BOOK XII. CONTINUED.-CHAPTER XXXI.

"THERE is a hitch," said Dick pithily, when Randal joined him in the oak copse at ten o'clock. "Life is full of hitches."

Randal." The art of life is to smooth them away. What hitch is this, my dear Avenel?"

Dick.-"Leonard has taken huff at certain expressions of Lord L'Estrange's at the nomination to-day, and talks of retiring from the contest."

Randal (with secret glee)." But his resignation would smooth a hitch-not create one. The votes promised to him would thus be freed, and go to"

Dick." The Right Honorable Red-Tapist!"
Randal.- -"Are you serious?"

tells me you are to marry a rich girl, and will have lots of money; so, of course, you will pay my expenses if you come in through my votes."

Randal." My dear Avenel, certainly I will." Dick." And I have two private bills I want to smuggle through Parliament."

Randal.-"They shall be smuggled, rely on it. Mr. Fairfield being on one side the House, and I on the other, we two could prevent all unpleasant opposition. Private bills are easily managed-with that tact which I flatter myself I possess."

Dick." And when the bills are through the House, and you have had time to look about you, I daresay you will see that no man can go against Dick." As an undertaker! The fact is, there Public Opinion, unless he wants to knock his own are two parties among the Yellows as there are in head against a stone wall; and that Public Opinthe Church-High Yellow and Low Yellow. Leon-ion is decidedly Yellow."

ard has made great way with the High Yellows, Randal (with candor).-"I cannot deny that and has more influence with them than I; and Public Opinion is Yellow; and, at my age, it is the High Yellows infinitely prefer Egerton to your-natural that I should not commit myself to the self. They say, Politics apart, he would be an policy of a former generation. Blue is fast wearhonor to the borough.' Leonard is of the same ing out. But, to return to Mr. Fairfield-you do opinion; and, if he retires, I don't think I could not speak as if you had no hope of keeping him coax either him or the Highflyers to make you straight to what I understand to be his agreement any the better by his resignation." with yourself. Surely his honor is engaged to it?"

Randal." But surely your nephew's sense of gratitude to you would induce him not to go against your wishes?"

Dick." Unluckily the gratitude is all the other way. It is I who am under obligations to himnot he to me. As for Lord L'Estrange, I can't make head or tail of his real intentions; and why he should have attacked Leonard in that way puzzles me more than all, for he wished Leonard to stand. And Levy has privately informed me that, in spite of my lord's friendship for the Right Honorable, you are the man he desires to secure. Randal." He has certainly shown that desire throughout the whole canvass.

Dick."I suspect that the borough-mongers have got a seat for Egerton elsewhere; or, perhaps, should his party come in again, he is to be pitchforked into the Upper House."

Randal (smiling). Ah, Avenel, you are so shrewd; you see through everything. I will also add, that Egerton wants some short respite from public life in order to nurse his health and attend to his affairs, otherwise I could not even contemplate the chance of the electors preferring me to him, without a pang."

Dick.-"I don't know as to honor; but he has now taken a fancy to public life; at least, so he said no later than this morning before he went into the hall; and I trust that matters will come right. Indeed, I left him with Parson Dale, who promised me that he would use all his best exertions to reconcile Leonard and my lord, and that Leonard should do nothing hastily."

Randal." But why should Mr. Fairfield retire because Lord L'Estrange wounds his feelings? I am sure Mr. Fairfield has wounded mine, but that does not make me think of retiring.'

Dick.-"Oh, Leonard is a poet, and poets are quite as crotchety as L'Estrange said they were. And Leonard is under obligations to Lord L'Estrange, and thought that Lord L'Estrange was pleased by his standing; whereas now-in short, it is all Greek to me, except that Leonard has mounted his high horse, and if that throws him, I am afraid it will throw you. Bat still I have great confidence in Parson Dale-a good fellow, who has much influence with Leonard. And though I thought it right to be above-board, and let you know where the danger lies, yet one thing Dick. Pang-stuff-considerable. The oak I can promise-if I resign, you shall come in; so trees don't hear us! You want to come into Par-shake hands on it." liament, and no mistake. If I am the man to retire as I always proposed, and had got Leonard to agree to, before this confounded speech of L'Estrange's come into Parliament you will, for the Low Yellows I can twist round my finger, provided the High Yellows will not interfere;-in short, could transfer to you votes promised to me, but I can't answer for those promised to Leonard. Levy

I

Randal." My dear Avenel! And your wish is to resign?"

