-mystification the
worthy captain had invested me with all the honors of a stanch loyalist
who had earned his cracked skull in defence of the soldiery against the
mob; and this prevailing impression gave such a tone to his narrative,
that he not only set to work to trace back a whole generation of Burkes
famed for their attachment to the House of Hanover, but also took a peep
into the probable future, where he saw me covered with rewards for my
heroism and gallantry.

Young as I was, I hesitated long how far I dare trust him with the real
state of the case. I felt that in so doing I should either expose him to
the self-reproach of having harbored one he would deem a rebel; or, by
withdrawing from me his protection, give him perhaps greater pain
by compelling him to such an ungracious act. Yet how could I receive
attention and kindness under these false colors? This was a puzzling
and difficult thing to resolve; and a hundred times a day I wished I had
never been rescued by him, but taken my chance of the worst fortune had
in store for me.

While, therefore, my strength grew with every day, these thoughts
harassed and depressed me. The continual conflict in my mind deprived me
of all ease, and scarcely a morning broke in which I had not decided
on avowing my real position and my true sentiments; and still, when the
moment came, the flighty uncertainty of Bubbleton's manner, his caprice
and indiscretion, all frightened me, and I was silent. I hoped, too,
that some questioning on his part might give me a fitting opportunity
for such a disclosure; but here again I was deceived. The jolly captain
was far too busy inventing his own history of me, to think of asking for
mine; and I found out from the surgeon of the regiment, that according
to the statement made at the mess-table, I was an only son, possessed of
immense estates,--somewhat encumbered, to be sure (among other debts, a
large jointure to my mother); that I had come up to town to consult the
Attorney-General about the succession to a title long in abeyance in my
family, and was going down to the House in Lord Castlereagh's carriage,
when, fired by the ruffianism of the mob I sprang out, and struck one of
the ringleaders, etc.

How this visionary history had its origin, or whether it had any save in
the wandering fancies of his brain, I know not; but either by frequent
repetition of it, or by the strong hold a favorite notion sometimes will
take of a weak intellec