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he grinned again at the enraged Bully Jackson, turned a summersault and grinned once more, till the whole crowd burst out into a roar of laughter that seemed to shake the ancient walls around them.

Bob now turned towards the throng of dandies before the porch of the theatre, but they not relishing a similar display of wit at their expense, after whispering a few moments, all gathered together and rushing forward in a body with their drawn swords, drove the crowd before them, the impetus of which in an instant overturned the rude stage, and Bob O'Mahony with it; he, however, with the agility of a cat, alighting on his feet amid the throng beyond, where he proceeded deliberately to disincumber himself of his spangled habiliments, at the same time exhibiting beneath a suit of most unexceptionable broad cloth. After whispering to a few students, who in their turn spread the intelligence he gave to their companions around, Bob, with a rapier which some how or other he had possessed himself of, began forcing his way towards Bully Jackson, and at last a regular and uproarious scrimmage commenced in the street around the fallen stage. Men and women swayed to and fro, swords clashed, and clenched fists resounded upon sturdy chest and forehead, when, just as the uproar was at its highest, Donat Connor, who was a corpulent and aged man, found himself with his three daughters and Winnie Walton in the very centre of the fray. As he stood perplexed and fearful, looking from side to side for some way by which to extricate himself and his charge, two gentlemen, who we may as well say at once were no other than Handsome Charlie and his friend Tom Fenton, pushed their way up to him and bade him be of good cheer, promising at the same time to conduct himself and his charge safe through the roaring crowd.

"This way—this way, good sir," said Charlie, with great politeness, as he and Tom Fenton made their way before towards the wall opposite the fallen stage. Quick or yonder break in the crowd will be filled up in an instant!"

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Donat Connor puffed and pushed onward, the four terrified girls following, and Handsome Charlie and his companion clearing the way in front, and at last had the satisfaction of seeing himself and all safe on the other side of the crowd. Charlie and Tom now offered their services to escort the party safely home. The latter they accomplished without further adventure, and that nig t Handsome Charlie had the satisfaction of receiving, over a tankard of wine, the marked and especial thanks of old Sam Grimes for the services he and his companions had rendered to Winnie Walton.

Next night Charlie attended duly at "The Jolly Drummer," and over another tankard of claret began making his overtures to old Sam with regard to Winnie. The cautious old fellow listened for a long time without a word, merely nodding his head with a shrewd wink at the brilliant pictures and alluring

episodes of domestic happiness, of which the eloquent Charlie was delivering himself.

"My estate is not entirely gone," said Charlie"not so far sunk but that a little money would redeem it."

"I understand," said Sam, at last venturing to speak.

"And," resumed Charlie, "if I marry your niece, who, I must say, is fit for any man in the kingdom, you, of course, would get rid of this business-convert the whole concern into ready money, and come to live with us in the country, for I am heartily tired of the wickedness of the town!”

"Probably," echoed old Sam, with another sagacious wink.

"Then," said Handsome Charlie," we had better, I think, come to business at once. What fortune will you be able to give Winnie? I am thus particular, seeing that my estate stands in need of present redemption."

"Well, sir," answered Sam, shaking his head dolorously, "I am much grieved to disappoint your expectations on that score. I am a far poorer man than they say, and the fact of it is, I think if my niece were to get married to-morrow I could scarcely leave her even my old boots, which I haven't worn since the sack of Drogheda, where I had the honour of serving as one of Cromwell's troopers!"

This answer Charlie at first pretended to take as a good jest, but when it was repeated by old Sam with perfect earnestness and solemnity, he became convinced that the chance of redeeming his estate, or in plain language, of enabling him to pursue his career of dissipition, by means of Winnie's fortune, was but a poor one indeed, and after another cup of wine, hastily took his departure and repaired to his garret, where his bosom friend, Tom Fenton, was awaiting him.

"Well," said the old fellow, with an additional wink at a huge arm-chair opposite, as Charlie went out, "if that is not as sweet-tempered and angelic a young man as I ever met in the whole course of my life, my name is not Sam Grimes. Good as he is though, I do not think I can give him Winnie and the old boots!"