Dick. Certainly. I should do so a little time after noon, contriving to be below Leonard on the poll. You know Emanuel Trout, the captain of the hundred and fifty waiters on Providence,' as they are called?"

Randal.-"To be sure I do."

Dick." When Emanuel Trout comes into the NOTICE.-The Author of the Article in this Number booth, you will know how the election turns. of BLACKWOOD'S MAGAZINE, entitled "MY NOVEL; OR, he votes, all the hundred and fifty will vote. Now VARIETIES IN ENGLISH LIFE, Part XXVIII.," and of other I must go back. Good night. You'll not forget. Articles that have appeared under the same designation, that my expenses are to be paid. Point of honor signifies his intention of preserving the copyright in such Article and Articles in France, and of publishing a French Still, if they are not paid, the election can be translation of the same work. He consequently prohibits upset-petition for bribery and corruption; and ift its republication in France without his sanction in writing. they are paid, why, Lansmere may be your seat [The above is the notice required by the late copyright for life." treaty between England and France. Liv. AGE.] CCCCLVI. LIVING AGE.

VOL. XXXVI.

20

Randal.-"Your expenses shall be paid the mo

ment my marriage gives me the means to pay | The two gentlemen walked on rapidly, and conthem-and that must be very soon." versing with great eagerness.

"I understand. It was a sacrifice of inclination | astuteness of his aspect returned; and stepping to begin the contest-it would be now a sacrifice out of the twilight deep into the shadow, he of inclination to withdraw?" said"Honestly-yes, my lord."

44

"I rejoice to hear it, for I ask that sacrifice; a sacrifice which you will recall hereafter with delight and pride; a sacrifice sweeter, if I read your nature aright-oh, sweeter far, than all which commonplace ambition could bestow! And when you learn why I make this demand, you will say, This, indeed, is reparation for the words that wounded my affections, and wronged my heart.'"' My lord, my lord!" exclaimed Leonard, "the injury is repaired already. You give me back your esteem, when you so well anticipate my answer. Your esteem!-life smiles again. I can return to my more legitimate career without a sigh. I have no need of distraction from thought now. You will believe that, whatever my past presumption, I can pray sincerely for your happiness.'

"Poet!-you adorn your career; you fulfil your mission, even at this moment; you beautify the world; you give to the harsh form of Duty the cestus of the Graces," said Harley, trying to force a smile to his quivering lips. "But we must hasten back to the prose of existence. I accept your sacrifice. As for the time and mode I must select, in order to insure its result, I will ask you to abide by such instructions as I shall have occasion to convey through your uncle. Till then, no word of your intentions-not even to Mr. Dale. Forgive me if I would rather secure Mr. Egerton's election than yours. Let that explanation suffice for the present. What think you, by the way, of Audley Egerton ?"

"I thought, when I heard him speak, and when he closed with those touching words-implying that he left all of his life not devoted to his country to the charity of his friends'-how proudly, even as his opponent, I could have clasped his hand; and if he had wronged me in private life, I should have thought it ingratitude to the country he had so served, to have remembered the offence."

Harley turned away abruptly, and joined Mr. Dale.

"Leave Leonard to go home by himself; you see that I have healed whatever wounds I inflicted on him."

Parson." And, your better nature thus awakened, I trust, my dear lord, that you altogether abandoned the idea of”.

have

not

Harley." Revenge-no. And if you do approve that revenge to-morrow, I will never rest till I have seen you-a bishop!"

Mr. Dale (much shocked)." My lord, for shame!"

Harley (seriously). My levity is but lipdeep, my dear Mr. Dale. But sometimes the froth on the wave shows the change in the tide." The parson looked at him earnestly, and then seized him by both hands with holy gladness and

affection.

"I was sorry to learn that Mr. Fairfield had been so hurt by Lord L'Estrange's severe allusions. Pity that political differences should interfere with private friendships; but I hear that you have been to Mr. Fairfield-and, doubtless, as the peacemaker. Perhaps you met Lord L'Estrange by the way? He promised me that he would apologize and retract."

