nded to show that my father, having no heir, nor expecting
to have any, suffered himself to follow a career of the wildest
wastefulness. With equal success they drew forth from the witness
stories of my mother's unpopularity with the ladies of her own set
in society, and the suspicion and distrust that pervaded the world of
fashion that she had not originally been born in, or belonged to, the
class with which she was then associating.

It was but too plain to what all this pointed; and although old servants
of the family were brought forward to show the deference with which my
mother's position was ever regarded, and the degree of respect, almost
amounting to state, with which she was treated, yet the artfulness of
the cross-examiner had at least succeeded in representing her to the
jury as self-willed, vain, and capricious, constantly longing for a
return to France, and cordially hating her banishment to Ireland.
My mother's friendship and attachment to Polly Fagan was ingeniously
alluded to as a strange incident in the life of one whose circumstances
might seem to have separated her from such companionship; and the able
counsel dwelt most effectively on the disparity which separated their
conditions.

These circumstances were, however, not pressed home, but rather left to
make their impression, with more or less of force, while other incidents
were being related. To rebut in some measure these impressions, Foxley
showed that my mother had been a guest at the Viceroy's table,--an honor
which could not have been conferred on her on any questionable grounds.
Unimportant and trivial as was the fact, the mode of eliciting it formed
one of the amusing episodes of the trial, since it brought forward
on the witness-table a well-known character of old Dublin,--no less a
functionary than Samuel Cotterell, the hall trumpeter, now pensioned off
and retired, but still, with all the weight of nearly fourscore-and-ten
years, bearing himself erect, and carrying in his port the consciousness
of his once high estate and dignity.

It was some time before the old man could be persuaded that in all
the state and pomp of the justice-seat there was not occasion for some
exercise of his ancient functions.

He seemed ashamed at appearing without his tabard, and looked anxiously
around for his trumpet; but once launched upon the subject of his
recollections, he appeared to revel with eager delight in all the
associations they called up. It