Handsome Charlie, after getting the rather disheartening answer from old Sam, which we have related above, for some time gave up all thoughts of Winnie Walton, and once more turned his attention to the alluring vicissitudes of the gaming-table.

Now it was that he hated Rupert Russell with that bitterness and intensity of which only a man mad in love is capable of feeling towards a successful rival. He sought, however, no occasion of public quarrel with Rupert, but from the depths of his own burning heart he swore to be avenged upon him at the first opportunity. And that opportunity spee lily presented itself.

One night Charlie and three of his companions were returning from a masquerade, and, entering a

narrow and deserted street that led beside "The Jolly Drummer," saw, by the indistinct light of a solitary lamp that burned in the distance, the figure of a man approaching.

"Now," whispered Charlie, "we cannot be recognised in our masks and strange dresses, and if this be a Trinity man coming down the street, we will give him a little pinking to accelerate his motions towards Alma Mater."

The figure had at length approached within a few perches of where they were.

"Hush!" whispered Charlie, peering sharply though the gloom. "By my soul, but it is the very man I want! It is Rupert Russell! Now, boys, stand to me for once, for I swear that man shall never leave the street alive!"

Rupert, for it was he, was coming down the street with his right hand to the wall. According to the custom of the time, it was his right to pass inside Charlie and his comrades, but it was not their intention to allow him that almost universally conceded privilege.

"Stop, sir!" hissed Charlie, in a feigned voice, as Rupert came up; "out with you, and let your Detters

take the wall!"

"You'll have to fight, then, for the right of way," answered Rupert, stepping back and instantly drawing his rapier. "The wall I must and will have, so I warn you, gentlemen, to pass on, else”—

"Else what, sir?" hissed Charlie again, now quivering with passion, as he found himself face to face with his hated rival.

"Else I will run you through the body!" answered Rupert, making a sudden lounge at him, which Charlie succeeded in parrying without a scratch.

Pink him! piuk him!" shouted the companions of the latter, as Rupert placed his back to the wall and prepared to defend himself.

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Yes, pink him!" echoed Charlie. "Toss the base hound's body into the gutter!"

"Some of you will go first," retorted Rupert, undauntedly, as he succeeded in plunging his rapier through the shoulder of the min nearest to him. "How do you relish that, my friend ?"

The man literally gave a yell of agony as the cold steel was withdrawn from his flesh, and now attacked Rupert with implacable fury. The result of the contest was, that the four masqueraders, taking away with them some signal marks and tokens of Rupert's prowess, left the insensible body of the latter behin i them, lying in a pool of biool upon the solitary street. About half an hour afterwards, as a belated bacchanal was making a number of sin nosities down the street, he stumbled over Rupert's body, and the fall sobering him somewhat, he scrambled to his feet, and called eagerly for assistance. Rupert's body was immediately borne back to the Jolly Drummer, anl there laid upon old Sam's capacious arm-chair, to await the arrival of a surgeon. When the latter arrived, he found that Rupert exhibited still some

symptoms of life. He bandaged up the several serious wounds that the young student had received upon face and limb, but there was one near the region of the heart, which he paused over for a long time before making a decision regarding it. At last, after a most minute and careful examination, he pronounced it not mortal, and when it was dressed, poor Rupert, still almost insensible, was conveyed to bed.

It was broad daylight when he awoke to consciousness. When he did so, he was barely able to give an account of the transaction as it had occurred, but he could not give the slightest guess as to the names of his assailants. The news of the affair soon spread, and a vast amount of indignation was thereby aroused in old Trinity amongst the students, by all of whom Rupert was greatly beloved.

Rupert was in good hands without any mistake, for Winnie Walton nursed him through the long illness that followed as only a loving heart could nurse the object of its adoration. At length he arose from his weary be 1, and witnessed, with a throbbing heart, the joy displayed in every way by the guileless and lovely Winnie at his recovery. One morning, as she left the roɔm in which he was sitting, with a sweet smile upon her bright face, he registered a vow within his burning and grateful heart tuat, come what might, he would, when strength returned, ask her to become his wife. And he kept his vow, and was, as the reader will easily guess, accepted by the loving Winnie.