"Good young man," said the unsuspecting parson," he has done so."

"And Mr. Leonard Fairfield will, therefore, I presume, continue the contest?"

"Contest-ah, this election! I suppose so, of course. But I grieve that he should stand against you, who seem to be disposed towards him so kindly."

Oh," said Randal, with a benevolent smile, we have fought before, you know, and I beat him then. I may do so again!"

And he walked into the house, arm in arm with the parson. Mr. Dale sought ViolanteLeslie retired to his own room, and felt his election was secure.

Lord L'Estrange had gained the thick of the streets-passing groups of roaring enthusiastsBlue and Yellow-now met with a cheer-now followed by a groan. Just by a public-house that formed the angle of a lane with the High Street, and which was all a-blaze with light, and all alive with clamor, he beheld the graceful baron leaning against the threshold, smoking his cigar, too refined to associate its divine vapor with the wreaths of shag within, and chatting agreeably with a knot of females, who were either attracted by the general excitement, or waiting to see husband, brother, father, or son, who were now joining in the chorus of" Blue forever!" that rang from tap-room to attic of the illumined hostelry. Levy, seeing Lord L'Estrange, withdrew his cigar from his lips, and hastened to join him. “All the hundred and fifty are in there," said the baron, with a backward significant jerk of his thumb towards the inn. "I have seen them all privately, in tens at a time; and I have been telling the ladies without, that it will be best for the interest of their families to go home, and let us lock up the Hundred and Fifty safe from the Yellows, till we bring them to the poll. But I am afraid," continued Levy," that the rascals are not to be relied upon unless I actually pay them beforehand; and that would be disreputable, immoral-and, what is more, it would upset the election. Besides, if they are paid beforehand, query, is it quite sure how they will vote afterwards!"

"Mr. Avenel, I daresay, can manage them," said Harley. "Pray do nothing immoral and nothing that will upset the election. I think you might as well go home."

Home! No, pardon me, my lord; there must be some head to direct the committee, and keep our captains at their posts upon the doubtful electors. A great deal of mischief may be done between this and the morrow; and I would sit up ."all night-ay, six nights a-week for the next three months-to prevent any awkward mistake by which Audley Egerton can be returned."

Return to the Park now," said Harley, smiling; " and tell Violante, if it be not too late to see her, that she was even more eloquent than you.' Lord L'Estrange bounded forward.

Mr. Dale walked back through the park to Lansmere House. On the terrace he found Randal, who was still pacing to and fro, sometimes in the starlight, sometimes in the shadow. Leslie looked up, and seeing Mr. Dale, the close

I

"His return would really grieve you so much?" said Harley.

"You may judge of that by the zeal with which enter into all your designs.

Here there was a sudden and wondrously loud | caped-the full knowledge of the guilt to which shout from another inn-a Yellow inn, far down the fiend had tempted-came dread before his the lane, not so luminous as the Blue hostelry; clearing vision; he shuddered in horror of himself. on the contrary, looking rather dark and sinister, And he who but a few hours before had deemed it more like a place for conspirators or felons than so impossible to pardon his fellow-man, now felt honest, independent electors-"Avenel forever! as if years of useful and beneficent deeds could -Avenel and the Yellows!" alone purify his own repentant soul from the memory of one hateful passion.

"Excuse me, my lord, I must go back and watch over my black sheep, if I would have them Blue!" said Levy, and he retreated towards the threshold. But at that shout of" Avenel forever!"

as if at a signal, various electors of the redoubted Hundred and Fifty rushed from the Blue hostelry, sweeping past Levy, and hurrying down the lane to the dark little Yellow inn, followed by the female stragglers, as small birds follow an owl. It was not, however, very easy to get into that Yellow inn. Yellow Reformers, eminent for their zeal on behalf of purity of election, were stationed outside the door, and only strained in one candidate for admittance at a time. "After all," thought the baron, as he passed into the principal room of the Blue tavern, and proposed the national song of "Rule Britannia" after all, Avenel hates Egerton as much as I do, and both sides work to the same end." And, thrumming on the table, he joined, with a fine bass, in the famous line,

For Britons never will be slaves!

CHAPTER XXXII.

