surrounded by her family in emotion, she came to deposit upon the tomb of Napoleon I. the idea of conciliation of which her visit is the sympathy and the seal. Finally, France and England, which have filled Europe with their divisions, instead of persisting, like Rome and Carthage, in implacable resentments, associate their policy, their interests, and their blood for one of those immense causes which decide the future of humanity. Such contrasts confound the provisions of men; there remains no more for the mind than to bow itself humbly before the Supreme Wisdom whose grandeur is alone immutable, and which subjects our most rebellious passions to the harmony of its providential designs." WONDERS OF THE VICTORIAN AGE. with the motherly affection which she manifests for her children in public, have not failed to touch a sympathetic chord in the French heart, and she will leave the shores of France carrying with her the good will and the affectionate regards of the whole nation. Her Majesty and suite quickly yielded to the habits of the court of St. Cloud, and mixing freely with the people of Paris, or in other words, showing themselves to the public with as little ceremony as possible, and without any of that stiffness which characterises the Court of St. James, almost everybody has seen and received a gracious smile from her. Wherever she goes, and she is always in the company of the Emperor, the people of Paris receive her as they do their own Emperor and Empress; instead of giving a loud hurrah, as is the habit in OUR gracious Queen-long may she fill her England, they bow low and smile, and her throne, Has been to see Louis Napoleon. The Majesty of England-bless her heart!- In our young days we little thought to see Majesty, following the directions of the Emperor, does the same; so that she does nothing but smile and bow wherever she appears in public, and this suits the French people best, for it deprives her Majesty of that air of stiffness which she would otherwise have, and which is so peculiarly obnoxious to the French. Since her Majesty's arrival I have heard no words but admiration and the utmost respect toward her, unless it was from her own subjects, and her visit will do more to obliterate the bad feeling which the French people cherish toward the English, than all that Napoleon III. has been able to accomplish up to this moment. The Queen is delighted at the This great event of course could not take cordiality of her reception, and her happiness place Without fit prodigies for such a case; ear, And Peel's emitted frequent cries of "Hear!" Correspondent of the New York Tribune. has spread to the French people, who are much more easily captivated by the heart than by the head, and thus it is that her visit will prove so valuable to the interests of the alliance and for the future of the two countries. The first grand ball to her Majesty takes place to-night at the Hotel de Ville, the second and last one on Saturday night at the Palace of Versailles. To the Hotel de Ville but about five thousand invitations have been given out, and these are very select. Two hundred and fifty American names were sent in by the Legation, but I believe none have been accepted. The English list of invited, on the contrary, will be large. The Americans were promised sixty invitations to the Hotel de Ville and sixThe ovations which are being offered to the teen to the ball at Versailles. The whole Queen of England absorb completely the at- number of applications which were made to tention of the Parisians. The curiosity which the Prefect of the Seine for tickets to the ball was at first manifested to see her appears to were more than forty thousand. In a fete have abated but little, and wherever her Ma- which may be said to be in commemoration of jesty goes she is met by crowds which it would an alliance against Russia, it ought not to be be impossible to penetrate were it not for the expected that the Americans would enter immense police force which has been placed largely into the consideration of those who had on duty. The reception which her Majesty the control of the invitation list. They are everywhere receives is of the most cordial and not, in fact, entitled to such consideration, for enthusiastic character. "La bonne reine et ses a very large majority of those now is Paris are enfants," is in every French woman's mouth, the sympathizers of Russia in the present and the good qualities of heart of her Majesty, contest. THE FORTUNES OF GLENCORE. CHAPTER I. A LONELY LANDSCAPE. WHERE that singularly beautiful inlet of tions as to what might be the consequence of the sea, known in the west of Ireland as the his coming. Little, or indeed nothing, was Killeries, after narrowing to a mere strait, ex- known of Lord Glencore; his only visit to pands into a bay, stands the ruin of the an- the neighborhood had occurred many years cient Castle of Glencore. With the bold before, and lasted but for a day. He had arsteep sides of Ben