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"Tell me, when the Santiago sailed on that luckless voyage from St. Domingo, did she not go down at sea three days after she left the harbour?"

Goggles bowed his head in assent, but was silent-Kennedy continued

"Did not the ship's register, that was picked up weeks afterwards, tell that amongst the passengers were a poor woman and her child, huddled away somewhere in the fore-cabin, bound for her native land? Was it not her name that I read, till I thought my eyes would burst from their sockets, as I looked at the characters? She and her babe perished! - went down, down into that wild desolate ocean no hand to succour her; no voice to comfort her; with the thought of me and my heartlessness coming, it may be, between her and her prayers to God, and troubling her last moments. Tell me, I say, would she have been in that ship but for me? Would she have found that dreadful grave but for me? No, no; she would not. I am her murderer, indeed!"

Little Goggles' philosophy was neither very deep nor very extensive; he scarce knew what to say in answer to this unwonted burst of passionate remorse. He mounted up into his brain, and searched for some fine casuistical reasoning that might stand to him in the emergency, but in vainthere was nothing of the sort there then he dived down into the bottom of his heart, and found something there, which the instinct of love told him was true, though his reason did not come to test it; and so he brought it up and laid it before Kennedy, in his own simple manner.

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"I'm not scholar enough, sir,to contradict your arguments; but I know in my heart you are no murderer. The great and merciful God that brought all these things to pass without your knowledge or design, will not hold you accountable either for the leak in the ship, or the storm on the sea; he will judge you by the intentions of your heart, which are within your own control, and not by the events that are in his own hands to shape. Do you think, sir, that the priest or the Levite would have been guilty of the death of the poor traveller, if he had perished of his wounds before the good Samaritan came up to relieve him?"

The words of the clerk were words of comfort to his master. They put the matter to him in a light that he was

not in the habit of viewing it in. A quick and excitable temperament acting upon a morbid conscience, had induced him, as he brooded from day to day, and from year to year, over this most hasty and intemperate act of his life, to deepen its hue to his own mind, till at length, when tidings of the loss of the Santiago reached him some years previously, the shock was so great that his judgment, on this point, became quite warped ; and the conviction that he was the murderer of one whom he had, indeed, treated harshly, settled down into the confirmed monomania of his life. Still, this ray of comfort shone in upon him, and calmed him for a moment. A gust of wind was then heard without, and the muffled sound of the heavy snow-shower falling upon the windows, diverted the thoughts of the two men from the subject which had absorbed them.

"What a wild night it is to close the year with," said Kennedy.

"God help the houseless and the homeless in such a night," said Goggles.

"Amen, Goggles. And now, I'll leave you for a while and go up stairs; 'twill do me good. Meantime, go over to the fire, old fellow, and make yourself comfortable. I'll send you down something warm to help you to find out that error in the tot; and when you have found it let me know, and then we'll balance our books for the old year."

So saying, the merchant rose from his seat and passed from the apartment. Goggles listened to each heavy tread of his master, as he ascended the staircase; then he heard him closing the door of the room overhead, and stepping across the floor that sounded hollowly beneath his feet. When all was still, the little fellow hopped off his stool, and going over to the fireplace, he gave the coals a modest, timid poke, as though he were taking an unwonted liberty with them: they were of a hot and hasty nature, like their master (and were nothing the worse of that, let me tell you, being coals and not Christians), and so they resisted the assault, gentle as it was, and forthwith broke out into a blaze, and flung their heat at the assailant. Goggles took this retaliation with great complacency, and spread out his cold fingers to receive the first advances; then he rubbed his hands together, and after a little he drew one of the oldfashioned chairs to the fireplace, and

taking the account-book from the desk, he sat down cosily before the grate, and with his little feet on the fender

and the folio on his knees, fell once more to work to find out the error in the tot.

CHAPTER II.

THE MISSING FIGURE,

A WILD and dreary night was that 31st of December, 179-. It seemed as if the dying year struggled hard for life to the last. All day long, like poor old Lear, it blustered and raged over its lost empire. All day long, a strong nor'west wind blewkeen and bitingly, and the leaden snow-clouds rose thick from the horizon, till they overspread the whole face of heaven, and dimmed the light of the sun that had risen, red and dull, upon the frosty morning. And then, ere noon, the thick, large snowflakes came down, drifting, with the wind, blindingly into the faces of those who traversed the streets, and lying upon window-panes till they well nigh shut out the dimmed light of day from those within. All day long the snow fell and drifted till, towards night-fall, the streets were covered with a deep, white carpet, over which, now and then, a carriage rolled, with a dull, muffled sound; and on the leeward footways the snow lay piled so deeply that they who passed along were forced to wade half-knee deep through the mass. But when the night fell, the poor old year had well nigh worn out all his strength; the wind blew but in fitful gusts the snow-showers were intermittent the clouds broke up, and through them, as they scudded over the face of heaven, beamed, with her face of placid, heavenly beauty, the moon nearly at her full. Down she looked, sweetly and soothingly, upon that outstretched dying old year, even sweet Cordelia looked upon the poor old king, "when the great rage was cured in him." And now it is night, wild and dreary, in this our city of Dublin.

