snch inquiring glances, that they, who from conscious depravity could not bear their scrutiny, sought to conceal the embarrassment which it occasioned by calling it designing and morose. But artifice was a stranger to Lord Drelincourt's breast, and would have been equally abhorred by him as a crime, and despised as a meanness. He thought, with Francis the First, that "foi de gentilhomme," was the strongest assertion which could be required; and his own spotless honour was a convincing proof, that, from him, it was all that was necessary. A faithful subject, a tender husband, an affectionate parent, and a sincere friend, could Lord Drelincourt be otherwise than respected? When we add, that he was a kind master, an indulgent landlord, the hope of the poor, and the champion of distress; many of our readers will condemn us for exhibiting "a faultless monster which the world never saw;" but we are too well acquainted with human nature to insult their 66 E 2 their experience by asserting, that we draw a perfect character from real life: no, though we are mortified to confess it, Lord Drelincourt had a fault, which could at times eclipse all his virtues, "the fault by which e'en angels fell," was the black bane from which his heart had not been purified. Yet a very large portion of this besetting sin, which held even Lord Drelincourt in thraldom, had its foundation in virtue, mistaken virtue it is true, and carried to excess; but we may venerate the cause though we must condemn the effects. Lord Drelincourt had been brought up with most exalted ideas of his prerogatives, which had produced in him the baneful effects of expecting more, from every one, than any one was inclined to grant. His father, after a licentious and disgraceful youth, of which the follies extended even to middle age, had retired with a ruined constitution, to estates, heavily encumbered by his past extrava gancies. gancies. He there conceived every day new disgust for his former excesses, and new resentments against those who had called themselves his friends, but who had foraken him, when they could no longer make him subservient to their designs; though many of them were infinitely his inferiors in rank, fortune, talents, and even virtues, few as he possessed at the time of his associating with them. He married, and entirely renounced the world, collecting all that was useful and desirable from it, into Castle Drelincourt, the seat of his ancestors, where he passed the remainder of his days, endeavouring to atone for his early misconduct by the practice, as he believed, of every duży, and by instilling into his son, the present Earl, who was the only pledge of his union, the knowledge and love of virtue. Unfortunately, the old Earl forgot to mention, that "the excellence, which makes all other excellencies amiable, is humility;" and the young Lord Courtney not appear likely to know it by intuition; but then, to make amends for this omission, he was constantly warned to preserve inviolate the dignity of his rank; past times were expatiated on with rapture to him, and contrasted with the present age, to guard him against its degeneracy. His youthful imagination was fired with tales. of the valour and magnificence of his ancestors, he sighed to see the castle once more filled with armed men, with ladies fair and barons bold; his young head ran on tilts and tournaments, rebellions and sieges, and before he was fifteen years of age, he had learnt to regard every thing modern with contempt or indignation; but what may appear very surprising, a further acquaintance with the world, on which he had looked with disgust from the retirement of Castle Drelincourt, did not contribute to alter his opinion. If any thing more had been necessary to warp the mind of Lord Courtney, and cloud it with prejudice, it would have been been effected by the flatteries and absurd conduct of his aunts, the maiden sisters of the Earl. by whose extravagance they had been deprived of their portions, which were unluckily left by their father in his son's hands, until they should marry; and could we suppose interest ever to influence matrimony, we should fear that the poor ladies in losing their property, lost also the probability of establishing themselves in the married state; certain it is, that from the time in which it was pretty confidently whispered that their brother, perhaps through the hope of changing his luck, had ventured their fortunes at a fashionable gaming house, from that time their admirers grew more respectful in their adorations, which at last ended in that indisputable mark of true love, a timid silence; and the ladies, after having candidly acknowledged for ten years successively, that they should soon be thirty, were obliged to submit to waste the winter of their charms in the seclusion of their brother's B 4 |