tention of remaining there for two or three years. He soon became acquainted with my mother's parents, and between him and them acquaintance ripened into friendship. They met constantly, and liked each other more and more. Knowing the count's intentions respecting his stay in Switzerland, my grandmother was much surprised by receiving from him one morning a short hurried note, informing her that urgent and unexpected business obliged him to return that very day to Germany. He added, that he was very sorry to go, but that he must go; and he ended by bidding her farewell, and hoping they might meet again some day. He quitted Vevay that evening, and nothing more was heard of him or his mysterious business. A few years after this departure, my grandmother and one of her sons went to spend some time at Hamburg. Count R., hearing that they were there, went to see them, and brought them to his castle of Breitenburg, where they were to stay a few days. It was a wild but beautiful district, and the castle, a huge pile, was a relic of the feudal times, which, like most old places of the sort, was said to be haunted. Never having heard the story upon which this belief was founded, my grandmother entreated the count to tell it. After some little hesitation and demur, he consented: still is, a large square well, very deep, and stretching underneath the building nobody knew how far. Having reached the side of this well, the little man blindfolded the countess, and bidding her not fear, but follow him, descended some unknown stairs. This was for the countess a strange and novel position, and she felt uncomfortable; but she determined at all hazards to see the adventure to the end, and descended bravely. They reached the bottom, and when her guide removed the bandage from her eyes, she found herself in a room full of small people like himself. The christening was performed, the countess stood godmother, and at the conclusion of the ceremony, as the lady was about to say good-by, the mother of the baby took a handful of wood shavings which lay in a corner, and put them into her visitor's apron. "You have been very kind, good Countess of R.,' she said, 'in coming to be godmother to my child, and your kindness shall not go unrewarded. When you rise to-morrow, these shavings will have turned into metal, and out of them you must immediately get made, two fishes and thirty silberlingen (a German coin). When you get them back, take great care of them, for so long as they all remain in your family every. thing will prosper with you; but, if one of them ever gets lost, then you will have troubles with "There is a room in this house," he began, "in out end. The countess thanked her, and bade which no one is ever able to sleep. Noises are them all farewell. Having again covered her heard in it continually, which have never been eyes, the little man led her out of the well, and accounted for, and which sound like the cease- landed her safe in her own court-yard, where he reless turning over and upsetting of furniture. I moved the bandage, and she never saw him more. have had the room emptied, I have had the old floor taken up and a new one laid down, but nothing would stop the noises. At last, in despair, I had it walled up. The story attached to the room is this: "Next morning the countess awoke with a confused notion of some extraordinary dream, While at her toilet, she recollected all the incidents quite plainly, and racked her brain for some cause which might account for it. She "Some hundreds of years ago, there lived in was so employed when, stretching out her this castle a countess, whose charity to the poor hand for her apron, she was astounded to find it and kindness to all people were unbounded. tied up, and, within the folds, a number of She was known far and wide as the good metal shavings. How came they there? Was Countess R.,' and everybody loved her. The it a reality? Had she not dreamed of the room in question was her room. One night, little man and the christening? She told she was awakened from her sleep by a voice the story to the members of her family at near her; and looking out of bed, she saw, by breakfast, who all agreed that whatever the the faint light of her lamp, a little tiny man, token might mean, it should not be disreabout a foot in height, standing near her bed-garded. It was therefore settled that the side. She was greatly surprised, but he spoke, fishes and the silberlingen should be made, and and said, 'Good Countess of R., I have come carefully kept among the archives of the family. to ask you to be godmother to my child. Will you consent? She said she would, and he told her that he would come and fetch her in a few days, to attend the christening; with those words he vanished out of the room. "Next morning, recollecting the incidents of the night, the countess came to the conclusion that she had had an odd dream, and thought no more of the matter. But, about a fortnight afterwards, when she had well-nigh forgotten the dream, she was again roused at the same hour and by the same small individual, who said he had come to claim the fulfilment of her promise. She rose, dressed herself, and followed her tiny guide down the stairs of the castle. In the centre of the court-yard there was, and Time passed; everything prospered with the house of R. The King of Denmark loaded them with honours and benefits, and gave the count high office in his household. For many years all went well with them. 