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There is no more striking feature of desolation than a city at night, after a heavy fall of snow. No stir, no sound, no life within her. She lies, like a fair, wan corpse in her shroud of snow; her only death-watchers, the silent heavens her only wake-lights, the moon or stars. Marts, where the din and bustle of commerce resounded through the day; homesteads that rang with a thousand sweet domestic sounds; doors that poured out their living inmates upon.

the haunts of life; windows that gleamed with light, as the living eye with "speculation"-all now closed, silent, dark, and dead-so that one looks upwards for relief to heaven from this oppres sive sense of death. Oh! glorious and wonderful works of God! Oh, “beauty and mystery" of stars! Ye never sleep or slumber; ever wakeful like the eye of God; ever, like him, present though unseen; like him, near us, indeed, though hidden in the daytime of brightness and prosperity, but revealing yourselves to light and cheer us in the hour of darkness and trial!

“Bedad, Tim Regan, 'tis the bitterest night that ever I seen, God bless it. I'm as cowld as a frog in a springwell."

"You may say that, Casey," said Regan, poking his head out of his box, as a badger might out of a hole, and then drawing it back again. "I never got such a starving in my born days."

The interlocutors stood at the corner of Trinity-street and College-green. He who first spoke was wrapped up in an ample coat of grey frieze; round his neck was a red worsted comforter, which covered his chin and mouth, while his head was comfortably enveloped in a white cotton nightcap surmounted by a round hat, the former drawn down in front, almost to his eyes, and leaving only these organs and a red nose exposed to the weather. The cuffs of his coat were brought together, so as to protect, as with a muff, his hands from the cold; his right arm clasped close to his breast a long pole, with a pike and a hook at the end of it, contrived equally to arrest those who fled from the nocturnal authority, as to assail those who resisted it, and a rattle was stuck in the belt that surrounded his waist. Close to where he stood was a box, or, as it was familiarly termed in the slang of the day, a "bulk," secured against the wall of the house, and so formed, that the sides and roof, which closed by day, opened out and afforded a shelter from the weather by night. Within this the other speaker was ensconced,

in a similar attire to his companion, while his pike lay against the side of the watch-box. These two worthies constituted part of the civic guard of Dublin, to whom the fortunes of the town were nightly committed. They were, for the most part, superannuated servants or followers of the Lords Mayor, and other great functionaries of Dublin, who thus provided for them at the public expense; and as they were able to do little, they did it accordingly with all their hearts. As peaceful men, they felt it their duty to set a good example to their fellow-citizens; and, therefore, made it a point to sleep through the night, the only interruption to which excellent practice arose from the necessity, somewhat unrensonably imposed upon them, of crying the hours. This annoyance was, however, greatly diminished by an arrangement amongst themselves, whereby one of their number kept the watch each hour, while the rest betook themselves to repose with such earnestness, that to "sleep as sound as a watchman" became a proverb to express a state of the most profound somnolency. It was now Casey's hour of watching; and as his period of vigil was nearly ended, he had waked up the sleeping Regan a short time before the moment when we first made their acquaintance. In a moment Regan turned out of his den, and the two old men, with slow and drowsy step, proceeded on their beat towards the College, chatting as they went along. If a Pythagorean had just then seen them, in their gray attire and white polls, as they gossipped with one another, he might have fancied that the souls of the geese that saved the Capitol had migrated into the bodies of these old fellows; and that, true to the instinct of their nature, they still cackled and waddled over the sleeping city. now upon the ear of night the clock of the old Post Office pealed forth the hour of eleven. More distinctly, and in deeper tones, the record of Time's flight was taken up by the bells of Christ Church; then the neighbouring Church of St. Nicholas Within the Walls gave its notes of warning; next the chiming tongues of St. Patrick's bells spoke the message; and, ere these had ceased, the far-away voice of the bell-clock of Madame Stevens' Hospital took up the challenge; and so from one to the other these chroniclers of old Time passed

And

the fleeting hour upon his way, till they had fairly sent him out of the city, through the silent parks, and along the sweet valley of the Liffey. And onward, onward went that flying hour, staying but a moment with each, on his westward journey, ever irrevocable to those he had passed.

