"I don't want you to ask her to take the ring, but to get to know whether she would accept any present from me. And I would ask her myself, plainly; only you have been frightening me so much about being in a hurry. And what am I to do? Three days hence we start." Tita looks down with a quiet smile, and says, rather timidly, mean by not coming on and telling us? It is most silly of them.' " We went back by the same side of the lake, and we found both Franziska and her companion seated on the bank at the precise spot where we had left them. They said it was the best place for the pic-nic. They asked for the hamper in a business-like way. They pretended they had searched the shores of the lake "I think, if I were you, I would speak to for miles. her myself-but very gently." We were going off that morning to a little lake some dozen miles off, to try for a jack or two. Franziska was coming with us. She was, indeed, already outside, superintending the placing in the trap of our rods and bags. When Charlie went out she said that everything was ready; and presently our peasantdriver cracked his whip, and away we went. Charlie was a little grave, and could only reply to Tita's fun with an effort. Franziska was mostly anxious about the fishing, and hoped that we might not go so far to find nothing. We found no fish, anyhow. The water was as still as glass and as clear; the pike that would have taken our spinning bits of metal must have been very dull-eyed pike indeed. Tita sat at the bow of the long punt reading, while our boatman steadily and slowly plied his single oar. Franziska was for a time eagerly engaged in watching the progress of our fishing, until even she got tired of the excitement of rolling in an immense length of cord only to find that our spinning-bait had hooked a bit of floating wood or weed. At length Charlie proposed that he should go ashore and look out for a picturesque site for our pic-nic, and he hinted that perhaps Miss Franziska might also like a short walk, to relieve the monotony of this sailing. Miss Franziska said she would be very pleased to do that. We ran them in among the rushes, and put them ashore, and then once more started on our laborious career. Tita laid down her book. She was a little anxious. Sometimes you could see Charlie and Franziska on the path by the side of the lake, at other times the thick trees by the water's side hid them. The solitary oar dipped in the water; the boat glided along the shores. Tita took up her book again. The space of time that passed may be inferred from the fact that, merely as an incident to it, we managed to catch a chub of four pounds. When the excitement over this event had passed, Tita said, "We must go back to them. What do they And while Tita and Franziska are unpacking the things, and laying the white cloth smoothly on the grass, and putting out the bottles for Charlie to cool in the lake, I observe that the younger of the two ladies rather endeavours to keep her left hand out of sight. It is a paltry piece of deception. Are we moles, and blinder than moles, that we should continually be made the dupes of these women? I say to her, "Franziska, what is the matter with your left hand?" "Leave Franziska's left hand alone," says Tita, severely. "My dear," I reply humbly, "I am afraid Franziska has hurt her hand." At this moment Charlie, having stuck the bottles among the reeds, comes back, and, hearing our talk, he says, in a loud and audacious way, "Oh! do you mean the ring? It is a pretty little thing I had about me, and Franziska has been good enough to accept it. You can show it to them, Franziska." Of course he had it about him. Young men always carry a stock of ruby rings with them when they go fishing, to put in the noses of the fish. I have observed it frequently. Franziska looks timidly at Tita, and then she raises her hand, that trembles a little. She is about to take the ring off, to show it to us, when Charlie interposes, "You needn't take it off, Franziska." And with that, somehow, the girl slips away from among us; and Tita is with her, and we don't get a glimpse of either of them until the solitude resounds with our cries for luncheon. So Charlie returned to London and to Surrey with us, in very good spirits. He used to come down very often to see us; and one evening, at dinner, he disclosed the fact that he was going over to the Black Forest in the following week, although the November nights were chill just then. And how long do you remain?" "A month," he says. "Madam," I say to the small lady at the other end of the table, "a month from now [Sir Walter Raleigh, born at East Budleigh, Devonshire, 1552; beheaded, 28th October, 1618. Soldier, discoverer, historian, and poet. A favourite of Queen Elizabeth, he fell into disgrace-unjustly as it seemson the accession of James I.; and was thirteen years a prisoner in the Tower, during which time he wrote the History of the World. He was also the author of Maxims of State; The Cabinet Council, containing the chief Arts of Empire; A Discourse of War in General; The Invention of Ships, Anchors, Compass, &c.; The Discovery of Guiana; &c. &c. "There is no object in human pursuits which the genius of Raleigh did not embrace." -Isaac Disraeli.] Go, Soul, the body's guest, Upon a thankless arrant: Fear not to touch the best, The truth shall be thy warrant : Go, since I needs must die, And give the world the