They afford a lesson to the proudest on the power of a vicious appetency to break down the strongest bulwarks of pride. These often stand in the place of virtue, and it is grievous to see them fall, through self-interest, at the foot of vulgar insolence and sordid crime. It is not without its use, therefore, to show how bad passion may level all distinction, and how near, in consequence, the toe of the peasant may come to the heel of the courtier. In this instance, it must be confessed, the kibe of Lord Cleveland was cruelly galled.

CHAPTER XXXII.

THE CERTAINTIES OF LAW.

Between two girls, which hath the merriest eye,
I have, perhaps, some shallow spirit of judgment;
But in these nice sharp quillets of the law,
Good faith, I am no wiser than a daw.

SHAKSPEARE.

THOUGH restored to self-consequence in the grandeur of his house and the obsequiousness of his domestics, Lord Cleveland could not immediately recover his selfpossession. His pride had been severely wounded by the intercourse which he had permitted himself to hold with not merely a villain, but one seemingly of the dregs of mankind; nor had the result of that intercourse been such as to satisfy his better feelings. On the contrary, locked in his closet, and any thing but easy in regard to the line of conduct he had pursued, he passed a self-examination by no means pleasant to his self-love.

It could not be wrong, indeed, to seek for the proof of rights of which he might have unjustly been deprived; but it could not be right, he thought, to connive with a robber in order to obtain them.

He pursued this train till his thoughts became as unsatisfactory as they were tumultuous. A. confused notion haunted him that he might himself be deemed a larcener, or, at best, a receiver of the fruits of larceny; nor was his shame lessened by the feeling that all this had been incurred with a view to attack the fortune of a kinsVOL. II.-20

woman, and that kinswoman an orphan girl. Under these impressions, the insignia of a high order which belonged to him, and which lay on the table before him, caught his eye. He shuddered, and murmured something about a stain to knighthood.

Nor was Lord Cleveland insincere in this. We have painted him alive to the theory of virtue, and though too frequently departing from it, never doing so without something like remorse, or at least self-blame. No man, besides, understood the value of reputation better, or, indeed, wished it more for its own sake; and his mind was naturally so lofty, that the only wonder was that he ever could be mean.

In the present instance, all this was enhanced by the disgusts which he had undergone, from having forced himself to put up with the vulgar insolence of a low-bred villain; and it must be owned, if villany always appeared in such a shape, few would be in love with it.

Altogether, the Earl of Cleveland was any thing but happy at his morning's work; nor was he disposed to examine his dearly-bought instrument with that immediate devouring attention which might have been expected, considering its importance, and the means he had taken to acquire it. A happy thought at length came across him, in which, to do him justice, he was perfectly sincere. He resolved to restore the deed to the Mowbray family as soon as he had availed himself of its contents; which, considering how interested he was, he conceived he had a perfect right to do.

His bell at length rang.-Mr. Graves, his solicitor, was sent for to attend him instantly; and meantime he sat down to ponder the contents of his acquisition.

What immediately and most struck him was, the inar tificial manner, or rather the total want of technicality, ir which the instrument was drawn. For, strange as it may appear, it was prepared by old Mr. Cleveland him sell assisted only by a very ignorant village attorney, who had engrossed it, and who was named as sole trustee to the uses of the settlement. To account for this, it ought to be explained that this Mr. Cleveland was a miser, a humorist, and a self-opinionated man, who had scarcely ever stirred from the remote district in Yorkshire from which he derived his name. He was skilled in mortgages; by which, added to dabbling in the South Sea, but chiefly an undeviating parsimony for full forty years, he

had amassed immense wealth. His vanity as well as his avarice had combined to satisfy him that the deed which he and his country lawyer and friend had prepared was sufficiently binding for all the purposes (important as they were) for which he had concocted it.

His only child, a daughter, was married to William, Earl of Mowbray (father of the last), with his entire approbation; the more particularly, because her husband had consented to take her without a fortune, on the solemn promise that she should be made heiress to all her father's real estates; which promise, however, had no legal binding, and was trusted entirely to the old man's family pride, of which he possessed a great share.

Nor was Lord Mowbray deceived in his expectations; for Mr. Cleveland amused himself during almost all the rest of his life with drawing up various deeds of settlement, all ending in this last which had so strangely got into Lord Cleveland's possession; and as it was universally known that Lord and Lady Mowbray were the promised and designed heirs, they quietly succeeded; while all the personal property, to an immense amount, save ten thousand pounds to Lady Mowbray, was bequeathed by will to the then Earl of Cleveland, nephew of the testator, and father of the present earl.

