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the "matti Inglesi"-the mad English-who had taken such a time and place for a carriage airing. Nor was the courage of the act unrecognised, and twice or thrice a wild cheer proclaimed what they thought of a nation whose very ladies were above all fear and timidity.

The most striking feature in all this tumult was, that soldiers were seen everywhere mixed up with the civilians; not merely furloughed men in undress, but soldiers in full uniform and perfectly armed, but yet displaying, sometimes ostentatiously, by the way they carried their shakoes or their bayonets, or wore their coats open and unbuttoned, that they no longer respected the claims of discipline.

Patrols on foot or horseback would be met too; but the men, under no restraint, would not only exchange words of greeting with the mob, but accept offers of wine or cigars; and it was seen that the officers were either powerless to prevent or unwilling to curb this indiscipline.

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What does all this portend, Damer?" asked Sir Arthur. "We hear cheers for the King; but all I see seems to threaten his downfall."

Skeffy was puzzled, and a wiser man might have been puzzled; but his diplomatic instincts forbade such a humiliating avowal, and so he merely muttered something to the purport, that "We" had not fully determined what was to be the issue; and that till "We" had made up our minds, all these signs and portents were mere street-noises.

If I am not perfectly just to him in this rendering of his explanation, I am at least merciful to my reader; and, leaving the party to follow out the exploration, I shall return to the drawing-room they had just quitted, and where Alice now sat alone, and deep in thought. The yells and cries that filled the street outside, and the continual uproar that resounded through the city, were all unheeded by her; and so immersed was she in her reflec

tions, that when a servant entered the room to present the card of a visitor, she was unaware of his presence till he had twice addressed her.

"It cannot be for us," said she, looking at the name. "I do not know the Count d'Amalfi."

"He hopes to be better remembered as Mr Maitland," said that gentleman, as, pushing wide the half-open door, he approached her and made a low bow.

The servant had time to retire and shut the door before Alice had sufficiently recovered herself to ask Maitland to be seated. So coldly was the request conveyed, however, that if he was not determined on having an interview, he would have affected to make his call an offer of some sort of attention, and taken his leave almost on the instant. Far different were his present intentions; and as he deposited his hat and cane, and took his place in front of her, there was a methodical slowness that indicated purpose.

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I am almost afraid to tell you, Mr Maitland," she began, "that I gave orders to be denied to all visitors. They have all gone out to drive, and

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"It was for that reason I took this opportunity to call, madam," said he, very quietly, but in a tone of some decision. "I desired to see you all alone.”

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'Not, surely, if you were aware that I did not receive?"

"Do not oblige me to convict myself, Mrs Trafford; for I, too, shall be almost afraid to tell the truth," and a very faint smile moved his mouth as he spoke.

"But, as I conjecture, you would like to meet my father

"My visit at present is for you," said he, interrupting; "and as I cannot assure myself how long the opportunity may last, let me profit by it."

She became very pale; some fear she certainly felt: but there was more of anger than fear in the thought that this man was, by his manner,

almost asserting a right to see and speak with her.

"Mr Maitland is too accomplished a man of the world to need being told, that when a person has declared an indisposition to receive it is usually deemed enough to secure privacy."

"Usually-yes; but there are occasions which are not in this category."

"And do you mean to say this is one of them, sir?" said she, haughtily.

"Most certainly, madam, this is one of them!" As Maitland said this he saw the colour mount to her face; and he saw, too, how, now that her proud spirit was, as it were, challenged, she would not think of retreat, but brave him, whatever might come of it.

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Indeed!" said she, with a scornful laugh-"indeed!" and the last syllable was drawn out in an accent of most insolent irony. Yes, madam," he continued, in a tone perfectly calm and unimpassioned; our last relations together fully warrant me to say so much; and however presumptuous it might have been in me to aspire as I did, the gracious favour with which I was listened to seemed to plead for me."

"What favour do you speak of, sir?" said she, with evident agitation. "I must not risk the faint hope that remains to me, by recalling what you may not wish to remember; but I may at least ask you to bring to mind a certain evening a certain night-when we walked together in the garden at Tilney."

"I do not think I am likely to forget it, sir: some anonymous slanderer has made it the pretext of a most insolent calumny. I do not, I need not say, connect you in any way with this base scandal; but it is enough to make the incident the reverse of a pleasant memory."

"And yet it was the happiest of my whole life."

"It is unfortunate, sir, that we should look back to an event with feelings so diametrically opposite."

Maitland gave no heed to the irony of her tone, but went on. "If I was conscious of my own unworthiness, I had certain things in my favour which served to give me courage-not the least of these was your brother's friendship."

"Mark was always proud of being Mr Maitland's friend," said she, rather touched by this haughty man's humility.

"That friendship became very precious to me when I knew his sister. Indeed, from that hour I loved him as a brother."

