into whose shop I stepped back; but when I turned round to speak to him, he had vanished.

"I remembered that his wife carried on some little trade in the old town. I remembered even the house and the flat she occupied, which I had often visited in my boyhood. Having made it out, I found the old woman in widow's mourning. Her husband had been dead for some months; and had told her on her death-bed, that my father's steward had wronged him of some money, but that when Master Tom returned, he would see her righted. This I promised to do, and shortly after, fulfilled my promise. The impression was indelible; and I am extremely cautious how I deny the possibility of such supernatural visitings' as those which your grace has just instanced in your own family."

Either Lord Erskine did, or did not, believe this strange story; if he did, what a strange aberration of intellect !-if he did not, what a stranger aberration from truth! My opinion is, that he did believe it. I had not, however, then learned upon what trifling points human credulity turns, how little even our opinions are our own, and how far

the strongest minds are inconsistent with themselves, and obstinately retain the dog's-ears and folds of early impression.

Notwithstanding my heresy in the matter of second-sight, I continued to receive marks of friendship from Lord E.; and for years after my marriage, he sent me any thing he produced in a literary way. The following note, which was written a few months before his death, closed our correspondence; it was accompanied by his pamphlet on the Greeks. It is worth citing, as a testimony to prove that years do not make age, and that freshness of feeling, and youthful ardour in a great cause, may survive the corporeal decay, which time never spares, even to protracted sensibility:

"DEAR LADY MORGAN,

"A long time ago, in one of your works (all of which I have read with great satisfaction), I remember your having expressed your approbation of my style of writing, and a wish that I would lose no occasion of rendering it useful. I wish I could agree with your ladyship in your kind and partial

opinion; but as there never was an occasion in which it can be more useful to excite popular feeling than in the cause of the Greeks, I send your ladyship a copy of the second edition [of my work], published a few days ago.

66

"I have the honour to be,

"With regard and esteem,

"Your ladyship's faithful humble servant,

"ERSKINE."

"No. 13, Arabella Row, Pimlico, London,

"October 11, 1822."

Lady Morgan, Dublin."

The pamphlet which accompanied this note, abundantly proved, that neither the talent nor the feelings of this singularly gifted writer had abandoned him; yet circumstances had occurred, and become notorious, which implied that age had, in some respects, made sad havoc with his powerful intellect. There is nothing more curious in the history of the human mind, than the manner in which it falls to ruin; and in which splendid and magnificent fragments can subsist, in all their pristine beauty, amidst the total decay of the rest of the intellectual fabric.

LORD CASTLEREAGH.

How

To go back once more to the P. often have I seen Whigs and Tories united roundits splendid hearths in the great drawing-room, innocently playing their "small games," after having played, through the preceding week, their great game, on the opposite sides of the two houses. How often have I seen the ministerial red box, ("big with the fate of Cato and of Rome,” bearing the busy tale of some of Napoleon's unwelcome victories, or welcome defeats, or, haply stuffed with the materials of some green-bag disclosure,) scarcely deposited in the hands of its diplomatic owner, before it was suddenly jerked up into the air by the playful ingenuity of a romping peeress, and its mysterious contents scattered on the floor, while the laughing contriver of the overthrow exclaimed

-“ Autant en emporte le vent !” How often have I seen presidents of the council and lords comp

trollers of royal households, taking lessons, there, in waltzing, at that time a novelty, fresh imported from D- House: while " many a saint and many a hero," who were then sinners and subalterns, trod upon those Persian carpets, which covered the paved cloisters and knee-worn cells of the ancient monks of Ste.

It was during the time passed in this delightful retreat (which was no retreat), that I had frequently the pleasure of meeting Lord Castlereagh. I say the pleasure, for (I take him here in his social phases only) he was one of those cheerful, liveable, give-and-take persons, in private, who are so invaluable in villa-life, where pleasure and repose are the object and the end. His implacable placidity, his cloudless smile, his mildness of demeanour, his love of music, his untunable voice, and passion for singing all the songs of the Beggar's Opera,* (in which I had always the honour

* One evening, while thus engaged, to the utter abstraction from all surrounding circumstances, we had arrived at "Hark, I hear the toll of the bell," when a sudden crash of all dissonant sounds produced as sudden a suspension of our own somewhat heteroclite harmonies. Tambourines, triangles, pokers, tongs, and shovels, were all pressed into the service. The ladies of the party,