the powers, Peter, she's an angel, and I can't expect her to love an
inferior being like myself; but if she'll only like me well enough to
marry me, I'll trust to after-marriage for the rest."

O'Brien having thus obtained permission, certainly lost no time in
taking advantage of it. Celeste and I were more fondly attached every
day. The solicitor declared my case so good, that he could raise fifty
thousand pounds upon it. In short, all our causes were prosperous, when
an event occurred, the details of which, of course, I did not obtain
until some time afterwards, but which I shall narrate here.

My uncle was very much alarmed when he discovered that I had been
released from Bedlam--still more so, when he had notice given him of a
suit, relative to the succession to the title. His emissaries had
discovered that the wet-nurse had been brought home in O'Brien's
frigate, and was kept so close that they could not communicate with her.
He now felt that all his schemes would prove abortive. His legal
adviser was with him, and they had been walking in the garden, talking
over the contingencies, when they stopped close to the drawing-room
windows of the mansion at Eagle Park.

"But, sir," observed the lawyer, "if you will not confide in me, I
cannot act for your benefit. You still assert that nothing of the kind
has taken place?"

"I do," replied his lordship. "It is a foul invention."

"Then, my lord, may I ask you why you considered it advisable to
imprison Mr Simple in Bedlam?"

"Because I hate him," retorted his lordship,--"detest him."

"And for what reason, my lord? his character is unimpeached, and he is
your near relative."

"I tell you, sir, that I hate him--would that he were now lying dead at
my feet!"

Hardly were the words out of my uncle's mouth, when a whizzing was heard
for a second, and then something fell down within a foot of where they
stood, with a heavy crash. They started--turned round--the adopted heir
lay lifeless at their feet, and their legs were bespattered with his
blood and his brains. The poor boy, seeing his lordship below, had
leaned out of one of the upper windows to call to him, but lost his
balance, and had fallen head foremost upon the wide stone pavement which
surrounded the mansion. For a few seconds, the lawyer and my uncle
looked upon each other with horror.

"A judgment!--a judgment!" cried the lawyer at last, looking at his
client. My uncle covered his face with