lie. Say to the court, it glows And shines like rotten wood; Say to the church, it shows What's good, and doth no good: If church and court reply, Then give them both the lie. Tell potentates, they live Acting by others' action; Not loved unless they give, Not strong but by a faction: If potentates reply, Tell men of high condition, That manage the estate, Their purpose is ambition, Their practice only hate: And if they once reply, Then give them all the lie. Tell them that brave it most, They beg for more by spending, Who, in their greatest cost, Seek nothing but commending: Tell zeal it wants devotion; Tell flesh it is but dust: Tell age it daily wasteth; Tell honour how it alters; Tell wit how much it wrangles In tickle points of niceness; Tell wisdom she entangles Herself in over-wiseness: And when they do reply, Straight give them both the lie. Tell physic of her boldness; Tell skill it is pretension; Tell law it is contention: Tell fortune of her blindness; Tell arts they have no soundness, But vary by esteeming; Tell schools they want profoundness, And stand too much on seeming: If arts and schools reply, Tell faith it's fled the city; Tell how the country erreth; So when thou hast, as I Commanded thee, done blabbing,Although to give the lie Deserves no less than stabbing,— Stab at thee he that will, No stab the soul can kill. ENSIGN O'DONOGHUE'S "FIRST WRITTEN BY HIMSELF. given positive orders to Captain Vernon, who commanded the company, not to permit Ensign O'Donoghue, on any pretence, to leave the castle. I was a lad of about seventeen then, and had but a short time before got a commission in the Royal Irish, by raising recruits-which was done in rather an ingenious manner by my old nurse, Judy M'Leary. She got some thirty or forty of the Ballybeg hurlers, seven of whom were her own sons-lads that would have cropped an exciseman, or put a tithes proctor "to keep" in a bog-hole, as soon as they would have peeled a potato, or sooner. Nurse Judy got the boys together-made them blind drunk-locked them up in the barnmade them "drunk again," next morningenlisted them all before my father, who was a justice of the peace--and a recruiting-sergeant, who was at the house, marched them all off ("drunk still") to the county town. They were all soldiers before they came to their senses, and I was recommended for an ensigncy. My heroes remained quiet for a day or two, having plenty of eating and drinking; but swearing, by all the saints in the Almanac, that the Ballybeg boys were, out and out, the tip-top of the country, and would "bate the Curnel, ay, and the Gineral, with the garrison to back him to boot, if Masther Con would only crook his finger and whistle." We were ordered to march to Limerick, which part of the country it did not appear that my recruits liked, for the following Sunday they were all back again playing hurley at Ballybeg. Enormous reader! were you ever in Clare Castle? Tis as vile a hole in the shape of a barrack—as odious a combination of stone, mortar, and rough-cast, as ever the KingGod bless him!-put a regiment of the line into. There is most delightful fishing out of the windows charming shooting at the sparrows that build in the eaves of the houses, and most elegant hunting. If you have a terrier, you may bag twenty brace of rats in a forenoon. If a person is fond of drawing, he has water scenery above the bridge, and water scenery below the bridge, with turf-boats and wild ducks, and two or three schooners with coals, and mud in abundance when the tide is out, and beautiful banks sloping to the water, with charming brown potato gardens and evergreen furze bushes. When tired of this combination of natural beauties, you may turn to the city of Clare, luxuriant in dung and pigs, and take a view of the Protestant school-house without a roof, and the parish clergyman's handsome newly white-washed kennel-by the same token, his was the best pack of hounds I ever saw-and the priest's neat cottage at the back of the public-house, where the best potteen in the country was to be had. Then in the distance is not to be seen the neighbouring abbey of Quin, which presents splendid remains of Gothic architecture; but I can only say from what I have heard, as the hill of Dundrennan happens to intervene between our citadel and the abbey. Ennis, too, in the distance, I am told, would be a fine maritime town, if it had good houses and was nearer the sea, and had trade and some respectable people in it, and a good neighbourhood. Mr. O'Connell thinks a canal from it to Clare would improve it-and I think the "tribute money" might be advantageously laid out in shares in the said canal. This is only a surmise of my own, judging of what I saw from my barrack-window in Clare Castle; for, during the six blessed weeks I spent there, from five o'clock on Ash Wednes-ling about who could show us most attention, day evening till six o'clock on Good Friday morning, my nose, which is none of the longest, never projected its own length beyond the barrack-gate. The reason of my not visiting the chief city of Clareshire was also sufficient to prevent me exploring the remains at Quin: and was simply this-Colonel Gauntlet had But to return. I was, as I said before, an ensign in the Royal Irish, and strutting as proud as a peacock about the streets of Limerick. To be sure, how I ogled the darlings as they tripped along, and how they used to titter when I gave them a sly look! I was asked to all sorts of parties, as the officers were save the mark!