appointed to an Ensigncy of the Guards, with merely nominal duties to perform: to pass his time in the capital, amidst such occupations and amusements, as his taste and inclination may direct; with the road to promotion "made pleasant" and easy, by the magic wand of gold. He will, after spending in this manner, a period of a dozen years or less; probably obtain a Company in that favoured corps: which step will give him the rank of a Lieutenant-Colonel in the Line; a rank which-unable as you are to purchase, you will possibly (should you survive the pestilential climates in which you will assuredly be doomed to serve), nay, probably, not attain for thirty or forty years. By that time, your cousin will long have been a General Officer or perhaps Commander-inChief of an army, for all you know.* "Emulate Augustus Seymour! My poor boy, when, in this country, was humble merit, ever allowed to run an even race with power, and interest, and wealth?

* An instance in point has very recently occurred.

"Take this advice, my lad: enter not such unequal lists!"

Still, I could not

How sound was this advice, the subsequent story of my life will prove. bring myself to credit the

accuracy of what

the old Admiral said. I fancied he must be mistaken or misinformed. I could not reconcile to my mind, that in a free country,—as I had always heard England was,-such opposite prospects in the same service, could possibly exist; or that rules and regulations could have been framed so contrary to reason, to justice, and even to common sense. I determined, therefore, like a real sceptic, not to believe what I could not comprehend; but continued firm in my resolve; and by dint of importunity, I at last obtained my mother's reluctant consent, to try my fortune in the military profession of arms.

The Admiral no longer opposed my wish; and preparatory to the execution of this design, I was first sent to a celebrated educational establishment near Neufchâtel, and thence to a military academy in France; where,

having perfected myself in those studies adapted to a military career, the Admiral procured for me the nomination to a Cadetship at the Royal Military College of Sandhurst, and then kindly accompanied me to England, to take up the appointment I had obtained.

In those days of slow "diligences," sailingpackets, stage-coaches, and "post-chays," a journey across the Continent, was not accomplished, with the electric celerity of the present day.

London was, however, reached in due course of time. My outfit for the Military College was immediately ordered; and the Admiral resolved, pending the period of my admission, to accept of an invitation which he had previously received, to visit our relatives at Brock Hall.

After being so long absent from England, everything I now beheld possessed the attraction of novelty to my mind; but with nothing do I remember having been so much impressed, as with the grandeur and magnificence of Lord Seymour's noble mansion, as

we drove up the approaching avenue, and stopped under the noble portico at his door.

Although in the depth of winter, the parkscenery, as we advanced, struck me as particularly fine, whilst the Hall itself appeared in my inexperienced eyes, to be worthy the residence of a king.

Great changes, the Admiral stated, had taken place at Brock Hall since he had last been there; which, however, in his opinion, had not improved the place.

Finally reconciled to the new and elevated sphere wherein he moved, the "nabob," by degrees, set aside the indifference with which he had, on his first return to England, regarded everything unconnected with the East.

He began to take an interest in the political state of affairs, to mix with the surrounding gentry, and to make alterations and improvements on his house and his estate; in the course of which, he had pulled down and rebuilt a great portion of the old Hall, and had also become much absorbed in agricultural pursuits. He was, in short, becoming fast

VOL. I.

G

naturalized to his unhappy state of exile from the land of "pagodas, of rupees, and of curry and rice," whilst condemned to vegetate in the cold, foggy, and ungenial clime of this Ultima Thule of the North and West.

Lord Seymour, since I had seen him in Switzerland, had likewise greatly improved in personal appearance, as well as in disposition. and health; and had now lost, in a great measure, that sallow, unhealthy hue, so peculiarly characteristic of the old Anglo-Indian, who, after a protracted stay in the East, returns often-with both liver and temper sadly impaired,― to the almost-forgotten land of his birth. Lord Seymour's naturally fine-looking, athletic figure, impaired by his long residence within the tropics, had now, thanks to the bracing air of Old England, combined with the healthy nature of his newly-acquired pursuits, gained additional bulk and rotundity, which added not a little to his at all times imposing appearance, and to the stateliness of his habitually pompous, though affable and courtier-like address. Lady Seymour con