"I know about the letther you wrote to my lord's daughter." "Has she informed his lordship of the fact ?" inquired Bob, with a faltering voice.

"No," replied Tom, "but I informed him; I am very sorry now that I did so, and the only atonement I can now make to you and the young creature, who is grieved enough by this time, is to be your friend in every way I can."

Bob looked at him with feelings of astonishment, and inquired how it was that he was able to give his lordship information with regard to his second letter to Lady Mary.

"Indeed," replied Tom, "it was I who told his lordship about it, and when I make that acknowledgment, it is the best assurance I can give you that you can trust me for the future."

"But how did you come to know anything about it ?” again demanded Bob.

"Why that splinther of, Miss M'Dougal, put me up to it," said Tom ; "she saw your messenger go to the castle the first time, so I watched till I saw your second letter delivered to her ladyship, and having tould his lordship about it, he walked into the drawing-room when she was reading it. We were all then ordered to bundle up and be off back again to the country. I am shure I never saw anything like the way his lordship was in: if I had known how it would be, or that we were to go back again to that wild place that would kill a heathen to live in, I would have never said a word about it."

"Can I depend on you for the future ?" said Bob, looking steadfastly in his face.

"You can," replied Tom; "I was once in love myself, and I know what it is."

"I did not speak of love," said Bob, "I merely wish to write to Lady Mary as a friend."

Tom laughed immoderately, and repeated several times, "A friend!"

"Yes, as a friend who shall live in my memory and prayers," said Bob.

"Live in your memory and your prayers," again repeated Tom. "Young as you are don't talk so foolish; come, write a good love letther, such as O'Shaughnessy the great schoolmaster in Kerry wrote for me when I fell in love with Judy Barry; come, write the letther, put what you like in it, and I'll give it to her ladyship, not pretending to know a word of what is in it."

"Can I depend on you?" again demanded Bob, with ear

nestness.

"Arrah, to be shure you can," said Tom with impatience, "did not I tell you so already ?"

"I will write then," said Bob, "probably for the last time,

1

for I am not foolish enough to aspire to her hand-there are too many obstacles in the way."

"Pshaw!" said Tom, "don't talk such nonsense; why would you think that you shouldn't get her young ladyship in marriage? Sure if she takes you herself, what more is wanted? Depend upon me as a friend. I think you would make a good young masther, and to be shure the ould lord has got so peevish and cross and contrary of late, that it is next to death to live with him; it is not as it used to be in ould times, when I had every thing my own way, an angel out of Heaven can't please him ; and then when I think of the curse the widow gave him the other day, it is frightful. I'm afraid that some of it might fall on me if I stay much longer with him. As to the young lord, he is goin' off to travel in furrin countries, and I see that I may soon be left on the shaughraun after all my long and faithful servitude. To make a long story short, I'll be your friend in the matter— you understand me.

Tom's inartificial rhetoric very effectually dispersed the clerical aspirations which Bob's mother foolishly believed were unchangeably settled in his heart. He heard this extraordinary harangue with feelings of astonishment and delight, at finding a friend where he fancied he had almost an insurmountable obstacle to contend with. "I do not rightly understand you," said he; "what is it you wish should be done on my part?"

"You know," replied Tom," it is a dangerous business for me to get into, but if I do, I think in my ould days I ought to be well provided for; you will be able to do it, for if you once get married to the lady, all the laws of the land cannot keep the great fortune from her that was left by her mother, and I may tell you a thing or two that you did not know before - Mr. Clements is the man who has the management of that money, so that you won't be behoulden to the ould lord for all.”

Bob was in raptures at the prospect that was so speedily placed before him by Tom, and as an earnest for his liberality when in possession of more wealth, he pulled out his purse and presented him with eight or ten sovereigns, which was all he was then possessed of.

Tom retired to the castle for the night, and Bob repaired to his chamber and wrote a long letter to Lady Mary, which was given into the hands of his new confidant early the next morning, who without any further delay hastened back to Castle Wilder. Mr. Clements left home at the same time to go in search of the objects of Lord Strangeway's benevolence.

Some days passed over, Bob anxiously expecting to receive an answer from Lady Mary, when at length one arrived that almost extinguished the hopes that he had so lately indulged in. It was written by Tom, and dated from London. It stated

that upon his arrival at Castle Wilder he found the family under orders to go to "furrin" parts, he believed France; that as Lord George was going to travel, his father intended to go with him a part of the journey, and that there they were on their way in "Lunnen," Lady Mary and all. The letter went on to give an opinion about England and Englishmen, and to speculate upon the horrors that awaited him when he came to deal with the parley voos, whom he wished to speak Irish instead of French. He assured Bob that he delivered his letter safe to Lady Mary, although it was no easy task to do so, for she was hardly ever out of the sight of the French governess, and he believed that she was not allowed the use of pen, ink, and paper. The latter assurance left Bob some little hope to live upon, as it accounted for his letter being unanswered. With a heavy heart he made several translations of Tom's epistle, but all came to the same meaning that she who was the idol of his affections had been carried off to a foreign land, and that probably all communication between them was for ever at an end. He became still more thoughtful, and his mother and grandfather became greatly alarmed; but medical advice having been obtained, they were assured that he was at least free from any dangerous malady.