The next business was to communicate with old Sam Grimes. Rupert felt a little perturbation at the thought of encountering the shrewd old fellow regarding such a delicate affair, but Sam seemed to take it all after the best fashion, merely answering, however, in the precise words with which he had put off Handsome Charlie. But Rupert was not to be disposed of so easily.

"I care not," he said, "what you can give her. I will now turn my thoughts to a profession, and trust to be able to marry her independently after a short time.”

"I advise you to marry her at once," returned old Sam, with a wink of mysterious meaning at Rapert. "My will is ma le, and believe me, neither you nor my grand-niece will regret its wording when I die, notwithstanding the old boots!"

And Rupert did marry her at once, and we will venture to say that a lovelier brile thau Winnie was not seen for many a year by the Liffey shore. Sam Grimes, on the wedding-day, wrote a letter to his absent son. Whether it was that the old fellow drank too much of his own sack that night, our authority does not say, but however it was, Sun Grimes died the day after the wed ling, and was buried with all due solemnity in Saint Patrick's. About ten days after the old man's death Abi Grimes can over from England to act as executor to his father's will. The latter was opened in the presence of Winnie and her husband and a few witnesses, and after the usual preamble, Abel read out, in a fall-toned satisfied voice, the words that gave and bequeathed to in his father's property, without a single reservation save one. This went on to say that—

"Forasmuch as my grand-niece Winfred Walton has lived with me since her infancy-has been to me even as a daughter, and perchance better; and has always been obedient to orders, from réveille tɔ shutting up of camp, I therefore give and bequeath to her my old boots and their contents, which are locked in the black cabinet in my bed-room, and which I have never worn since obeying my lord, the Protector's orders, at the sack of Drogheda."

The black cabinet was opened, and the huge pair of old jack-boots brought to light, and examined. They were both filled with coins of silver and gold-chiefly of the latter one of them, namely the left, having only a top layer of silver, the remainder being all gold. When this glittering heap was removed, Rupert found in the foot of the right boot a mass of papers and a parchment, which on his examining them, to the infinite astonishment of all, proved to be the title-deeds of the lost property of his fathers.

Aided by the persuasive contents of one of the old jack-boots, Rupert soon entered into another law-suit, worked it up to a certain turning-point as his father did before him, then produced the title-deeds and won the long-contested property; to his splendid mansion beside the Boyne he then removed in triumph with his beautiful wife, and there both lived happily during many a bright day and revolving year.

Handsome Charlie some time after, failing to recruit his fortunes at the gaming-table, was lodged by the old Jew Tom Fenton had threatened him with in a debtor's prison, where for two years he continued daily and nightly chewing the cud of sad experience, at the end of which time, by the death of an old aunt who had not forgo ten him in her will, he was enabled to release himself, and came forth a sadder but a wiser man. The lesson he had brooded upon in prison effectually cured him of his gambling propensities; but he still relished the town, and lived there till his death, always the most fastidious and exquisitely dressed old bachelor in the merry city of Dublin.

A LEGEND OF THE BURNT HOUSE;" OR, THE DANE'S REVENGE.

THERE stands what was once the "House," a blackened, charred, soot-begrimed pile; a hideous ruin, haunted in the day-time by birds of foul repute and evil omen; and at night by malignant goblins, who delight in deeds of ill, and revel in the mischief they can inflict upon those who have the misfortune to fall within the sphere of their accursed dominion. There it stands on the river bank, on a sudden bend of the broad Shannon, not a beacon of hope and a voucher of safety to the hardy mariner, but a monument of disaster and an augury of doom. So, at least, was it regarded in the days of our youth, when we rehearsed the thrilling legend connected with the ruin; and "mitched" many a long hour from the more useful employment of study

