etter, which ran as follows.

"My dear Uncle, I have met with an accident which confined me to
my bed;--a rencontre, indeed, with the Knights of the Road--nothing
serious, (so do not be alarmed!) though the Doctor would fain have made
it so. I am just about to recommence my journey, but not towards London;
on the contrary, northward.

"I have, partly through the information of your old friend Mr.
Courtland, partly by accident, found what I hope may prove a clue to
the fate of my father. I am now departing to put this hope to the issue.
More I would fain say; but lest the expectation should prove fallacious,
I will not dwell on circumstances which would in that case only create
in you a disappointment similar to my own. Only this take with you, that
my father's proverbial good luck seems to have visited him since your
latest news of his fate; a legacy, though not a large one, awaited
his return to England from India; but see if I am not growing prolix
already--I must break off in order to reserve you the pleasure (may it
be so!) of a full surprise!

"God bless you, my dear Uncle! I write in spirits and hope; kindest love
to all at home.

"Walter Lester.

"P. S. Tell Ellinor that my bitterest misfortune in the adventure I have
referred to, was to be robbed of her purse. Will she knit me another? By
the way, I encountered Sir Peter Hales; such an open-hearted, generous
fellow as you said! 'thereby hangs a tale.'"

This letter, which provoked all the curiosity of our little circle, made
them anxiously look forward to every post for additional explanation,
but that explanation came not. And they were forced to console
themselves with the evident exhilaration under which Walter wrote, and
the probable supposition that he delayed farther information until it
could be ample and satisfactory.--"Knights of the Road," quoth Lester
one day, "I wonder if they were any of the gang that have just visited
us. Well, but poor boy! he does not say whether he has any money left;
yet if he were short of the gold, he would be very unlike his father,
(or his uncle for that matter,) had he forgotten to enlarge on that
subject, however brief upon others."

"Probably," said Ellinor, "the Corporal carried the main sum about him
in those well-stuffed saddle-bags, and it was only the purse that
Walter had about his person that was stolen; and it is probable that the
Corporal might have escaped, as he mentions nothing about that excellent
p