The following are the passages in the deed which, however ambiguous the phraseology, were reasoned upon by Silverlock in an accompanying paper as favourable to Lord Cleveland's pretensions:

"Whereas," says the deed, "the said John Cleveland has already by his will disposed of all his personal property to a large amount (forty thousand pounds) in favour of his nephew, Charles, Earl of Cleveland, meaning to settle his real estates upon the descendants of his only daughter, Maria, Countess of Mowbray, who, with her husband, Henry, Earl of Mowbray, are both now deceased, leaving as their only heirs William, present Earl of Mowbray, and the Lady Eleanor De Vere, wife of Colonel De Vere; but if they fail of having issue, it is his intention that the said estates shall return to the name of Cleveland, in the head of the family then alive.; Now THE SAID John Cleveland conveys all the said real estates to Philip Dowlas, gentleman, in trust for himself, John Cleveland, for life, and afterward to the use of his said grandson, William, Earl of Mowbray, and his heirs male; failing which William and his heirs, to the heirs male of

his said granddaughter, the Lady Eleanor De Vere. Bur if the title of Mowbray become extinct, then the said estates are to go to the then existing Earl of Cleveland, of the blood and family of the said John Cleveland, who may be alive at the time when the title of Mowbray so fails, to be held by him in tail male; and failing the heirs of his said grandchild, William, Earl of Mowbray, if there should be female descendants of the said John Cleveland left when the said estates pass to the heir male as aforesaid, then the said estates shall be charged with twenty thousand pounds as a provision for such female descendants, share and share alike."

Such was the loose composition of this remarkable settlement, and, considering its immense importance in the disposition of the real property of the settler, it is extraordinary how little it had ever been known to the parties most affected by its provisions. As to the Lord Cleveland alive at the time of his uncle's decease having been constituted legatee of the personal property, which as much surprised as it contented him, and having always understood that the real property was settled, as was natural, upon the grandchild or children of the deceased, the last Lord Mowbray was suffered to succeed without inquiry into any thing farther; the will commencing with a "Whereas, all my real estates are already settled on my grandchildren by my daughter Maria." Then as to Colonel De Vere being almost always abroad, he had as little opportunity as disposition to sift into remote contingencies, satisfied by Mr. Dowlas, the trustee (who had instantly become the managing lawyer of Lord Mowbray), that his children were in the entail after the heirs of that lord should fail. Under these circumstances of ignorance or indifference, the deed itself was stolen by the honest Mr. Silverlock, which precluded all further knowledge; and Lady Constance being left sole inheritrix under the will of her father, who had succeeded, as of course, by an understood deed of settlement (though the understanding was merely general), there never had been a contemplation, either by the Clevelands or the De Veres, that her title could be contested.

But the deed being now forthcoming, its provisions admitted of a very different interpretation, according to the situation of the different parties. "It is clear," said the reasoning of Silverlock, "first, that Lady Constance, being a female, could not take what was to go to an heir male,

whoever that might be; next, from the express mention that the Earl of Cleveland should succeed in the event of the title of Mowbray becoming extinct, and the estates continuing in tail male when they come to him or his family, it is clear that the heir male meant can only be the present earl."

And to this opinion inclined Mr. Graves when he arrived and had perused the deed. This was an extremely cautious gentleman, if he might not be called timid; but who, by the help of a sleek clean skin, plain dress, and supple manners, had acquired and preserved considerable business, with the reputation of never plunging his clients into danger. We say inclined to this opinion, because he had never been known to give a positive one in his life; and we would not wish to hurt his reputation in this instance by asserting that he had departed from his usual practice. Lord Cleveland, it was said, employed him, because, while he always formed his own opinions, he was willing that their decision should be tempered by the other's caution. In the case before us, an instance of the propriety of this occurred; for no sooner was the history of the deed unfolded, than Mr. Graves blessed himself a thousand times, and besought his lordship to have nothing more to do with it. Lord Cleveland looking astonishment, the prudent Graves assured him that he was on the brink of a precipice; for that what he had done amounted to a compounding of felony, which was almost as great a crime in law as a præmunire itself.

The earl, to his consternation, told Mr. Graves that he would run the risk; but added, that as soon as he had derived such benefit as he felt he had a right to reap from the deed, he meant to restore it to the Mowbrays. The prudent solicitor here turned his prudence to the other side, and besought his patron against this in his most earnest manner, as such a proceeding, he said, might ruin the whole case. Upon the case itself, however, Mr. Graves could not be brought to any opinion which might be termed explicit, except his very full and free agreement with his noble client that it was a question very well worth trying.

The opinion of a very eminent conveyancer was now taken, who said there was a sea of uncertainty hanging about the words "heirs male," and "heirs," or "failing the heirs," which were contradictory; as "heirs" and "failing the heirs" might mean heirs general, which would