EPISODE FROM AN UNPUBLISHED NOVEL. 



BY THE AUTHOR OF "THE ROAD TO RUIN." 





CONSIDERING time as it relates to the scanty limits of the life of 

 man, its lapse is great, since the period at which I shall begin to give 

 my history. My father, a peer of the realm, had four children, of 

 whom I was the youngest. Family pride, fashionable folly, a love 

 of gaming, and contested elections, had, for two generations, so in- 

 volved the patrimony of the ancient house of * * * that I, as a 

 younger son, had little to expect, except what was to be derived 

 from family influence, and that had been greatly lessened by the patt 

 in politics which our family had so frequently and so strenuously 

 taken. However, I had a commission in the Guards at an early age, 

 and looked forward, as all such young men do, to the quarrels that 

 were likely to embroil the nations of Europe, as to the hope and 

 sheet anchor of future greatness. To you who, perhaps, may have 

 similar hopes, suffer me to remark, that it is a mistaken and miserable 

 state of morality, to inculcate an aptitude to haughty resentment, 

 contention, and national contempt, which lead to those desolating 

 wars that have continued through all ages to afflict the earth, and to 

 consider this odious quality as one of the chief principles of heroic 

 virtue. 



From my parents and education I had imbibed all those maxims 

 and sentiments of honour, for the rigid adherence to which our house 

 had long been famous. Though far from prone to misconstrue words 

 and captiously take oifence, no determination of my heart was more 

 rooted than that of not to suffer an indignity ; of all the misfortunes 

 to which a man of honour was liable, that I considered as the greatest, 

 the only one that never could be overlooked, or pardoned, till full 

 and public reparation had been made. Unfortunately, some offences 

 are deemed, by this code, of so deep and unpardonable a kind, that 

 he who is guilty of them can make atonement only by his blood. 

 The distance which in England is observed between man and man, 

 and the fear which each person seems to have that he should commit 

 himself, by forming unworthy acquaintance, is visible in every rank, 

 but is much the greatest among those who value themselves on their 

 high descent : it would seem but natural for all noble families to be 

 known to and familiar with each other, and that they should be in- 

 clined rather to court than to repel that social intercourse in which 

 much of the happiness of life consists ; but not so, especially in Eng- 

 land ; few men, except those of dubious or worthless characters, will 

 there admit of friendship, or familiarity, till a succession of circum- 

 stances brings them mutually acquainted with the usual behaviour of 

 each other, and, to a certain degree, with their reciprocal sentiments 

 and conduct. 



I was in the twenty-first year of my age when I began to be per- 

 sonally known to the noble house of P . Lionel, the eldest son 



of that family, was frequently invited to the mess of the officers of 