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About two hundred years ago there was not in the royal city of Copenhagen a more enterprising, prosperous, or wealthy merchant than Karl Vardar, "the Fortunate," as he was called by all his fellow-citizens, even those who envied his prosperity as well as they who rejoiced in it. He was the proprietor of broad lands, having purchased, from time to time, many a goodly tract of the island of Seeland; of tall ships, of rich stores, of well-filled warehouses, in short, of boundless wealth; but the pride of Karl Vardar was out of a promising son and a beautiful daughter, not altogether out of the vast accumulation of wealth, which the princemerchants of Florence, of Venice, or of Genoa the Superb, might fairly envy. Karl's daughter was a great beauty, who might have won a Danish coronet, even if her father's gold and fertile acres did not enable him to afford her the dower of a duchess; and it is said that Karl, from her infancy, had in his own mind, though he kept his mind pretty closely to himself, looked forward to the day ou which he would behold upon her brow the badge of nobility. These aspirations would have induced him to abandon the pursuit of commercial gaiu, even in the prime of his manhood; but he was adding rapidly and enormously, almost in geometrical progression, to his wealth, and as he would leave his son, Kuute, the wealthiest subject in Europe, he remained a hard-working, and withal an honest, though rather covetous trader, until, as we shall presently see, unforeseen circumstances put a term at once to his labours and his life.

Karl Vardar had a correspondent in Amsterdam, with whom he had traded for a great many years, during which they had had occasional differences, for Mynheer the Dutchman was not reputed the most straightforward of merchants, but their differences had always been readily adjusted, the honesty of the Dane and the astute policy of the Dutchman, forming a basis of accommodation which never failed of producing an amicable understanding. Krautz of Amsterdam was reputed very wealthy, but those who knew him intimately found, in his great anxiety to produce an impression favourable to the reputation he bore, the reverse of a proof of the vastness of his acquisitions. He had an only son, whose roving disposition disqualified him for partaking in his father's pursuits; and Krantz felt constrained to gratify his propensity for the adventures of a sea life, by suffering him to make several voyages in his ships, even when no more than a mere boy. In this way he visited Copenhagen, where he was hospitably received by Karl Vardar. The youth admired Karl's daughter, and envied his great wealth; and even when green in his teens he coveted both. But he left Copenhagen carrying nothing with him but the good-wishes of his host, and hopes for the future. And he, wearied of the prosaic service in which he was engaged, for he dreamt of renown, which daring might win on field or flood; but

his own country at the time afforded him no chance of pushing his fortunes in the line that he deemed suited his temper and talents. So he turned his thoughts towards France, which was seldom out of the turmoil of war in the Grand King's reign. He made his way to the French court, saw Louis's Minister of Marine, proposed to him, without his father's permission had or asked, to fit out his ship, if commissioned, as a privateer, and do good service for the Grande Monarque. His proposal was favourably received by the minister, and in due time the Terror, under Captain Harkar, became to the enemies of France what her name implied; and her commander enriched himself and his daring crew, without stint or scruple, at the expense of those very same foes; and it was rumoured, to the prejudice of Captain Harkar's reputation, that some merchantmen whos cargoes were deemed secured against belligerent cupidity by the neutral flag of the free states of Holland, including not a few belonging to Krantz of Amsterdam, fell into the clutches of the Terror's grasping crew, and were forfeited to the advantage of those hardy rovers.

Be that, however, as it may, Harkar throve apace, as unscrupulous daring will thrive whenever and whereever it has a wide field for the exercise of its congenial vocation. He grew rich and became dreaded; and his name was carried far and wide upon the pinions of fame for infamy attaches only to the unsuccessful. And when it became known in the household of Karl Vardar that Harkar, the favourite of princes and minis. ters, and the protege of the greatest of Christendom's kings, and the son of old Krantz, were one and the sime person, the mind of Karl underwent a great change regarding the hero whom, as a boy, he had held in trifling account; and the imagination of his daughter, the simple and lovely Kristine, was impressed very favourably by the repute of the valiant Harkar. But the son of Karl, the thoughtful, sensible, calculating Knute, did not believe all that fame had trumpeted in his ears, and in those of his family, regarding the heroic Harkar. That astute and wily commander had emissaries around, and in the very household of Karl, whose care it was to repeat and amplify all that could be stated to the credit of Harkar, and to guard them against hearing anything to his prejudice. So they heard all about his naval achievments, and others were invented in his favour, to exalt his fame, but not a word to his prejudice penetrated the well-paid cordon of his spies, or if anything to his discredit were heard within that circle, it was either wholly discredited, or but served to show forth the brilliancy of his good qualities with additional lustre.