Meantime, the city watchmen were not idle. Though all other thieves might steal without challenge or interruption during the hours of night, they took good care that the great thief, Time, should not filch even one hour from the world without an outcry. "Pa-a-st e-le-ven!" sung out Casey, with all the power of his lungs. "Pa-a-st e-le-ven!" repeated Regan, taking for a moment the short pipe from his mouth, with whose fumes he was comforting himself. "Pa-a-st eleven!" was echoed along the snowy streets, throughout the city, from bulk to bulk, as nightcapped heads were thrust out. Many a lightly-sleeping maiden was waked from her pleasant dream. Many a sleepless sick man, tossing on his bed of fever, heard that vociferation, and gave his malediction to the senseless noise that came so suddenly upon him, making his heart beat and his brow throb with pain. Many a housebreaker and night-prowler laughed as he heard the clamour, for he knew that in five minutes more most of those conservators of the city would be snoring in their boxes, and that the few who were on their beats would be as unconscious as somnambulists.

Just then the voices of some drunken revellers, trolling a snatch of a drinking-song, broke upon the repose into which the city was again settling down, after the clamorous interruption of the watchmen. The sounds came from near the northern wing of the College, then some words of parley and altercation, mixed with laughter, followed, and the next moment the shrill cry of a woman's voice pierced the air. The cry was that of one seemingly in distress; and so piteous and appealing was its tone, that the two watchmen ran forward to the spot with the best speed they could command.

"Them's the College-boys at their devilment, I'll be bound," said Regan, dashing the red tobacco from his pipe, and grasping his pike valiantly.

"Like enough," responded Casey; "there's neither peace or quiet night or day through the means of 'em. Öne

would think they might be tired for once, after the pelting of snowballs they gave the Ormond boys this evening. Lord save us! do you hear that again?" as another shriek smote on the air; 66 hurry, man, or there'll be murder."

In an other moment they were at the place whence the sounds proceeded. Close to the railings of the College were three young men, dressed in the extreme fashion of the day, with hair in exquisite buckle and profusely powdered. They were evidently gentlemen, with which character it was not then deemed inconsistent to be in the state of most unequivocal drunkenness in which these youths were. Two of them were linked together, with their backs to the railings, laughing heartily at the third who, with his arm round the waist of a woman, was addressing her with an air of maudlin gallantry, and with as much gravity as his drunkenness enabled him to command.

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had just concluded some speech, in which the words " Incomparable paragon of loveliness. - beautiful Venusdivinely frigid Diana" and a profession of eternal devotion, were alone intelligible. The woman struggled hard for freedom.

"Oh, sir, if you be a gentleman, as you look to be, for the love of God suffer me to pass. You would not surely molest an unprotected woman ?”

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"Molest! Madam, upon my honour, and 'fore Gad, you may depend on me. I only want to protect you from these wild young fellows. This, you see, madam, is Buck O'Reilly, and this is Fagan, one of the Mohawks;'" and with his disengaged hand he essayed an introduction of his two compotators. "Fagan, my dear madam, is one of the most desperate Mohawks in existence," he continued in a confidential whisper.

The two others broke out into an uproarious fit of laughter.

"Bravo, Lucas! Go it, my Cherokee! Pray don't mind us! We're in no hurry, you know-quite at your service."

"Hands off, hands off, sir!" said Regan, pushing in between the men. "Let go the woman; don't you see she has no mind for your civilities?"

"Down with the Charlie; pink the cursed old bulkey," cried the Buck and the Mohawk, endeavouring to disengage their swords from the scabbards.

"Be quiet, be quiet, gentlemen," said Casey, who saw that he had to deal with men too drunk to make any effective resistance, "unless you want to spend the night in the watchhouse."

The two men rushed furiously at Casey. The Buck came to the ground before he reached his opponent, while the Mohawk pitched heavily, like a log, into the old watchman, well nigh bearing him down by his drunken weight. Meantime, Lucas, releasing the woman, attacked Regan, who, valiantly springing his rattle, received the enemy with his pike-handle grasped in both his hands. From all quarters watchmen came hobbling up, springing their rattles till the air was filled with the discordant creaking. The three gentlemen were speedily reduced, and surrounded by twice as many watch

men.

"I say, Charlie, my old fellow," said Lucas, who seemed to be less game than his companions, "'twas all a mistake, you see. I thought the lady was a particular friend of mine, and I was only going to take care of her home; so here's something for your trouble;" and he slipped a crown into Regan's ready hand.