BUT while Harley had thus occupied the hours of night with cares for the living. Audley Egerton had been in commune with the dead. He had taken from the pile of papers, amidst which it had fallen, the record of Nora's silenced heart. With a sad wonder he saw how he had once been loved. What had all which successful ambition had bestowed on the lonely statesman to compensate for the glorious empire he had lost-such realms of lovely fancy; such worlds of exquisite emotion; that infinite which lies within the divine sphere that unites spiritual genius with human love? His own positive and earthly nature attained, for the first time, and as if for its own punishment, the comprehension of that loftier and more ethereal visitant from the heavens, who had once looked with a seraph's smile through the prison bars of his iron life;-that celestial refinement of affection, that exuberance of feeling which warms into such varieties of beautiful idea, under the breath of the earth-beautifier, Imagination;—all from which, when it was all his own, he had turned half-weary and impatient, and termed the exaggerations of a visionary romance ;-now that the world had lost them evermore, he interpreted aright as truths. Truths they were, although illusions. Even as the philosopher tells us that the splendor of colors which deck the universe is not on the surface whereon we think to behold them, but in our own vision; yet, take the colors from the universe, and what philosophy can assure us that the universe has sustained no loss?

In the interim, Harley had disappeared within the "Lansmere Arms," which was the headquarters of the Blue committee. Not, however, mounting to the room in which a few of the more indefatigable were continuing their labors, receiving reports from scouts, giving orders, laying wagers, and very muzzy with British principles and spirits, Harley called aside the landlord, and inquired if the stranger, for whom rooms had been prepared, was yet arrived. An affirmative answer was given, and Harley followed the host up a private stair, to a part of the house remote from the rooms devoted to the purposes of the election. He remained with this stranger about half an But when Audley came to that passage in the hour, and then walked into the committee-room, fragment which, though but imperfectly, explained got rid of the more excited, conferred with the the true cause of Nora's flight;-when he saw more sober, issued a few brief directions to such how Levy, for what purpose he was unable to conof the leaders as he felt he could most rely upon,jecture, had suggested to his bride the doubts that and returned home as rapidly as he had quitted had offended him-asserted the marriage to be a

it.

fraud-drawn from Audley's own brief resentful letters to Nora, proof of the assertion-misled so naturally the young wife's scanty experience of actual life, and maddened one so sensitively pure into the conviction of dishonor-his brow darkened and his hand clenched. He rose and went at once to Levy's room. He found it desertedinquired-learned that Levy was gone forth, and had left word he might not be at home for the night. Fortunate, perhaps, for Audley-fortunate for the baron-that they did not then meet. Revenge, in spite of his friend's admonition, might at that hour have been as potent an influence on Egerton as it had been on Harley, and not, as with the latter, to be turned aside.

Dawn was gray in the skies when Harley sought his own chamber. To gain it, he passed by the door of Violante's. His heart suffused with grateful, ineffable tenderness, he paused and kissed the threshold. When he stood within his room (the same that he had occupied in his early youth), he felt as if the load of years we lifted from his bosom. The joyous divine elasticity of spirit, that in the morning of life springs towards the Future as a bird soars into heaven, pervaded his whole sense of being. A Greek poet implies, that the height of bliss is the sudden relief of pain; there is a nobler bliss still the rapture of the conscience at the sudden release from a guilty thought. By the bedside at which he had knelt Audley came back to his room and finished the in boyhood, Harley paused to kneel once more. tragic record. He traced the tremor of that beThe luxury of prayer, interrupted since he had loved hand through the last tortures of doubt and nourished schemes of which his passions had despair ;-he saw where the hot tears had fallen; blinded him to the sin, but which, nevertheless, he saw where the hand had paused, the very senhe dared not confess to the All-Merciful, was re-tence not concluded ;-mentally he accompanied stored to him. And yet, as he bowed his knee, his fated bride in the dismal journey to her maiden the elation of spirits he had before felt forsook home, and beheld her before him as he had last him. The sense of the danger his soul had es-seen, more beautiful, even in death, than the face

"True, my Audley-you and I together-when did we ever lose? But will you rise? I wish you would be at the polling-place to shake hands with "Lord L'Estrange," replied Randal, bowing, your voters as they come up. By four o'clock you" I shall indeed owe you much if you can remove will be released, and the election won."