Greggan behind, and the rived suddenly, and, taking a boat at the ferry broad blue Atlantic in front, the proud keep -as it was called-crossed over to the castle, would seem to have occupied a spot that might whence he returned at nightfall, to depart as have bid defiance to the boldest assailant. The hurriedly as he came. estuary itself here seems entirely landlocked, | Of those who had seen him in this brief and resembles in the wild fantastic outline of visit the accounts were vague and most conthe mountains around, a Norwegian fiord, [tradictory. Some called him handsome and rather than a scene in our own tamer land- well built; others said he was a dark-looking, scape. The small village of Leenane, which downcast man, with a sickly and forbidding stands on the Galway shore, opposite to Glen- aspect. None, however, could record one core, presents the only trace of habitation in single word he had spoken, nor could even this wild and desolate district, for the country | gossips pretend to say that he gave utterance around is poor, and its soil offers little to re- to any opinion about the place or the people. pay the task of the husbandman. Fishing is then the chief, if not the sole resource of those who pass their lives in this solitary region; and thus, in every little creek or inlet of the shore may be seen the stout craft of some hardy venturer, and nets, and tackle, and such like gear, lie drying on every rocky eminence. We have said that Glencore was a ruin, but still its vast proportions, yet traceable in massive fragments of masonry, displayed specimens of various eras of architecture, from the rudest tower of the twelfth century to the more ornate style of a later period; while artificial embankments and sloped sides of grass showed the remains of what once had been terrace and “parterre," the successors it might be presumed, of fosse and parapet. The mode in which the estate was managed gave as little insight into the character of the proprietor. If no severity was displayed to the few tenants on the property, there was no encouragement given to their efforts at improvement; a kind of cold neglect was the only feature discernible, and many went so far as to say, that if any cared to forget the payment of his rent the chances were it might never be demanded of him; the great security against such a venture, however, lay in the fact, that the land was held at a nere nominal rental, and few would have risked his tenure by such an experiment. It was little to be wondered at that Lord Glencore was not better known in that secluded spot, since even in England his name was scarcely heard of. His fortune was very limited, and he had no political influence whatever, not possessing a seat in the upper house; so that, as he spent his life abroad, he was almost totally forgotten in his own country. All that Debrett could tell of him was comprised in a few lines, recording simply that he was sixth Viscount Glencore and Loughdooner; born in the month of February, 1802, and married in August, 1824, to Clarissa Isabella, second daughter of Sir Guy Clifford, of Wytchley, Baronet; by whom he had issue, Charles Conyngham Massey, born 6th June, Many a tale of cruelty and oppression, many a story of suffering and sorrow clung to these old walls, for they had formed the home of a haughty and a cruel race, the last descendant of which died in the close of the past century. The Castle of Glencore, with the title, had now descended to a distant relation of the house, who had repaired and so far restored the old residence as to make it habitable-that is to say, four bleak and lofty chambers were rudely furnished, and about as many smaller ones fitted for servant accommodation, but no effort at embellishment, not even the commonest attempt at neatness 1828. There closed the notice. was bestowed on the grounds or the garden; Strange and quaint things are these short and in this state it remained for some five and biographies, with little beyond the barren fact twenty or thirty years, when the tidings that he had lived" and "he had died;" and reached the little village of Leenane that his yet with all the changes of this work-a-day lordship was about to return to Glencore, and fix his residence there. Such an event was of no small moment in such a locality, and many were the specula world, with its din and turmoil, and gold-seeking, and "progress," men cannot divest themselves of reverence for birth and blood, and the veneration for high descent remains an in stinct of humanity. Sneer, as men will, at "heaven-born legislators," laugh as you may at the "tenth transmitter of a foolish face," there is something eminently impressive in the fact of a position acquired by deeds that date back to centuries, and preserved inviolate to the successor of him who fought at Agincourt or at Cressy. If ever this religion shall be impaired, the fault be on those who have derogated from their great prerogative, and forgotten to make illustrious by