That's just what I was thinking, your honour, when I made bould to set you right. A real gentleman is always ready to listen to reason ;" and he gave a significant look to his fellows, intimating that matters were adjusted in the way in which watchmen always found it their account to settle them with all but poor rogues who had no money in their pockets.

"And a real gentleman is always ready to make up to a poor fellow for breaking his ribs," said Casey, groaning with the affectation of internal suffering.

This appeal was responded to by the Mohawk, who, considering it complimentary to his personal prowess to have smashed the Charlie, was disposed to be generous. And so the three gentlemen staggered onwards, heaven knows whither; and the watchmen went off, no doubt to drink; and the half-dozen homeless, miserable wretches who, on that bleak winter's night, were the spectators of the scene, wandered away; but the woman, where was she? No one looked for her-no one thought of her-no one had seen her since she was freed from the arm of the drunken "Cherokee.'

The moon broke out from the rag

ged clouds that scudded across her orb, and shone with full splendour upon the outspread city that lay beneath her. There in that area, wherein were congregated all the memorials of the genius, the eloquence, the patriotism, the learning of Ireland, the beams of the full moon shone down in her cold glory. Shining far away in the eastern heavens, she left the façade of Trinity College in deep shadow-a shadow that projected far into "the Green," the outlines of the central pile and pavilions of the University. But the light struck clear and strong upon the beautiful mass of buildings that formed the northern side of College-green. One by one, the graceful shafts of those Ionic pillars of pure white marble rose from their bases, casting their shadows into the circular colonnade that ran round the eastern side of the mass. To the south, a deep recess formed a courtyard, along three sides of which the colonnade was continued. A portion of this was left in darkness, but the moonbeams flooded over the roof, and fell upon the façade that fronted the east, and lit it up in a grand and solemn lustre, while the partial rays glinted upon the southern front, and brought out, between the shadows of the columns, the principal entrance to the building. And the whole pile rose upon the sight, massive, colossal, vast and symmetrical-a building, whose exterior may challenge competition with the finest structures of Greece and Italy within whose walls were heard the voices of the most eloquent men of their age-Grattan and Flood, Plunket and Bushemen who have made for Irish oratory and Irish genius a name throughout the world. Such was the Irish House of Parliament at the close of the last century ! The genius loci has long since fled from the spot, and the spirit of commerce has fixed her empire in those halls which once resounded with the eloquence of the senator, and echoed the wit and brilliant sallies of the orator. A mighty change, indeed; but let him who mourns over the altered destinies of our land remember that Ireland's strength lies in a thorough and hearty union with her elder sister, in a participation of all her greatness, and a generous and earnest emulation of her in all the arts that elevate a nation, and raise a people in the estimation of mankind.

Upon the steps of the western colonnade of the Parliament House sat one in whose heart rose no thoughts of the beauty and the glory around her. Full of sorrow, indeed, were the meditations of her mind home memories, before which an angry spirit stood, forbidding her heart's access, even as the cherubim stood with flaming sword between Paradise and our first parents thoughts of those beloved in childhood, cherished in youth estranged ere that youth had well-nigh passed-where were they now?-would they receive her?-would they love her as in the days of old? As she pondered over these things, the woman groaned in her anguish, and cried aloud

"Be thou not far from me, O Lord, my strength, haste thee to help me." With the prayer on her lips, she raised her eyes to heaven.

"Mistress, you're a stranger in Dublin, I'm thinking. If I can be of any assistance to you, you're heartily welcome to my services."

He who addressed her was the watchman that rescued her from the drunken "Cherokee."

"I am, indeed, a stranger," said the woman, "and would gladly accept your kindness. Will you give me your protection to Nicholas-street?"

""Tis beyond my beat a long way," said Regan," howsomever, I'll not leave you to walk the streets alone so far this hour of night. So come along, in the name of God."

The woman arose and moved forward. The watchman walked by her side respectfully. There was that about her that showed him she was one who, poor though she seemed, knew no degradation beyond that of poverty. And so they passed along the silent and snow-covered footway, down through Dame-street, and up Cork-hill, by the Gate of the Castle, and along the Castle-street, passing by the Rose Tavern, still a thriving establishment, and, not many years previously, the resort of many of the distinguished social and political clubs of the city. Then they entered the Skinnersrow, a narrow street which has since been made wide and spacious, under the name of of Christchurch-place. Then it was not much over seventeen feet in breadth; but, though mean in appearance, it was the residence of many of the wealthiest jewellers and goldsmiths of the city. At its south

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