-so genteel! We had dinner-parties, and tea-parties, and dancingparties, and parties up the river to Castle Connel, and pic-nics down the river to Carrick Gunnel, and dry drums; in short, the frolicking lads of the Eighteenth never lived in such clover. Three parsons, or rather, I should say, their wives, sundry doctors, the wine merchants, and a banker or two, were all quarrel and force most claret and whisky punch down our throats. We flirted and jigged, and got drunk every night in the week at the house of one friend or another. I was seventeen times in love, ay, and out again, in the first fortnight: such eyes as one young lady had, and such legs had another; Susan had such lips, and Kate had such shoulders; Maria laughed so heartily to show her teeth; and Johanna held her petticoats so tidily out of the mud-to show her ankle. I was fairly bothered with them all, and nearly ruined into the bargain by the amount of my wine-bills at the mess. The constant love-making kept me in a fever, and a perpetual unquenchable thirst was the consequence. In vain did I toss off bumper after bumper of port and sherry in honour of the charms of each and all of them; in vain did I sit down with my tumbler of whisky punch (hot) at my elbow, when I invoked the muse and wrote sonnets on the sweet creatures. Every fresh charm called for a fresh bottle, and each new poetical thought cried out for more hot water, sugar, whisky, and lemonjuice! The more I made love, the more feverish I grew; and it was absolutely impossible to keep my pulsations and wine-bills under any control. Fortunately, or perhaps unfortunately, one young lady began to usurp the place of the many. I was determined to instal her as prime and permanent mistress of my affections. Accordingly, Miss Juliana Hennessy was gazetted to the post, vice a score dismissed. Juliana had beautiful legs, beautiful bust, beautiful shoulders; figure plump, smooth, and showy; face nothing to boast of, for her nose was a snub, and she was a trifle marked with the small-pox; but her teeth were generally clean, and her eye languishing; so, on the whole, Juliana Hennessy was not to be sneezed at. Half a dozen of our youngsters were already flirting with her: one boasted that he had a lock of her hair, but honour forbade him to show it; another swore that he had kissed her in her father's scullery, that she was nothing loath, and only said, "Ah now, Mr. Casey, can't you stop? what a flirt you are!"but nobody believed him; and Peter Dawson, the adjutant, who was a wag, affirmed, that he heard her mother say, as she crossed the streets, "Juliana, mind your petticoats spring, Juliana, spring, and show your 'agility' the officers are looking." After this, poor Juliana Hennessy never was known but as Juliana Spring. Juliana Spring had a susceptible mind, and was partial to delicate attentions; so the first thing I did, to show that my respect for her was particular, was to call out Mister Casey about the scullery story; and, after exchanging three shots (for I was new to the business then, and my pistols none of the best), I touched him up in the left knee, and spoilt his capering in rather an off-hand style, considering I was but a novice. I now basked in my Juliana's smiles, and was as happy and pleasant as a pig in a potato-garden. I begged Casey's pardon for having hurt him, and he pitched Juliana to Old Nick, for which, by the way, I was near having him out again. I was now becoming quite a sentimental milk-sop; I got drunk not more than twice a week, I ducked but two watchmen, and broke the head of but one chairman, during the period of my loving Juliana Spring. Whereever her toe left a mark in the gutter, my heel was sure to leave its print by the side of it. Her petticoats never had the sign of a spatter on them; they were always held well out of the mud, and the snow-white cotton stockings, tight as a drum-head, were duly displayed. Juliana returned my love, and plenty of billing and cooing we had of it. Mrs. Hennessy was as charming a lady of her years as one might see anywhere; she used to make room for me next Juliana make us stand back to back, to see how much the taller I was of the two,-Juliana used to put on my sash and gorget, and I was obliged to adjust them right; then she was obliged to replace them, with her little fingers fiddling about me. After that the old lady would say, “Juliana, my love, how do the turkeys walk through the grass?" "Is it through the long grass, ma'am?" "Yes, Juliana, my love; show us how the turkeys walk through the long grass. Then Juliana would rise from her seat, bend forward, tuck up her clothes nearly to her knees, and stride along the room on tip-toe. "Ah, now do it again, Juliana," said the mother. So Juliana did it again-and again and again-till I knew the shape of Juliana's supporters so well, that I can conscientiously declare they were uncommonly pretty. Juliana and I became thicker and thickertill at length I had almost made up my mind to marry her. I was very near fairly popping the question at a large ball at the Custom House, when fortunately Colonel Gauntlet clapped his thumb upon me, and said "Stop!" and Dawson stepped up to say that I must march next morning, at ten o'clock, for that famous citadel, Clare Castle. I was very near calling out