Nothing worthy of notice occurred until early in the following spring, when he set out for the university of Louvain. In the interval his hopes and fears were so closely blended, that neither assumed the mastery. He appeared to have suddenly become an anxious politician, for he was always the first to receive newspapers from the hands of the post-boy, and O'Kelly little guessed that it was for the purpose of tracing amongst the fashionable intelligence the movements of the Strangeway family on the Continent. He at length hit upon a piece of news that threw an additional gloom over him, and led him to believe that all hopes of ever seeing Lady Mary were at an end.

The paragraph, which was under the head of "Fashionable Intelligence," ran as follows: "Lord Strangeway, whose departure for the Continent we noticed with so much regret some months past, has, with his numerous suite and beautiful and accomplished daughter, left Paris for Naples. It is said, that in consequence of a young nobleman of large fortune and high family connections, who is at present ambassador at one of the continental courts, being about to lead her to the hymeneal altar, his lordship will not return to Ireland for some years. We make this announcement with deep regret, knowing the irreparable loss that the absence of this truly patriotic and generous nobleman must be to this country generally, but more particularly to those who had the good fortune to come within the immediate sphere of his lordship's benevolence."

"It is no matter where I go now, or what becomes of me,"

said Bob, as he read this paragraph ten times over; "I will go any place that I am directed; and I only wish it were to some distant land, and amongst scenes that would cause me to forget my sorrows or hasten the termination of an existence that is almost insupportable. Perhaps, too," thought he, "that the evils which I endure are but a just punishment for the abandonment of the path which propriety had pointed out." He, however, assumed an air of cheerfulness, and told his mother that he was ready at any moment she thought proper to proceed to Louvain, with a view to fulfil her original intention, or at least to finish his education.

During the first few months of his residence at Louvain, he applied himself with tolerable assiduity to his studies. He was, however, frequently found by the curators and president in fits of abstraction, the cause of which was a mystery to them. He was in this state of mind when the summer vacation took place. Such students as wished to remain in the house might do so; others, who resided in foreign countries, went home; and a few, who had friends in the neighbouring cities, went to visit them. Amongst these was Bob, who had a letter of introduction from Mr. Clements to Mrs. L, an English lady, resident with her family in Brussels, whither he went about the beginning of August. The society he met there-the life and animation with which he was surrounded, and the ever varying rounds of amusement in which he was obliged to take a part, and which so particularly distinguish that gay city, made a visible improvement in his health and spirits. He formed an intimacy with the son of Mrs. L—, who was one of the very few of the numerous English residents there, who were opposed to the conduct of the Dutch government towards the Belgians. Young Mr. L— was an ardent lover of liberty, and the personal friend of De Potter, who, for his strong writings against the Dutch government, had been prosecuted by order of Van Mannen, the minister of justice. He had conceived a deep hatred of Dutch rule, and was a member of a political society which had for its object a redress of the wrongs of which the Belgians had to complain. It was only in the previous spring that De Potter and five others were tried on a charge of "having excited a plot, having for its object the change or destruction of the kingdom of the Netherlands." After a lengthened trial, De Potter, and three of his co-conspirators, were found guilty, and sentenced to a heavy fine and long period of banishment: and from that time a universal and deep-rooted hatred against the government sprung up in the minds of the people, accompanied by a firm determination to leave no legitimate means untried to remedy the grievances of which they complained; and if they met with refusal, to have recourse to force.

Young L- poured into the willing ear of Bob all the secrets of which he was himself the depository: he introduced him to their society; and the first night he attended a private meeting of the members in the Rue Fosse aux Loupes, he, with the warm enthusiasm of youthful ardour, vowed eternal fidelity to their cause, and declared that, whenever the blow for liberty was to be struck at Brussels, he would fight till death or victory ended the contest.

CHAPTER XVII.

"THE FOUR DAYS IN BRUSSELS"

BOB A MUCH BETTER ADEPT IN MILITARY TACTICS THAN IN THEOLOGICAL STUDIES-AN UNEXPECTED MEETING.

THE members of the society into which Bob was introduced continued to meet every evening until the 24th of August, which was the king's birth-day; and it was then evident that some manifestations of revolt were dreaded on the part of the authorities, for the review of the troops and municipal guards was adjourned, on the ground that it was dreaded the weather would not be favourable; but the real cause of the postponement was well known to the people to be an unwillingness to entrust the citizen soldiers with arms. There was also a counter order given to postpone the illuminations in the park, for which preparations had been made on a scale of extraordinary magnificence: this order was given with a view to prevent the assemblage of great crowds in the streets; but this precaution had not the desired effect, and Brussels was never more full than on that day. Large numbers of persons assembled in front of the Hotel de Belle Vue, crying out, "Vive de Potter, a bas Van Mannen;" and amongst them, Bob and his friend young L, took a prominent part. In the course of the day several inflammatory placards, which had been manufactured at the house of Mrs. L, were posted up, and almost immediately afterwards torn down by the police.

On the evening of the 25th, the opera of La Muette de Portici was performed at the Theatre Français. The house was crowded. Bob and his friend L, with upwards of one hundred young men of the city, and some few other students from Louvain,

R