example what they have inherited illustrious by descent. man, who carried his letter-bag to and fro, and a few laborers in the spring and autumn, none ever invaded the forbidden precincts. Of course, such privacy paid its accustomed penalty; and many an explanation, of a kind little flattering, was circulated to account for so ungenial an existence. Some alleged that he had committed some heavy crime against the State, and was permitted to pass his life there, on the condition of perpetual imprisonment; others, that his wife had deserted him, and that in his forlorn condition he had sought out a spot to live and die in, unnoticed and unknown; a few ascribed his solitude to debt; while others were divided in opinion between charges of misanthropy and avarice-to either of which accusations his lonely and simple life fully exposed him. When the news first reached the neighborhood that a lord was about to take up his residence in the castle, the most extravagant expectations were conceived of the benefits to arise from such a source. The very humblest already speculated on the advantages his wealth was to diffuse, and the thousand little In time, however, people grew tired of rechannels into which his affluence would be di-peating stories to which no new evidence adrected. The ancient traditions of the place ded any features of interest. They lost the spoke of a time of boundless profusion, when troops of mounted followers used to accompany the old barons, and when the lough itself used to be covered with boats, with the armorial bearings of Glencore floating proudly from their mastheads. There were old men then living who remembered as many as two hundred laborers being daily employed on the grounds and gardens of the castle; and the most fabulous stories were told of fortunes accumulated by those who were lucky enough to have saved the rich earnings of that golden period. Colored as such speculations were with all the imaginative warmth of the west, it was a terrible shock to such sanguine fancies, when they beheld a middle-aged, sad-looking man arrive in a simple post-chaise, accompanied by his son, a child of six or seven years of age, and a single servant-a grim-looking old dragoon corporal, who neither invited intimacy nor rewarded it. It was not, indeed, for a long time that they could believe that this was "my lord," and that this solitary attendant was the whole of that great retinue they had so long been expecting; nor, indeed, could any evidence less strong than Mrs. Mulcahy's, of the Post-office, completely satisfy them on the subject. The address of certain letters and newspapers to the Lord Viscount Glencore was, however, a testimony beyond dispute; so that nothing remained but to revenge themselves on the unconscious author of their self-deception for the disappointment he gave them. This, it is true, required some ingenuity, for they scarcely ever saw him, nor could they ascertain a single fact of his habits or mode of life. zest for a scandal which ceased to astonish, and "my lord” was as much forgotten, and his existence as unspoken of, as though the old towers had once again become the home of the owl and the jackdaw. It was now about eight years since "the lord" had taken up his abode at the Castle, when one evening, a raw and gusty night of December, the little skiff of the fisherman was seen standing in for shore-a sight somewhat uncommon, since she always crossed the lough in time for the morning's mail. "There's another man aboard, too," said a by-stander from the little group that watched the boat, as she neared the harbor; "I think it's Mr. Craggs." "You're right enough, Sam-it's the corporal; I know his cap, and the short tail of hair he wears under it. What can bring him at this time o' night?" "He's going to bespeak a quarter of Tim Healey's beef, may be," said one, with a grin of malicious drollery. 66 Mayhap it's askin' us all to spend the Christmas he'd be," said another. "Whisht! or he'll hear you," muttered a third; and at the same instant the sail came clattering down, and the boat glided swiftly past, and entered a little natural creek close beneath where they stood. "Who has got a horse and a jaunting-car?" cried the Corporal, as he jumped on shore. “I want one for Clifden directly.” "It's fifteen miles-divil a less," cried one. "Fifteen! no, but eighteen! Kiely's bridge is bruck down, and you'll have to go by Gortnamuck." "Well, and if he has, can't he take the cut?" "He can't." "Why not? Didn't I go that way last He never crossed the lough, as the inlet of the sea, about three miles in width, was called. He as rigidly excluded the peasantry from the grounds of the Castle; and, save an old fisher- week?" VOL. XI. 3 DXCIIL LIVING AGE. THE FORTUNES OF GLENCORE. CHAPTER I. A LONELY LANDSCAPE. tions as to what might be the consequence of his coming. Little, or indeed nothing, was known of Lord Glencore; his only visit to the neighborhood had occurred many years before, and lasted but for