investigation, whether some remedy could not
yet be found.--To break off the match for the time, would have been
easy--a little private information to Mr. Mowbray would have done
that with a vengeance--But then the treaty might be renewed under my
father's auspices;--at all events, the share which I had taken in
the intrigue between Clara and my brother, rendered it almost
impossible for me to become a suitor in my own person.--Amid these
perplexities, it suddenly occurred to my adventurous heart and
contriving brain--what if I should personate the bridegroom?--This
strange thought, you will recollect, occurred to a very youthful
brain--it was banished--it returned--returned again and again--was
viewed under every different shape--became familiar--was
adopted.--It was easy to fix the appointment with Clara and the
clergyman for I managed the whole correspondence--the resemblance
between Francis and me in stature and in proportion--the disguise
which we were to assume--the darkness of the church--the hurry of
the moment--might, I trusted, prevent Clara from recognising me. To
the minister I had only to say, that though I had hitherto talked of
a friend, I myself was the happy man. My first name was Francis as
well as his; and I had found Clara so gentle, so confiding, so
flatteringly cordial in her intercourse with me, that, once within
my power, and prevented from receding by shame, and a thousand
contradictory feelings, I had, with the vanity of an _amoureux de
seize ans_, the confidence to believe I could reconcile the fair
lady to the exchange.

"There certainly never came such a thought into a madcap's brain;
and, what is more extraordinary--but that you already know--it was
so far successful, that the marriage ceremony was performed between
us in the presence of a servant of mine, Clara's accommodating
companion, and the priest.--We got into the carriage, and were a
mile from the church, when my unlucky or lucky brother stopped the
chaise by force--through what means he had obtained knowledge of my
little trick, I never have been able to learn. Solmes has been
faithful to me in too many instances, that I should suspect him in
this important crisis. I jumped out of the carriage, pitched
fraternity to the devil, and, betwixt desperation and something very
like shame, began t