girl, if I cannot make
her my own; but yet, that alliance should have been thwarted on every
ground of policy. It would have been to plant the Travers here on the
very spot I destine for myself. No, no. I must take care that they never
see Ireland more. Indeed this breaking off the marriage will prove
a strong obstacle to their returning." Thus did he review his plans,
sometimes congratulating himself on the success of the past, sometimes
fearing for the future, but always relying with confidence on the skill
of his own negociations--an ingenuity that never yet had failed him in
his difficulties.

The next day was the time appointed for Lanty's final examination, and
on which he was to affix his name to the informations, and Hems-worth
loitered in one of the offices of the Castle, where the gossip of the
morning was discussed, in no common anxiety to hear how his "protege"
had acquitted himself. As the clerks and underlings conversed among
themselves on the dress or equipage of the officials who at intervals
drove off towards the Park, Hemsworth, who affected to be engaged in
reading a morning paper, overheard one remark to another--

"There's the devil to pay at the Council. That fellow they have in
Newgate against Coyle and M'Nevin, and the rest of them, it seems, now
refuses to confirm his informations. They have good reason to believe
all he said was true, but they can't go on without him."

"What's the meaning of that? He was willing enough yesterday."

"They say a priest from Luke's Chapel was with him this morning,
and forbid him, under any number of curses and anathemas in case of
disobedience, to reveal a syllable against the 'United party.'"

"They can compel him, however. Don't you remember Cockayne did the very
same thing about Jackson's business, and they brought him over to Lord
Clonmel's house, and made him sign there?"

"That they did, but they'll not try the same game twice. Curran brought
it out in the cross-examination, and made it appear that the witness
was terrified by the crown by a threat of consequences to himself as
an accomplice, and the point went very far with the jury in Jackson's
favour."

Hemsworth did not wait to hear more. The great fact that Lanty was
firm, was all that he cared for, and, after a few casual remarks on the
morning news, he strolled forth, with all the lazy indifference of an
idle man.

CHAPTER XXXIX. THE BROTHERS

Among the unexplained phenomena of the