I have of
fortune, hope, or personal energy. I have, in a word, thrown my whole
future into its cause. I have its confidence in return; and I am enabled
not only to offer a high career and a noble sphere of action, but all
that the world calls great rewards, to those whom I may select to join
me in its defence."

"Is it France?" asked Tony; and Maitland had to bite his lip to repress
a smile at such a question.

"No, it is not France," said he, calmly; "for France, under any rule, I
'd not shed one drop of my blood."

"Nor I, neither!" cried Tony. "I hate Frenchmen; my father hated them,
and taught me to do the same."

"So far from enlisting you to serve France, it is more than probable
that in the cause I speak of you 'll find yourself arrayed against
Frenchmen."

"All right; I 'd do that with a heart and a half; but what is the State?
Is it Austria?--is it Russia?"

"Neither. If you only give me to believe that you listen favorably to
my plan, you shall hear everything; and I 'll tell you, besides, what
I shall offer to you, personally,--the command of a company in an Irish
regiment, with the certainty of rapid advancement, and ample means
to supply yourself with all that your position requires. Is that
sufficient?"

"Quite so, if I like the cause I 'm to fight for."

"I 'll engage to satisfy you on that head. You need but read the names
of those of our own countrymen who adopt it, to be convinced that it is
a high and a holy cause. I don't suppose you have studied very deeply
that great issue which our century is about to try,--the cause of order
_versus_ anarchy,--the right to rule of the good, the virtuous, and the
enlightened, against the tyranny of the unlettered, the degraded, and
the base."

"I know nothing about it."

"Well, I 'll tax your patience some day to listen to it all from me; for
the present what say you to my plan?"

"I rather like it. If it had only come last week, I don't think I could
have refused it."

"And why last week?"

"Because I have got a promise of an appointment since that"

"Of what nature,--a commission in the army?"

"No," said he, shaking his head.

"They 're not going to make a clerk of a fellow like you, I trust?"

"They 'd be sorely disappointed if they did."

"Well, what _are_ they going to do with you?"

"Oh, it's nothing very high and mighty. I am to be what they call a
Queen's Messenger."

"Under the Foreign Office?"

"Yes."

"Not bad things t