, look round amongst thine acquaintances, and tell me, is there or not among them one pale old man, who seems a thing apart and separate from the rest of the world-silent and abstracted, still and meditative-yet benevolent to all; apparently taking no interest in the passing affairs of life, yet liberal and philanthropical; ever amiable, and tender, and forgiving, and kind; not given to society, and shrinking from the voice of mirth, and never smiling, except with a most melancholy smile?-Reader, if thou knowest such a man, believe that he has loved in his youth: he once embarked his all on one frail vessel, and she sunk with the freight: he stands like a ruined merchant on the shore, wringing his hands, and lamenting.

Reader, dost thou know another old man amongst thy acquaintances, crabbed and soured in his temper,

carping at and quarrelling with everything-with the sneer for ever on his curling lip, and distrust and suspicion in his eye? Hast thou marked the sardonic expression, the witheringly bitter scorn with which he seems to look upon the actions and motives of his fellow men—the bad opinion he has of human nature the ironical blandness of his smile-the fierceness of his occasional invective-the dry sarcasm of his every-day remarks?-If thou hast seen such a man, know that he too hath loved in his youth:-pity him, and bear with him; for he hath haply been disappointed or deceived. Look on him, as on the ruin or the wreck, for he was once a noble thing; but his blessings have been turned into curses, and his affections into bitterness and reviling.

Reader, once more I will ask thee, dost thou reckon among the circle which surrounds thee a reckless and profligate old man?-a gray-haired debauchee one who crawls on tottering knees to his mistresses-one who has brought on premature senility by the wildness and excess of his indulgences-one who has set no bounds to his passions, but has sated himself with drinking deep of the unhallowed waters of a thousand wells-one who has been, and who is haply still, a drunkard, a gambler,

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