a day. He had arrived suddenly, and, taking a boat at the ferry -as it was called-crossed over to the castle, whence he returned at nightfall, to depart as hurriedly as he came. WHERE that singularly beautiful inlet of the sea, known in the west of Ireland as the Killeries, after narrowing to a mere strait, expands into a bay, stands the ruin of the ancient Castle of Glencore. With the bold steep sides of Ben Greggan behind, and the broad blue Atlantic in front, the proud keep would seem to have occupied a spot that might have bid defiance to the boldest assailant. The estuary itself here seems entirely landlocked, Of those who had seen him in this brief and resembles in the wild fantastic outline of visit the accounts were vague and most conthe mountains around, a Norwegian fiord, tradictory. Some called him handsome and rather than a scene in our own tamer land- well built; others said he was a dark-looking, scape. The small village of Leenane, which downcast man, with a sickly and forbidding stands on the Galway shore, opposite to Glen- aspect. None, however, could record one core, presents the only trace of habitation in single word he had spoken, nor could even this wild and desolate district, for the country gossips pretend to say that he gave utterance around is poor, and its soil offers little to re- to any opinion about the place or the people. pay the task of the husbandman. Fishing is The mode in which the estate was managed then the chief, if not the sole resource of those gave as little insight into the character of the who pass their lives in this solitary region; and proprietor. If no severity was displayed to thus, in every little creek or inlet of the shore the few tenants on the property, there was no may be seen the stout craft of some hardy encouragement given to their efforts at imventurer, and nets, and tackle, and such like provement; a kind of cold neglect was the gear, lie drying on every rocky eminence. only feature discernible, and many went so We have said that Glencore was a ruin, but far as to say, that if any cared to forget the still its vast proportions, yet traceable in mas-payment of his rent the chances were it might sive fragments of masonry, displayed speci- never be demanded of him; the great security mens of various eras of architecture, from the against such a venture, however, lay in the rudest tower of the twelfth century to the fact, that the land was held at a mere nominal more ornate style of a later period; while arti- rental, and few would have risked his tenure ficial embankments and sloped sides of grass by such an experiment. showed the remains of what once had been terrace and "parterre," the successors it might be presumed, of fosse and parapet. It was little to be wondered at that Lord Glencore was not better known in that secluded spot, since even in England his name was scarcely heard of. His fortune was very limited, and he had no political influence whatever, not possessing a seat in the upper house; so that, as he spent his life abroad, he was almost totally forgotten in his own country. All that Debrett could tell of him was comprised in a few lines, recording simply that he was sixth Viscount Glencore and Loughdooner; born in the month of February, 1802, and married in August, 1824, to Clarissa Isabella, second daughter of Sir Guy Clifford, of Wytchley, Baronet; by whom he had issue, Charles Conyngham Massey, born 6th June, Many a tale of cruelty and oppression, many a story of suffering and sorrow clung to these old walls, for they had formed the home of a haughty and a cruel race, the last descendant of which died in the close of the past century. The Castle of Glencore, with the title, had now descended to a distant relation of the house, who had repaired and so far restored the old residence as to make it habitable—that is to say, four bleak and lofty chambers were rudely furnished, and about as many smaller ones fitted for servant accommodation, but no effort at embellishment, not even the commonest attempt at neatness 1828. There closed the notice. was bestowed on the grounds or the garden; Strange and quaint things are these short and in this state it remained for some five and biographies, with little beyond the barren fact twenty or thirty years, when the tidings that "he had lived" and "he had died;" and reached the little village of Leenane that his lordship was about to return to Glencore, and fix his residence there. Such an event was of no small moment in such a locality, and many were the specula yet with all the changes of this work-a-day world, with its din and turmoil, and gold-seeking, and "progress," men cannot divest themselves of reverence for birth and blood, and the veneration for high descent remains an in man, who carried his letter-bag to and fro, and a few laborers in the spring and autumn, none ever invaded the forbidden precincts. he had committed some heavy crime against the State, and was permitted to pass his life there, on