CHAPTER XV. 



The Rise and Fall of a Despot. 



l__I E was born far back in some unrecorded year. He sprang 

 from a certain branch of the Esocidae family ; and, although 

 in his beginnings as tiny and defenceless as a minnow, was destined 

 in fulness of time to exceed all his contemporaries, both in size and 

 force. Gradually, almost insensibly, as his girth and weight in- 

 creased, so did gross appetites and fierce desires replace his early 

 innocence. Terrible as Herod's was the rule of his latter years ; 

 but, whilst ruling like a tyrant, he met his death, at last, like 

 a hero. 



The waters that form the scene of this epical and tragic story 

 are those of a certain mere from whose reed-fringed margin a sylvan 

 park extends upwards towards the brow of the everlasting hills. 

 And upon the rising ground that stretches, so it seems, betwixt sky 

 and mere, is situated, amid luxuriant trees, a picturesque old-world 

 hall. Centuries have mellowed and decayed its massive walls ; the 

 glamour of its one-time magnificence has faded, and with it, too, 

 has vanished all the pomp and circumstance of a chivalrous age. 

 Nevertheless, the ancestral home stands as a fitting monument to 

 the fame and generosity of a noble family. Baronet after baronet 

 has stepped along the path of benevolence trodden by his pre- 

 decessors ; each has contributed honourably to the country's 

 welfare, and has been laid to rest in the churchyard over the hills. 



In like manner, one piscine generation had succeeded another 

 to its hereditary domain In the gloomy depth of the mere ; but, 

 whereas Time had wrought many changes in the world beyond the 



