theless, when they have returned home, and their missions have ended-"

"They would deserve the rack," vehemently interrupted De Vere, "if they turned the information they had acquired against the government that had employed them."

"Nothing more just, nothing more honourable," observed Lord Oldcastle (again placing his hand on his bosom, as if penetrated with the sentiment); "but my experience has led me to think that all young men have not the exalted notions of Mr. De Vere;-I dare say we now understand one another," and he almost bowed him out.

Now here, if Lord Oldcastle understood Mr. De Vere, it was infinitely more than Mr. De Vere did Lord Oldcastle; and in this ignorance the reader probably will participate. Yet, as if the result had been explicitly established, the minister shook De Vere heartily by the hand, and De Vere found himself in the street, without a notion whether any, or what arrangements had been settled between them.

On leaving the house, and within a few yards of it, he saw Mr. Wentworth, who, eyeing him sufficiently to mark that he had seen where he had been, passed on apparently unconscious of the salutation which De Vere could not help bestowing upon him.

"He did not see me," said De Vere; "it is impossible his great mind can continue under the error of the morning. He must know the fidelity of my attachment to him:" and with this consoling reflection, De Vere gave himself up to the various and new interests which now pressed upon him on every side.

His first impulse was to seek Constance; for his heart longed to communicate with hers. But, amid the Bellamonts and Clevelands who besieged her, how was he to find one of those moments once so sweet to him, and, we may add, so serviceable? Besides, had he settled the point, whether he could leave her?leave her for one or two years?-leave her at all? Eustace had driven so quickly, that he had not had time to decide this and other questions: among them, whether he should relinquish his intended seat while 157650R

abroad, if abroad he went; and finally, whether or not he was suitable for the profession which he seemed about to embrace.

While meditating these subjects, he fell in with his old counsellor, Flowerdale, to whom he communicated his interviews with Mr. Wentworth and the present minister: Sir William did not seem to like the account of either.

"The bane of your political hero," said he, "is what, to some people might do good-his vivacity of feeling. He was unjust to you, when you sought him; and depend upon it, if he saw you come out of the minister's house, his feeling will not be allayed." "Good heavens!" exclaimed De Vere," are party politics so jealous?"

"The most jealous of all mistresses," said Flowerdale; "you will stand in need of all Mr. Wentworth's liberality, (and no man has more, when prejudice is over;) but you must wait his cooler moments, before you will be forgiven."

"How different," observed De Vere, "are the two men! The minister himself took my professions concerning his rival in admirable part."

Flowerdale smiled but looked incredulous.

"Well, but," said De Vere, "his consent to my entering upon diplomacy, notwithstanding my avowals as to my politics, was surely the most liberal thing in the world."

"Are you quite sure of this consent?" asked Flowerdale.

"He assented to my principles," returned De Vere; and said, 6 we now understand one anoth

"And did you understand him?" asked Flowerdale.

'Twas a question De Vere had not quite considered; but he said it was an extraordinary one, as implying a doubt. "Even Mr. Wentworth's honest injustice,' added he, "is better than this."

"A great deal," returned Sir William.

They walked on for some paces, when the Baronet asked, to which Court he inclined; but was surprised to

be told, that the whole thing had been so hurried, that he had not quite settled an important preliminary, whether he was fit even for the career itself.

"If I have mistaken Lord Oldcastle, I fear I am not," said De Vere; "for it is evident I am too sanguine. Yet why should a sanguine temperament be incompatible with the high notions I have formed of the character of the representative of a great nation? I can scarcely conceive any thing more noble!"

"Or less liable to be circumvented by cunning, and scoundrels!" said Flowerdale.

De Vere anxiously asked his meaning.

"The English," returned the Baronet, "were never famous for good ambassadors; even though educated in a foreign country, and, like the Duke of Berwick, in a foreign service."

"I know not your allusion," said De Vere.

