other English, whom Napoleon treated with a
scandalous rigour. In return he taught them
the economy of pit coal, and its use in that
part, wood being so scarce as to be sold by the
pound. He enjoyed himself so much and was
so happy, that he protested his apothecary's bill
during three years was but ten shillings. The
"only canker" that disturbed him was the loss
of his dear relatives at home; and rather
touchingly, and even poetically, he complained
how his friends " are in turn, at different hours
of the night and day, present to my
heartfelt remembrance, a new face or voice
enchains the ideas of resemblance to one or
other, and the momentary eve of a night's
sleep transports me amongst you, and following
dreams let me enjoy the momentary happiness
of your visionary society." Still, when we
think of his many years' absence, in a great
degree voluntary, one is inclined to recal the
rough cynic's answer, in Boswell, to the anxious
father, who was mourfully bewailing the
possible condition of his son at school: "Then
why don't you take a post-chaise and go to
him?"

At last, however, in the year 1814, and
after the death, in a duel, of the faithful
and affectionate Irish brother who had so
long managed his affairs, the exile returned
to his native land and to his estates, after
an absence of nearly thirty years. He was
a thorough foreigner, and some said a perfect
French atheist. He had passed through a deal
of privation and had borne some imprisonment.
He was now re-established, and in 1818 was
married and returned member for his county.

The surprise of meeting after that long
interval approached the dramatic. The great
Irish brothers—one was about six feet three in
height, rude, rough, boisterous, noisy, trained
in the wildest school of wild Irish manners—
were ready to burst with laughter at the strange
Frenchified relation who had returned to them.
A small, dandified, perhaps "mincing" petit
maÃŽtre, that read French poetry, and was
powdered á la mode. They came on him with
quite the shock of a cold shower-bath. He
shrank away from their noisy roysterings,
which to him seemed "low," coarse, and even
appalling, while they, with a good-natured
contempt, determined to make something "like
a man" of him, teach him to drink to his
tenth tumbler, like other Irish gentlemen, to
fight duels, pass through roaring elections, and
the other agrámens of Irish life. These well-
meant attempts succeeded only partially, and
their rough education and rude jokes seemed to
have had the effect only of inspiring him with
a lasting horror and a rooted dislike.

The lady he selected for his wife was a
woman of strong will and purpose, "of a
haughty, irritable, and violent temper,"
"sometimes approaching to phrensy," "jealous
of the slightest interference, disappointment,
or control;" in short, precisely the sort of
ambitious heroine who ought to figure in a
will case. And here it may be noticed
that a little consideration of will cases, and
indeed causes of other descriptions, often
discover an almost Sallustian tone of
description, etching out characters, &c., in most
unexpected quarters; witnesses and letter-
writers frequently describing features of human
character and human incidents with a graphic
power and an unaffected force of language
that many a professional writer might envy.

This heroine, then, who possessed great
attractions, it was insisted, laid herself out from
the day of the marriage for the one aim of
being mistress of Tintern Abbey during her
husband's life, as well as after his death. The
game was rather a difficult one: there were
innumerable relations to play against—squireens,
clergymen, all watching and eager. To the future
heir—a nephew—she had a special animosity;
and there were, of course, the usual schemes to
reach the well-watched testator—ambuscades
with the assumption that he was under intimidation,
and before her, dare not exhibit his feelings.
Such a situation, from its very uncertainty,
from the speculation as to the contents of the
coming will, which, after all, their fond hopes
led them to believe would be in their favour—a
situation protracted through many long years
—must be one painfully dramatic. But as time
wore on, and he grew old, she took some
measures of jealous precaution. He was not
allowed to read one of his letters without her
previous permission, and frequently, perusal.
Some she burned. She gave him her orders
haughtily, and, it was said, used to strengthen
her behests by such bold language as, "By
G—d it shall be done!" But this and much
more duly sworn to, may have been an invention
on the side of the inflamed relations, driven
frantic by what was impending. Her favourite
theme to him was a harsh disparagement of
their merits, "frequently (but falsely) stating
to him that they were swindlers, drunkards,
and blackgards, in order to lower them in his
estimation," the naïveté of which inuendo is
highly characteristic. It was charged, too,
that she commenced her nefarious plot by
setting her husband against his mother, a poor
old lady of ninety-seven, who was ordered out
of his house in Molesworth-street, where she
had long lived rent free, at the suggestion, it
was said, of her imperious daughter-in-law.

      MR. CHARLES DICKENS'S FAREWELL
                              READINGS.

MR. CHARLES DICKENS will read on Thursday,
April 29, at Chester; Saturday, May 1 (Morning Reading),
St. James's Hall, London; Monday, May 3, Cardiff;
Tuesday, May 4, Swansea; Wednesday, May 5,
Gloucester; Thursday, May 6, Hereford; Saturday Morning,
May 8, St. James's Hall, London; Tuesday Evening,
May 11, Saturday Morning, May 22, and Tuesday
Evening, May 25, St. James's Hall, London.

All communications to be addressed to MESSRS.
CHAPPELL AND Co., 50, New Bond-street, London, W.