llinor during my exile,--once
upon the marriage of Fanny with Lord Castleton, which took place about
six months after I sailed from England, and again when thanking her
husband for some rare animals, equine, pastoral, and bovine, which
he had sent as presents to Bolding and myself. I wrote again after
Trevanion's elevation to the peerage, and received, in due time, a reply
confirming all my impressions; for it was full of bitterness and gall,
accusations of the world, fears for the country,--Richelieu himself
could not have taken a gloomier view of things when his levees were
deserted and his power seemed annihilated before the "Day of Dupes."
Only one gleam of comfort appeared to visit Lady Ulverstone's breast,
and thence to settle prospectively over the future of the world,--a
second son had been born to Lord Castleton; to that son would
descend the estates of Ulverstone and the representation of that line
distinguished by Trevanion and enriched by Trevanion's wife. Never was
there a child of such promise! Not Virgil himself, when he called on the
Sicilian Muses to celebrate the advent of a son to Pollio, ever sounded
a loftier strain. Here was one, now, perchance, engaged on words of two
syllables, called:

"By laboring Nature to sustain
The nodding frame of heaven and earth and main,
See to their base restored, earth, sea, and air,
And joyful ages from behind in crowding ranks appear!"

Happy dream which Heaven sends to grandparents,--rebaptism of Hope in
the font whose drops sprinkle the grandchild!

Time flies on; affairs continue to prosper. I am just leaving the bank
at Adelaide with a satisfied air when I am stopped in the street by
bowing acquaintances who never shook me by the hand before. They shake
me by the hand now, and cry, "I wish you joy, sir. That brave fellow,
your namesake, is of course your near relation."

"What do you mean?"

"Have you not seen the papers? Here they are."

"Gallant Conduct of Ensign De Caxton! Promoted to a Lieutenancy
on the Field!"

I wipe my eyes, and cry: "Thank Heaven,--it is my cousin!" Then new
hand-shakings, new groups gather round. I feel taller by the head than
I was before! We grumbling English, always quarrelling with each
other,--the world not wide enough to hold us; and yet, when in the far
land some bold deed is done by a countryman, how we feel that we are
brothers; how our hearts warm to each other! What a letter I wrote