slumbered undisturbed, save that occasionally some vague and indistinct recollections flitted across my brain, amongst which, that of a pillared portico, liveried and powdered menials, vast and gorgeously-furnished apartments, passed, like wandering spirits, over this part of Memory's "land of dreams."

Another void of darkness intervenes: next, tempest-tossed over the mountain billows of a stormy sea; in utter darkness, assailed by strange, discordant, and deafening sounds, my senses have retentively preserved the occurrences of this period of my life, never to be obliterated by the subsequent events of following years.

It was whilst cribbed up in the dark and confined cabin of a small vessel, during a heavy gale of wind, that this new gleam of memory occurs; and although without knowledge of the causes or occasion of this event, I can never forget the miseries of that fearful night, during which so violently raged the storm, that terror seemed for a while to paralyse every other sense.

Then would I again be alive to all the horrors of the scene. I can still hear the fitful howlings of the storm: the loud contest of the winds and waves, mingled with the sad creaking and complaining of masts, cordage, and bulkheads, as our fragile skiff painfully strained and laboured over the mountain billows, which dashed with deafening sound against her sides, whilst a sudden rush of footsteps overhead, with an occasional loud imprecation or command, denoted some greater danger, or a further outburst of the raging storm.

How long this state of things continued I cannot say; a lull, however, suddenly seemed to have taken place: a rough, weather-beaten personage, in strange head-gear, and enveloped in a scaman's thick shaggy dress, all dripping wet with spray, appeared at the open cabin door, whose gruff, but good-natured and hearty tones of voice, seemed at once to administer comfort and consolation to all around.

Further I cannot now recall, until another change loomed apparently over my early fate:

gay blossoming trees, running waters, green fields, strange outlandish-looking people, with tall caps and wooden shoes, now dance in confused succession before my thoughts, while endeavouring to evoke those youthful recollections of former days; but often in this varied kaleidoscope, the burly form of the old mariner, whose loud, gruff voice appeared to have stilled the evil genius of the storm, will ever and anon make itself distinctly seen.

As the vague reminiscences of childhood merge into clearer perceptions, the tenor of the past gradually assumes a more connected form; which later recollections will be the subject of a future page.

CHAPTER II.

IN WHICH A FOX-HUNTING COMMODORE OF THE OLDEN TIME, AND OTHER NAUTICAL CHARACTERS, ARE INTRODUCED.

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Happy the man who with unrivall'd speed
Can pass his fellows, and with pleasure view
The struggling pack."

* * *

SOMERVILE.

My father's family was originally of Irish extraction a family in which the naval profession appeared to have been for many generations a sort of heir-loom or hereditary tenure; and to elucidate my narrative, it will be requisite for me to fall back to ancestral reminiscences as far as my great-grandfather, who, whilst still young, retired from the active

duties of the service after having already risen high in his honourable calling; this being one of the conditions on which the guardians of a wealthy heiress allowed her to bestow her fair hand, with a noble estate, on the "Commodore"-as my great-grandfather ever continued to be called-who thus found himself snugly moored in the quiet haven of Matrimony, when still in the prime of life.

From ploughing the ocean, he took to ploughing the broad acres recently acquired with his lovely bride; grew corn and turnips, bred sheep and cattle, sons and daughters, and - little pigs!

The large property he had thus obtained, was situated in one of the midland counties of England, within a short distance of Brock Hall, the seat of Squire Seymour. Brock Hall was a princely mansion, placed in the centre of a noble domain. It had been in the family since the age of the Tudors and Plantagenets, lineally descending from father to son; and in the good old times to which I allude, Squire Seymour,- usually termed, par