ur political
interests the same; but--" "Perhaps there is no but," interrupted
Vincent; "perhaps, like the two knights in the hacknied story, we are
only giving different names to the same shield, because we view it on
different sides; let us also imitate them in their reconciliation, as
well as their quarrel, and since we have already run our lances against
each other, be convinced of our error, and make up our difference."

I was silent; indeed, I did not like to trust myself to speak. Vincent
continued:

"I know," said he, "and it is in vain for you to conceal it, that you
have been ill-used by Dawton. Mr. V. is my first cousin; he came to
me the day after the borough was given to him, and told me all that
Clandonald and Dawton had said to him at the time. Believe me, they did
not spare you;--the former, you have grievously offended; you know that
he has quarrelled irremediably with his son Dartmore, and he insists
that you are the friend and abettor of that ingenuous youth, in all his
debaucheries and extravagance--tu illum corrumpi sinis. I tell you this
without hesitation, for I know you are less vain than ambitious, and I
do not care about hurting you in the one point, if I advance you in the
other. As for me, I own to you candidly and frankly, that there is no
pains I would spare to secure you to our party. Join us, and you shall,
as I have often said, be on the parliamentary benches of our corps,
without a moment of unnecessary delay. More I cannot promise you,
because I cannot promise more to myself; but from that instant your
fortune, if I augur aught aright from your ability, will be in your own
hands. You shake your head--surely you must see, that there is not a
difference between two vehemently opposite parties to be reconciled--aut
numen aut Nebuchadrezar. There is but a verbal disagreement between us,
and we must own the wisdom of the sentence recorded in Aulus Gellius,
that 'he is but a madman, who splits the weight of things upon the
hair-breadths of words.' You laugh at the quaintness of the quotation;
quaint proverbs are often the truest."

If my reader should think lightly of me, when I own that I felt wavering
and irresolute at the end of this speech, let him for a moment place
himself in my situation--let him feel indignant at the treachery, the
injustice, the ingratitude of one man; and, at the very height of his
resentment, let him be soothed, flattered, courted, by the offered
friendship and