both Dawson and the colonel; but Juliana requested me not. for her sake. Prudence came in time. Gauntlet would have brought me to a court-martial, and I should have gone back to Ballybeg after my recruits. Leaving the Hennessys without wishing them good-bye would have been unkind and unhandsome; so at nine next morning I left the New Barracks, having told the sergeant 79 of the party who was to accompany me to call he could not stir a muscle. Mrs. Hennessy at Arthur's Quay on his way. I scampered shifted her seat to the next chair, and the along George Street, and in a few minutes lovely Juliana Spring, throwing down the arrived at the Hennessys'. How my heart | Sorrows of Werter, with which she had been beat when I lifted the knocker! I fancied improving her mind, raised her fingers to get that, instead of the usual sharp rat-tat-too, it rid of the hair-papers. Each individual would had a sombre, hollow sound; and when Katty have taken to flight; but, unfortunately, the Lynch, the handmaiden of my beloved, came enemy was upon them, and occupied the only to the door, and hesitated about admitting means of egress except the little room, which me, I darted by her, and entered the dining- it seems was the younker's den; so that, like room on my right hand. Here the whole many another body, when they could not run family were assembled; but certainly not ex- away, they boldly stood their ground. pecting company-not one of the "genteel officers," at least. The father of the family, who was an attorney, was arranging his outward man. His drab cloth ink-spotted inexpressibles were unbuttoned at the knee, and but just met a pair of whity-brown worsted stockings, that wrinkled up his thick legs. Coat and waistcoat he had none, and at the open breast of a dirty shirt appeared a still dirtier flannel waistcoat. He was rasping a thick stubble on his chin, as he stood opposite a handsome pier-glass between the windows. The razor was wiped upon the breakfast-cloth, which ever and anon he scraped clean with the back of the razor, and dabbed the shave into the fire. The lady mother was in a chemise and petticoat, with a large coloured cotton shawl, which did duty as dressinggown; and she was alternately busy in combing her grizzled locks and making breakfast. Miss Juliana-Juliana of my love-Juliana Spring, sat by the fire in a pensive attitude, dressed as she had turned out of her nest. Her hair still in papers, having just twitched off her night-cap; a red cotton bed-gown clothed her shoulders, a brown flannel petticoat was fastened with a running string round her beautiful waist, black worsted stockings enveloped those lovely legs which I had so often gazed on with admiration, as they, turkey-fashion, tripped across the room; and a pair of yellow slippers, down at heel, covered the greater part of her feet. On the fender stood the tea-kettle, and on the handle of the tea-kettle a diminutive shirt had been put to air; while its owner, an urchin of five years old, frequently popped in from an inner room, exhibiting his little natural beauties al fresco, to see if it was fit to put on. I stared about me as if chaos was come again; but I could not have been more surprised than they were. The whole family were taken aback. The father stood opposite the mirror with his snub nose held between the finger and thumb of his left hand, and his right grasping the razor-his amazement was so great that I apologized for the untimely hour of my visit, and pleaded, as an excuse, that in half an hour I should be on my way to Clare Castle. My friends say that I have an easy way of appearing comfortable wherever I go, and that it at once makes people satisfied. In less than a minute Mr. Hennessy let his nose go; his wife wreathed her fat face into smiles; and Juliana Spring looked budding into summer, squeezed a tear out of her left eye, and blew her nose in silent anguish at my approaching departure. Katty brought in a plate of eggs and a pile of buttered toast. Apologies innumerable were made for the state of affairs;-the sweeps had been in the house-the child had been sickMr. Hennessy was turned out of his dressingroom by the masons-Mrs. Hennessy herself had been "poorly"--and Juliana was suffering with a nervous headache. Such a combination of misfortunes surely had never fallen upon so small a family at the same time. I began to find my love evaporating rapidly. Still, Juliana was in grief, and between pity for her, and disgust at the colour of the table-cloth, I could not eat. Mr. Hennessy soon rose, said he would be back in the "peeling of an onion," and requested me not to stir till he returned. He certainly was not long, but he came accompanied, lugging into the room with him a tall, loose-made fellow in a pepper-and-salt coat and brown corduroys. I had never seen this hero before, and marvelled who the deuce he might prove to be. "Sit down, Jerry," said Hennessy to his friend-"sit down and taste a dish of tea. Jerry, I am sorry that Juliana has a headache this morning." Never mind, man," said Jerry; "I'll go bail she will be better by-and-by. Sure my darling niece isn't sorry at going to be married." Here were two discoveries-Jerry was uncle to Juliana, and Juliana was going to be married -to whom, I wondered? "O, Jerry! she will be well enough by-and-by," said her father. "But I don't believe you know Ensign O'Donoghue-let me introduce," &c. Accord |