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Forgive me, sir, if I interrupt you. At the time to which you allude we would seem to have been living in a perfect realm of misconceptions. Surely it is not necessary to revive them: surely, now that we have awoke, we need not take up the clue of a dream to assist our reflections."

"What may be the misconceptions you refer to ?" said he, with a voice much shaken and agitated.

"One was, it would appear, that Mr Maitland made me certain professions. Another, that he wasthat he had-that is, that he held I cannot say it, sir; and I beg you to spare me what a rash temper might possibly provoke me to utter."

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"Say all that you will; I loved you, Alice."

"You will force me to leave you, sir, if you thus forget yourself."

"I loved you, and I love you still. Do not go, I beg, I implore you. As the proof of how I love you, I declare that I know all that you have heard of me, all that you have said of me; every harsh and cruel word. Ay, Alice, I have read them as your hand traced them, and through all, I love you."

"I will not stoop to ask how, sir; but I will say that the avowal has not raised you in my estimation."

"If I have not your love, I will never ask for your esteem. I wanted your affection, as a man wants that which would make his life a reality. I could have worked for you, I could have braved scores of things

I have ever shrunk from; and I had a right to it."

"A right!-what right?"

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The right of him who loved as I did, and was as ready to prove his love. The man who has done what I have is no adventurer, though that fair hand wrote him one. Remember that, madam; and remember that you are in a land where men accept no such slights as this you would pass upon me." His eyes

glared with passion as he spoke, and his dark cheeks grew purple. "You are not without those who must answer for your levity."

"Now, sir, I leave you," said she, rising.

"Not yet. You shall hear me out. I know why you have treated me thus falsely. I am aware who is my rival."

“Let me pass, sir."

He placed his back to the door, and folded his arms on his breast; but though he made an immense effort to seem calm, his lips shook as he spoke. "You shall hear me out. I tell you, I know my rival, and I am ready and prepared to stake my pretensions against his."

"Go on, sir, go on; very little more in this strain will efface any memory I preserved of what you first appeared to me."

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Oh, Alice!" cried he, in a voice of deep anguish. "It is despair has brought me to this. When I came, I thought I could have spoken with calm and self-restraint; but when I saw you saw what I once believed might have been mine-I forgot all -all but my misery."

"Suffer me to pass out, sir," said she, coldly. He moved back, and opened the door wide, and held it thus as she swept past him, without a word or a look.

Maitland pressed his hat deep

over his brow, and descended the stairs slowly, one by one. A car

riage drove to the door as he reached it, and his friend Caffarelli sprang out and grasped his hand.

"Come quickly, Maitland!" cried he. "The King has left the palace. The army is moving out of Naples to take up a position at Capua. All goes badly. The fleet is wavering, and Garibaldi passed last night at Salerno."

"And what do I care for all this? Let me pass."

"Care for it! It is life or death, caro mio! In two hours more the populace will tear in pieces such men as you and myself, if we're found here. Listen to those yells, 'Morte ai Reali!' Is it with 'Death to the Royalists!' ringing in our ears we are to linger here?"

"This is as good a spot to die in as another," said Maitland; and he lighted his cigar and sat down on the stone bench beside the door.

"The Twenty-fifth of the Line are in open revolt, and the last words of the King were, 'Give them to Maitland, and let him deal with them.""

Maitland shrugged his shoulders, and smoked on.

"Genario has hoisted the cross of Savoy over the fort at Baia," continued the other, "and no one can determine what is to be done. They all say, 'Ask Maitland."

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"Imitate him! Do the same over the Royal Palace!" said the other, mockingly.

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There, there! Listen to that cry! The mob are pouring down the Chiaja. Come away."

"Let us look at the scoundrels," said Maitland, taking his friend's arm and moving into the street.

Caffarelli pushed and half lifted him into the carriage, and they drove off at speed.

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heard, and burning with impatience to impart how Skeffy had been sent for by the King, and what he said to his Majesty, and how the royal plans had been modified by his sage words; and, in fact, that the fate of the Neapolitan kingdom was at that moment in the hands of that "gifted creature."

It was such she called him; and I beg my kind reader not to think the less of her that she so magnified her idol. The happiest days of our lives are the least real, just as the evils which never befall us are the greatest.

Bella was sincerely sorry for her sister's headache; but with all that, she kept stealing every now and then into her room, to tell what Skeff said to Caraffa, and the immense effect it produced. "And then, dearest," she went on, "we have really done a great deal today. We have sent off three 'formal despatches' and two confidentials, and Skeff has told My Lord B., Secretary of State though he be, a piece of his mind-he does write so ably when he is roused; and he has declared that he will not carry out his late instructions. Few men would have had courage to say that; but they know that, if Skeff liked, he has only to go into Parliament: there are scores of boroughs actually fighting for him; he would be positively terrible in opposition."

A deep wearied sigh was all Alice's response.