the condition of perpetual imprisonment; others, that his wife had deserted him, and that in his forlorn condition he had sought out a spot to live and die in, unnoticed and unknown; a few ascribed his solitude to debt; while others were divided in opinion between charges of misanthropy and avarice-to either of which accusations his lonely and simple life fully exposed him. stinct of humanity. Sneer, as men will, at "heaven-born legislators," laugh as you may at the "tenth transmitter of a foolish face," there is something eminently impressive in the Of course, such privacy paid its accustomed fact of a position acquired by deeds that date penalty; and many an explanation, of a kind back to centuries, and preserved inviolate to little flattering, was circulated to account for the successor of him who fought at Agincourt so ungenial an existence. Some alleged that or at Cressy. If ever this religion shall be impaired, the fault be on those who have derogated from their great prerogative, and forgotten to make illustrious by example what they have inherited illustrious by descent. When the news first reached the neighborhood that a lord was about to take up his residence in the castle, the most extravagant expectations were conceived of the benefits to arise from such a source. The very humblest already speculated on the advantages his wealth was to diffuse, and the thousand little channels into which his affluence would be directed. The ancient traditions of the place spoke of a time of boundless profusion, when troops of mounted followers used to accompany the old barons, and when the lough itself used to be covered with boats, with the armorial bearings of Glencore floating proudly from their mastheads. There were old men then It was now about eight years since "the living who remembered as many as two hun- lord" had taken up his abode at the Castle, dred laborers being daily employed on the when one evening, a raw and gusty night of grounds and gardens of the castle; and the December, the little skiff of the fisherman most fabulous stories were told of fortunes ac- was seen standing in for shore-a sight somecumulated by those who were lucky enough what uncommon, since she always crossed the to have saved the rich earnings of that golden lough in time for the morning's mail. period. Colored as such speculations were with all the imaginative warmth of the west, it was a terrible shock to such sanguine fancies, when they beheld a middle-aged, sad-looking man arrive in a simple post-chaise, accompanied by his son, a child of six or seven years of age, and a single servant-a grim-looking old dragoon corporal, who neither invited intimacy nor rewarded it. It was not, indeed, for a long time that they could believe that this was "my lord," and that this solitary attendant was the whole of that great retinue they had so long been expecting; nor, indeed, could any evidence less strong than Mrs. Mulcahy's, of the Post-office, completely satisfy them on the subject. The address of certain letters and newspapers to the Lord Viscount Glencore was, however, a testimony beyond dispute; so that nothing remained but to revenge themselves on the unconscious author of their self-deception for the disappointment he gave them. This, it is true, required some ingenuity, for they scarcely ever saw him, nor could they ascertain a single fact of his habits or mode of life. In time, however, people grew tired of repeating stories to which no new evidence added any features of interest. They lost the zest for a scandal which ceased to astonish, and "my lord" was as much forgotten, and his existence as unspoken of, as though the old towers had once again become the home of the owl and the jackdaw. "There's another man aboard, too," said a by-stander from the little group that watched the boat, as she neared the harbor; "I think it's Mr. Craggs." "You're right enough, Sam-it's the corporal; I know his cap, and the short tail of hair he wears under it. What can bring him at this time o' night?" "He's going to bespeak a quarter of Tim Healey's beef, may be," said one, with a grin of malicious drollery. "Mayhap it's askin' us all to spend the Christmas he'd be," said another. "Whisht! or he'll hear you," muttered a third; and at the same instant the sail came clattering down, and the boat glided swiftly past, and entered a little natural creek close beneath where they stood. "Who has got a horse and a jaunting-car?" cried the Corporal, as he jumped on shore. "I want one for Clifden directly." "It's fifteen miles-divil a less," cried one. "Fifteen! no, but eighteen! Kiely's bridge is bruck down, and you'll have to go by Gortnamuck." 66 Well, and if he has, can't he take the cut?" "He can't." "Why not? Didn't I go that way last He never crossed the lough, as the inlet of the sea, about three miles in width, was called. He as rigidly excluded the peasantry from the grounds of the Castle; and, save an old fisher- week?" LIVING AGE. VOL. XI. 3 DXCIIL |