But, though intelligence travelled very slowly in those days, Knute Vardar heard enough of the misdeeds of the Terror to determine him to keep her commander at a safe and civil distance. And when the proud prow of that virtuous barque ploughed the tempestuous German Ocean, and, having passed the dangers of the Skager Rack, the Categat, and the Sound, landed her bold commander safely at Copenhagen, he was received by the

old friend of his father with warmth and distinction; and the beautiful Kristine, now a blooming woman of twenty-one, looked admiringly upon the hero, whom she had seen with scant regard as a boy some eight years before. But Knute was hardly civil to the distinguished guest. His demeanour to Harkar was such as to show that he suspected the career of that hero to have been stained with very unheroic acts. And the observant Harkar was not slow in discovering the dislike and mistrust of the young Dane; but he affected to perceive nothing of the kind, and he made himself quite at home in the mansion of Karl Vardar, and extremely agreeable to the millionaire and his daughter. His followers modestly whispered marvels of his achievements, his wealth, his honour, and the titles which his sovereign had in store for him; but upon these points he was himself scrupulously silent; and his people pretended that they spoke of them in the apprehension of experiencing the heavy effects of his anger should they be found out alluding to them. He had learned that Knute had been on the eve of setting out on a journey on his arrival, and he knew that his stay alone prevented his departure. So he took his leave of the old Dane and his daughter, and of the young Dane, too, with affected cordiality and friendship, to which Knute responded with coldness but dignity. And the Terror set sail from Copenhagen, and Knute set out on his journey to pass a month or so with a relative in Norway.

But the Terror had only been three days away, and Harkar appeared once more at the merchant's mansion. His reason for returning was thus explained by him:

"From the day that I first set my eyes upon the fairest Kristine I loved her, loved her dearly and devotedly; but, as the simple son of the Amsterdam trader, I thought not of aspiring to the hand of one who might choose amongst the proudest of her countrymen. But, Karl Vardar, I despaired not of one day attaining the position that would entitle me to woo with the hope of winning her. I felt that in commercial pursuits there was not for one of my temperament any path to the condition suitable to the husband of the fairest and the wealthiest of Denmark's daughters. I, therefore, abandoned the idea of following in my father's footsteps, and took service in the naval force of the most Christian King of France. I have served that potentate with zeal, and with all the ability with which nature endowed me; and the generous Louis has been more than just in rewarding my poor services. Duty having brought me into the northern seas, I availed myself of the opportu nity of visiting Kristine, with the view of learning how she might be disposed to receive the suit of an old friend and adorer, who had succeeded in honourably winning wealth and rank; and I was, need I say, entranced with unutterable delight to find that I might hope for, not despair of, happiness. Thus encouraged to pursue the track of renown, I set sail three days ago, with the view of winning the further favours of the king of France, by the manifestation of renewed zeal in his service; bat judge of my surprise, of my gratitude and joy, when, having sailed through the Sound, I met a special mes

senger from Louis come to urge my immediate return to the south, and the bearer of despatches expressive of his majesty's intention to enrol my poor name amongst those of the nobility of his kingdom, in consideration of what he is graciously pleased to consider my distinguished services. Here, my dearest friend, are the despatches. Peruse them, and say will you suffer the lovely Kristine to become the Countess of Darkligne, a rank which will derive its chief merit, in my eyes, from the lustre which her beauty and her graces will reflect upon it ?"

