ich should threaten the possession of one of
the largest estates in a county adjacent to the metropolis. To these
succeeded others, more openly expressed, in which it was announced that
some of the most distinguished members of the inner bar had received
retainers for a cause that would soon astonish the world, wherein the
plaintiff was represented to be the son and heir of one who once had
figured most conspicuously in the fashionable and political circles of
Dublin.

As the time approached for bringing the case to trial it was judged
expedient that I should be provided with lodgings in a more fashionable
quarter of the town, be seen abroad in places of public resort, and, in
fact, a certain _eclat_ be imparted to my presence, which should enlist,
so far as might be, popular feeling in my favor. The chief adviser and
leader of my case was a lawyer of great repute in the Irish bar of those
days,--a certain Samuel Hanchett,--one of those men who owe their
success in life less to actual learning than to the possession of
immense natural acuteness, great resources in difficulty, and a vast
acquaintance with all the arts of their fellow-men. There had been, I
believe, considerable difficulty in securing his services originally in
our behalf. It was reported that he disliked such cases; that they were
not what "suited him." He made various objections when first addressed,
and threw every discouragement when the cause was submitted for his
opinion. He asked for evidence that was not to be obtained, and proofs
that were not forthcoming. The merest accident--if I am justified in
calling such what was to be followed by consequences so important to
myself--overruled these objections on his part. It chanced that in one
of my solitary walks on a Sunday afternoon I happened to find myself at
the bank of a little stream near Milltown, with an elderly man who
seemed to have some apprehensions about crossing on the slippery and
uncertain stepping-stones by which the passage was forded. Perceiving
his difficulty, I tendered my assistance to him at once, which he
accepted. On arriving at then opposite bank, and finding that our roads
led in the same direction, we began to converse together, during which
my accidental pronunciation of a word with a slightly foreign accent
attracted his notice. To a question on his part, I mentioned that a
great part of my life had been passed abroad; and amongst the places to
which I alluded was Reichenau