'Suddenly, to the consternation of the family, one of the fishes disappeared, and, though strenuous efforts were made to discover what had become of it, they all failed. From this time everything went wrong. The count then living, had two sons; while out hunting together, one killed the other; whether accidentally or not, is uncertain, but, as the youths were known to be perpetually disagreeing, the case seemed doubtful. This was the beginning of sorrows. The king, hearing what had occurred, thought it necessary to deprive the count of the office he held. Other misfortunes followed. The family fell into discredit. Their lands were sold, or forfeited to the crown; till little was left but the old castle of Breitenburg and the narrow domain which surrounded it. This deteriorating process went on through two or three generations, and, to add to all other misfortunes, there was always in the family one mad member. "And now," continued the count, "comes the strange part of the mystery. I had never placed much faith in these mysterious little relics, and I regarded the story in connexion with them as a fable. I should have continued in this belief, but for a very extraordinary circumstance. You remember my sojourn in Switzerland a few years ago, and how abruptly it terminated? Well. Just before leaving Holstein, I had received a curious wild letter from some knight in Norway, saying that he was very ill, but that he could not die without first seeing and conversing with me. I thought the man mad, because I had never heard of him before, and he could have no possible business to transact with me. So, throwing the letter aside, I did not give it another thought. My correspondent, however, was not satis. fied. He wrote again. My agent, who in my absence opened and answered my letters, told him that I was in Switzerland for my health, and that, if he had anything to say, he had better say it in writing, as I could not possibly travel so far as Norway. This, however, did not satisfy the knight. He wrote a third time, beseeching me to come to him, and declaring that what he had to tell me was of the utmost importance to us both. My agent was so struck by the earnest tone of the letter, that he forwarded it to me: at the same time advising me not to refuse the entreaty. This was the cause of my sudden departure from Vevay, and I shall never cease to rejoice that I did not persist in my refusal. "I had a long and weary journey, and once or twice I felt sorely tempted to stop short, but some strange impulse kept me going. I had to traverse well-nigh the whole of Nor way; often for days on horseback, riding over wild moorland, heathery bogs, mountains and crags and lonely places, and ever at my left the rocky coast, lashed and torn by the surging waters. I "At last, after some fatigue and hardship, I reached the village named in the letter, on the northern coast of Norway. The knight's castle -a large round tower was built on a small island off the coast, and communicated with the land by a drawbridge. I arrived there, late at night, and must admit that I felt misgivings when I crossed the bridge by the lurid glare of torchlight, and heard the dark waters surging The gate was opened by a man, who, as soon as I entered, closed it behind me. My horse was taken from me, and I was led up to the knight's room. It was a small circular apartment, nearly at the top of the tower, and scantily furnished. There, on a bed, lay the under me. old knight, evidently at the point of death. He tried to rise as I entered, and gave me such a look of gratitude and relief that it repaid me for my pains. "I cannot thank you sufficiently, Count of R.,' said he, for granting my request. Had I been in a state to travel I should have gone to you; but that was impossible, and I could not die without first seeing you. My business is short, though important. Do you know this?' And he drew from under his pillow, my longlost fish. Of course I knew it; and he went on. How long it has been in this house, I do not know, nor by what means it came here, nor, till quite lately, was I at all aware to whom it rightfully belonged. It did not come here in my time, nor in my father's time, and who brought it is a mystery. When I fell ill, and my recovery was pronounced to be impossible, I heard one night, a voice telling me that I should not die till I had restored the fish to the Count R. of Breitenburg. I did not know you; I had never heard of you; and at first I took no heed of the voice. But it came again, every night, until at length in despair I wrote to you. Then the voice stopped. Your answer came, and again I heard the warning, that I must not die till you arrived. At last I heard that you were coming, and I have no language in which to thank you for your kindness. "I feel sure I could not have died without seeing you.' "That night the old man died. I waited to bury him, and then returned home, bringing my recovered treasure with me. It was carefully restored to its place. That same year, my eldest brother, whom