separating at the breast, so as to show a vest of white kerseymere,
trimmed with a gold border--his breeches of the same colour and
material, met at the knee by the high and polished boot, needed but the
addition of his cocked hat, fringed with an edging of ostrich feathers,
to set off a figure of singular elegance and symmetry. The young men of
the day were just beginning to dispense with hair powder, and Fred wore
his rich brown locks, long and floating, in the new mode--a fashion
which well became him, and served to soften down the somewhat haughty
carriage of his head. There was an air of freedom, an absence of
restraint, in the military costume of the period, which certainly
contributed to increase the advantages of a naturally good-looking man,
in the same way as the present stiff, Prussian mode of dress, will,
assuredly, conceal many defects in mould and form among less-favoured
individuals. The loosely-falling flaps of the waistcoat--the deep
hanging cuffs of the coat--the easy folds of the long skirt--gave a
character of courtliness to uniform which, to our eye, it at present is
very far from possessing. In fact, the graceful carriage and courteous
demeanour of the drawing-room, suffered no impediment from the pillory
of a modern stock, or the rigid inflexibility of a coat strained almost
to bursting.

"Are you on duty, Fred?" said Sir Marmaduke, laughing, as his son
entered the breakfast-room, thus carefully attired.

"Yes, sir; I am preparing for my mission; and it would ill become an
ambassador to deliver his credentials in undress."

"To what court are you then accredited?" said Sybella, laughing.

"His Majesty, The O'Donoghue," interposed his father; "King of
Glenflesk, Baron of Inchigeela, Lord Protector of--of half the
blackguards in the county, I verily believe," added he, in a more
natural key.

"Are you really going to Carrig-na-curra, Fred?" asked Miss Travers,
hurriedly; "are you going to visit our neighbours?"

"I'll not venture to say that such is the place, much less pretend to
pronounce it after you, my dear sister, but I am about to wait on these
worthy people, and, if they will permit me, have a peep at the interior
of their stockade or wigwam, whichever it be."

"It must have been a very grand thing in its day: that old castle has
some fine features about it yet," replied she calmly.

"Like Windsor, I suppose," said Fred as he replied to her, and then
complacently glanced at the well