"The little Italian Queen of Spain," answered Flowerdale, "got rid of him, you know, and sent him back to France. Being asked why she did not like him, she could only say,' C'est un grand diable d'Anglois sec, qui va toujours droit devant lui.""

"Are we to regret this character ?" asked De Vere. "Not as men; but as diplomats, it might be as well if we had a little more of the Italian craftiness which is so often employed against us.

"I cannot agree with you," said De Vere, becoming thoughtful.

"Shall I tell you a story," resumed Flowerdale, "once related to me by one of the parties concerned, a man full of sense and rectitude, and himself an ambassador?"

"By all means," said De Vere. Flowerdale went on. "And why do you go away, when you say you may remain here?" said Count Rhiensberg, one day, to the Baron de Lindendahl,-here, where you own you have a better salary, and affairs are of most importance.'

"❝Shall I tell you frankly?' answered the Baron. "'Yes.'

"Frankly, then, because by remaining here, my diplomatic métier will be spoiled.'

"That I cannot understand. There are the greatest and most complicated affairs; the widest field for negociation; the

“All very true, my dear Count; no difficulty, no intrigues, except in Parliament, or for power. None for us foreign ministers; very little room for reasoning; still less for persuasion; none at all for manoeuvering. In short, these English are too honest to be good politicians themselves, or give any play to others who are.'

"I don't yet comprehend,' said the Count.

"You will, before you have been here six months. For, if what we have to propose is wise and just, and expedient for England, ministers adopt it without any management from us: if improper, or impolitic, why, it is rejected, and the devil himself cannot bend them. You can neither bribe nor cajole. The laws prevent the first; the numbers in the cabinet the last: fear of the confounded Parliament both.'

"Has, then, a minister for Foreign affairs here really no weak side?'

"If he have, and you find it out,' said the Baron, "of what avail? You must also get at the Premier's weak side, and the Chancellor's weak side, and the weak sides of all those who have to speak to measures in both Houses.'

"Umph!' said the Count.

"And therefore, I will go home,' said the Baron; my maitre d'hotel would make as good an envoy as I, provided he could deliver memorials with a good grace. My Government at home draw the memorials, and the Government here draw the answers; so, but for communicating events, which the newspapers know much better and sooner than we, we are of no use at all: and hence, I will go home again,' concluded the Baron.*

The substance of this conversation is not imaginary, and it coincides extraordinarily with the following opinion of Mr. A. de Staël Holstein, who seems sometimes, and notwithstanding some amusing blunders, to have viewed us well. "Il n'y a pas de pays en Europe, où le métier d'Ambassadeur soit plus simple qu'en Angleterre, et où toutes les finesses, toute l'habileté pretendue de la Diplomatie, sont plus en pure perte."

Lettres sur l'Angleterre.

"Your story," said De Vere, "does not make me regret that I may probably be thought, like your Duke of Berwick,'un grand diable d'Anglois sec, qui va toujours droit devant lui.' However, I do not like your account of the people I may have to deal with." "Wait till you are appointed," returned Flowerdale, "before you make yourself uneasy."

CHAPTER XIV.

ESTRANGEMENT.

I do believe it, for they pass'd by me
As misers do by beggars; neither gave to me
Good word, or look.

SHAKSPEARE.

THE next day De Vere, still uncomfortable at his reception by Wentworth the day before, resolved to call upon him again, 'spite of those little hauteurs which, at first, had withheld him. But sleep had done much for him, as it always will for any good mind; nor can I think that man amiable, or even innocent, who, after the placidity and refreshment of a night's rest, can awake only to his resentments. He must forget the being who sheds this balmy blessing over our shattered, perhaps perverted senses, and who enjoins the forgiveness of all injuries before the sun goes down upon our wrath.

De Vere presented himself, therefore, early in the morning at Mr. Wentworth's, and was ushered into a waiting-room, Mr. Wentworth being above stairs. What was his surprise, to receive a note from him, couched in these terms:

"Your visit to the Minister yesterday, speaks all you can have to tell me. You have made your election, and, far from complaining of it, I only wish to make