Old Karl was overjoyed at the brilliant destiny that thus, as it were, came to seek his beloved daughter. Might not the young count of twenty-five be a young duke at thirty, and Kristine once a duchess, would fill the measure of the aspiring merchant's ambition? Of course he consented to bestow her on the count that was to be, and the duke in perspective; but arrangements and love-making, and the rest of it, would take time. No! Harkar referred to the despatches to show that time was not his; and secresy, too, he reasoned, was required, as the king of France had matrimonial projects in view for his protege, which could only be frustrated by the presentation to the sovereign of Kristine as Countess of Darkligne. Despatch and secrecy were essentially necessary, and to ensure the latter, his own chaplain could solemnize the marriage ceremony on board the Terror, in the presence of her father, and the few confidential friends he might choose to accompany him. Karl and Kristine would have had matters more leisurely and decorously conducted, but what could they do in the face of the urgent, the imperative behest of a king, and the anxiety of an officer desirous of punctual obedience to orders? So the marriage took place on board the ship; and when Knute returned he was horror-stricken to find his only sister, in whom he prided, gone off to a foreign land, the wie of the man whose honour and honesty he more than suspected, and whom he could but hold in hearty aversion. He, however, kept his mind to himself, not wishing to communicate to his father the harrowing suspicions that haunted him; but he nourished projects of a terrible retribution in the event of his suspicions proving well-founded.

Meanwhile, the prow of the formidable Terror ploughed the German Ocean on her return track; and her captain made for an obscure French port, where he spent some weeks, amusing bis beautiful bride with projects of happiness in their settled home in the capital; and the charming Kristine wondered greatly why her husband lingered upon the coast, instead of hastening to Paris to obtain the promised honours at the hand of his sovereign; and she longed to obtain an explanation upon this head, but Harkar would not be questioned. It was enough that counter-orders superseded those that had reached him in the north, and she was perforce content to remain where he chose, or where, as he alleged, his orders detained him. And in the course of a month or two, she found herself at the capital amidst state and luxury; but the state did not please her, and the luxury was not of the refined character which she

had hoped to enjoy in the society of a heroic and honoured husband and his guests, nor such as she was accustomed to in the affluent home of her youth. Her husband was visited by gay cavaliers, accompanied frequently by no less gay, sprightly, light-hearted persons of her own sex; but the simple young Dane only saw in the frivolity and levity of these people, manners and customs different from those of her own country; and she could only wish that the court of France were a shade more solemn and decorous than it evidently was, julging from the sample of the courtiers introduced to her by her husband. Kristine was not happy, but she indulged in hopes of better circumstances, when the position of her husband became defined by the acquisition of rank, and she imposed contentment upon herself as a duty.

She

Amongst the visitors at her house, which was in a fashionable quarter of the capital, was a slight youth, of delicate frame, retined features, and somewhat feminine cast of countenance, to whom his companions paid more than ordinary deference, and who seemed in no way to court the homage they rendered him. He was called Count de Blois, but even the simplicity of Kristine could detect in the youth more than the bearing and pretensions of a simple count. Could he be a prince of the blood? She more than suspected so, but why should he come under an assumed name to her house? ventured to question her husband, who admitted the superior rank of the count, without saying what it was; and stated that his disguise was assumed in order to facilitate free and unrestrained intercourse with his chosen friends in the city. This satisfied her for the time, but if it did the increasing attentions of the cunt had quite a contrary effect; and not the least so that he appeared to think she should receive them as a matter of course, and with the extreme of gratitude. An appeal to her husband on this point was met by some flippant common places, which greatly mortified her; and called into active play her worst suspicions respecting the good faith of Harkar Oh, that was a poignant thrill of anguish that shot through her frame, and made her heart stand still under the weight of agony, as that cruel suspicion first crossed her mind! Was she deceived? She was in this frame of thought when the count half forced himself into her presence; and she did not spurn him as she would a viper, because she instinctively felt that he would either dispel or confirm the terrible doubt that glowed in her breast like living flame. To his euphuistic address-for the severity of her look froze into some sort of respect and formality the usual flippancy of his advances-she replied by demanding the cause of his intrusion. when he replied,

And

"The ungovernable love I bear to the most charming of her sex-oh, surely, madame, it is cause sufficient for risking even the repelling glances of the brightest eyes in the world."

She did not lose her self-possession, but calmly asked did he not fear that her husband would exact a terrible account for the outrage of which he had been guilty.

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