||}E have now an acknowledgment to make 

 and a secret to tell respecting our hero, who 

 is still waiting below Chester Causeway, which 

 may fully account for the length of time he has 

 been detained there, instead of rushing headlong 

 up the torrent, as perhaps he would have done a 

 year or two ago. We trust we shall not be taxed 

 with indiscretion in having so long kept secret, 

 what we well knew must sooner or later be 

 published, or with want of tact and l s avoir fair e 

 in our manner of declaring it. The fact is, we 

 were reluctant to run the risk of forfeiting some 

 degree of that interest which we flattered our- 

 selves our hero might have obtained during the 

 preceding chapters, in the breasts of that fail- 

 portion of our readers to whom, as it were, we 

 instinctively address ourselves ; and we hesitated 

 to announce the change which a few short 



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