"Yes, dearest, I'm sure I am tiring you; but I must tell how we liberated Mr M'Gruder. He has been, he says, fifty-three days in prison, and really he looks wretched. I might have felt more for the man, but for the cold good-for-nothing way he took all Skeff's kindness. Instead of bursting with gratitude, and calling him his deliverer, all he said was, 'Well, sir, I think it was high time to have done this, which, for aught I see, might just as easily have been done three or perhaps four weeks ago.' Skeff was magnificent; he only

VOL. XCVI.—NO. DXC.

waved his hand, and said, 'Go; you are free!' 'I know that well enough,' said he, in the same sturdy voice; and I intend to make use of my freedom to let the British people know how I have been treated. You'll see honourable mention of it all, and yourself too, in the Times,' before ten days are over.""

"My dear Bella, my head is racking; would you just wet that handkerchief and lay it on my forehead ?"

"My poor sweet Alice! and I so cruel, with all my stupid stories; but I thought you'd like to hear about Tony."

"Tony!-what of Tony?" asked she, raising herself on one elbow and looking up.

"Well, dearest, it was while in search after Tony that M'Gruder got imprisoned. They were sworn friends, it seems. You know, dear, Tony was never very particular in his choice of friends."

“But what of him-where is he?"

"I'll tell you everything, if you'll only have a little patience. Tony, who was living with M'Gruder in Leghorn, -a partner, I think, in some odious traffic-cast-off clothes, I believe,-grew tired of it, or got into debt, or did something that brought him into trouble, and he

ran

away and joined that mad creature Garibaldi.”

Well, go on."

"Well, he had not been gone more than ten days or so, when a lawyer came out from England to say that his uncle, Sir Somebody Butler, had died and left him all he had-a fine estate and I don't know how much money. When Mr M'Gruder was quite satisfied that all this was true-and like a canny Scotchman he examined it thoroughly-he set off himself to find Tony and tell him his good news; for, as he said, it would have been a terrible thing to let him go risk his life for nothing, now that he had a splendid fortune and a large estate. Indeed,

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you should have heard Mr M'Gruder himself on this theme. It was about the strangest medley of romance and worldliness I ever listened to. After all, he was a stanch friend, and he braved no common dangers in his pursuit. He had scarcely landed, however, in Sicily, when he was arrested and thrown into prison."

"And never met Tony?" "Never-of course not; how could he? He did not even dare to speak of one who served under Garibaldi till he met Skeffy." "But where is Tony? Is he safe? How are we to hear of him?" asked Alice, hurriedly.

"Skeff has undertaken all that, Alice. You know how he has relations with men of every party, and is equally at home with the wildest followers of Mazzini and the courtiers about the throne. He says he'll send off a confidential messenger at once to Garibaldi's camp with a letter for Tony. Indeed, it was all I could do to prevent him going himself, he is so attached to Tony, but I begged and implored him not to go."

"Tony would have done as much for him," said Alice, gloomily.

"Perhaps he would; but remember the difference between the men, Alice. If anything should befall Skeffy, who is there to replace him?" Alice, perhaps, could not satisfactorily answer this, for she lay back on her bed and covered her face with her hands.

"Not indeed that he would listen to me when I made that appeal to him, but he kept on repeating, 'Tony is the finest, truest-hearted fellow I ever met. He'd never have left a friend in the lurch; he'd never have thought of himself if another was in danger; and help him I must and will:' and that's the reason we are waiting dinner, dear, for he would go off to the Minister of War or the President of the Council; and he told papa, as he shook hands, on no account to wait for him, for he might be detained longer than he expected."

As she spoke a tap came to the door, and a servant announced dinner.

"Has Mr Damer arrived ?" asked Bella, eagerly.

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No, ma'am, but Sir Arthur has just got a note from him."

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I must see what he says!” cried she, and left the room.

Sir Arthur was reading the letter when she entered.

"Here's Skeff gone off to what he calls the front;' he says that Tony Butler has joined the insurgents, and he must get him out of their hands at any price."

"But of course, papa, you'll not permit it; you'll forbid him peremptorily," broke in Bella.

"I'm not so sure of that, Bella ; because, amongst other reasons, I'm not so sure he'd mind me. Our gifted friend is endowed with considerable self-will."

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"Immense determination, should rather call it, papa; but, pray, try to stop this mad freak. He is not certainly called on to expose such a life as his, and at such a moment."

"What am I to do?"

"Go over to him at once-declare that you have the right to speak on such a subject. Say that if he is pleased to overlook the necessity of his presence here at this crisis, he ought to remember his position with regard to usought to think of me," said she, with a burst of grief that ended in a shower of tears, and drove her from the room.

Sir Arthur was far more disposed to sit down to his dinner than go off on this mission of affection; but Lady Lyle took the same view of the case as her daughter, and there was no help for it. And although the bland butler repeated

Soup is served, sir," the poor man had to step down-stairs to his carriage and drive off to the Legation.

On arriving there he learned that his Excellency had gone to see the Prime Minister. Sir Arthur set off in the pursuit, which led him from one great office of the

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