arintosh escaped, and how
at last he was brought to bay and taken by his resolute pursuers. Paris,
it appears, was the scene of his fall and capture. The news was no doubt
well known amongst Lord Farintosh's brother-dandies, among exasperated
matrons and virgins in Mayfair, and in polite society generally, before
it came to simple Tom Newcome and his son. Not a word on the subject had
Sir Barnes mentioned to the Colonel: perhaps not choosing to speak till
the intelligence was authenticated; perhaps not wishing to be the bearer
of tidings so painful.

Though the Colonel may have read in his Pall Mall Gazette a paragraph
which announced an approaching MARRIAGE IN HIGH LIFE, "between a noble
young marquis and an accomplished and beautiful young lady, daughter and
sister of a Northern baronet," he did not know who were the fashionable
persons about to be made happy, nor, until he received a letter from an
old friend who lived at Paris, was the fact conveyed to him. Here is the
letter preserved by him along with all that he ever received from the
same hand:--

"Rue St. Dominique, St. Germain,

"Paris, 10 Fev.

"So behold you of return, my friend! you quit for ever the sword and
those arid plains where you have passed so many years of your life,
separated from those to whom, at the commencement, you held very nearly.
Did it not seem once as if two hands never could unlock, so closely were
they enlaced together? Ah, mine are old and feeble now; forty years have
passed since the time when you used to say they were young and fair. How
well I remember me of every one of those days, though there is a death
between me and them, and it is as across a grave I review them! Yet
another parting, and tears and regrets are finished. Tenez, I do not
believe them when they say there is no meeting for us afterwards, there
above. To what good to have seen you, friend, if we are to part here,
and in Heaven too? I have not altogether forgotten your language, is it
not so? I remember it because it was yours, and that of my happy days. I
radote like an old woman as I am. M. de Florac has known my history from
the commencement. May I not say that after so many of years I have been
faithful to him and to all my promises? When the end comes with its
great absolution, I shall not be sorry. One supports the combats of
life, but they are long, and one comes from them very wounded; ah, when
shall they be over?

"You return and I salute you with wi