you know to have been the inmate of a lunatic asylum for years, died, and I became the owner of this place. Last year, to my great surprise, I received a kind letter from the King of Denmark, restoring to me the office which my fathers once held. This year, I have been named governor to his eldest son, and the king has returned a great part of the confiscated property; so that the sun of prosperity seems to shine once more upon the house of Breitenburg. Not long ago, I sent one of the silberlingen to Paris, and another to Vienna, in order that they might be analysed, and the metal of which they are composed made known to me; but no one is able to decide that point." Thus ended the Count of R.'s story, after which he led his eager listener to the place where these precious articles were kept, and showed them to her. STORY OF THE INCUMBERED ESTATES COURT. IN TWO CHAPTERS. II. THE OPERATION. In this way, then, the court came into the world. It should have been announced officially, in this wise: "On the ult., at Westminster, the United Parliament of Great Britain and Ireland, trins!" for there were to be three judges. Even out of so dry a function as an official appointment, came something like a snatch of ro mance. The Master of the Rolls in Ireland, cast 594 [September 14, 1861.] ALL THE YEAR ROUND, ing about for the very fittest person, pressed the con minor-agreed to advance the fleabite, and took a mortgage for the amount. For three years, as we find from unpublished data, "favours tinued to reach us with extraordinary punctu ality from T. Shine Murphy, Esq., his lordship's agent over the Kilgollagher property; and it was then remarked that they began to arrive in an irregular and fitful way: the intervals, however, lengthening in a steadily increasing ratio. Byand-by the communications of T. Shine Murphy, Esquire, began to be less and less satisfactory, taking the shape of fragmentary payments, wholly disproportioned to the amount due; the balance being filled in with a cheque for promises to a very handsome amount. It grieves me to state that some time after things came to be upon To this Act, too, should etymologists be grate- this footing, all communication with T. Shine ful. During the earlier debates that first syllable Murphy, Esquire, ceased abruptly; and from fluctuated uneasily betwixt en and in. But now that time no notice was taken of letters, prothe omnipotence of parliament has decreed that tests, or even gentle legal remonstrances. The incumbered estates shall be sold; but not en-only resource, then, was the eminent firm of Doolin and Company, of Bachelor's-walk; and we cumbered. These high judicial auctioneers set up their were presently aboard a slow and heavy hulk, rostrum in an old-fashioned street of red brick, of putting out to Chancery with the traditional the last century's pattern, in a collapsed noble-speed. Then, too, it was discovered that we were man's house, where the mammoth marble chimney- but part of a sort of convoy; consort to some pieces and the arabesques on the ceiling seemed dozen or so of hulks with similar sea-going much out of keeping with its new functions. qualities, all proceeding contemporaneously. Nearly opposite, was the mansion of the husband of Marguerite Countess of Blessington, whose ample estates shall, by-and-by, be submitted to their manipulation. With an unprecedented despatch, an admirable code of orders and regulations was framed in about six weeks; and on the twenty-fifth of October, eighteen hundred and forty-nine-one of the greatest days of all the great days for Ireland-the first petition was presented. The name of this courageous postulant should be known; still more, that of the first victim, the protomartyr of the law revolution, who, even in his dissolution, must have been soothed by the sweet sense of an enviable priority. The petitioner, then, was Joseph Walker; the protomartyr was one James Balfe, Esquire, or as it was always put, with a generous delicacy on the part of these tribunals-In re, or in the matter of James Balfe, Esquire, of Southpark, Owner. Beatified Balfe! shortly shall you receive your crown! My lord was abroad in foreign parts with his Pursuant to our instructions, the eminent firm of Doolin and Co. have presented a petition humbly praying that the estates of the Right Hon. the Earl of Tumbletowers may be submitted to public competition, and the proceeds applied to satisfy the claims of your petitioner. This document is laid before us, and we are astonished to find that it is utterly illegal-so far as being outrageously brief and succinct, and setting out in plain intelligible English what it means to express. We see, too, that the eminent firm has been at the trouble of collecting into one focus, as it were, all the other charges on our nobleman's estate: presenting thus, in a very handy shape, a pretty little narrative of his liabilities. These exceeding half our nobleman's rental (with a very handsome margin in the present instance), there is found to be no impediment to a sale. It will be matter of surAbout five-and-thirty years ago, it came to prise how the eminent firm came into possession pass that the Right Honourable Charles Henry of such private details, without prying into the DEELISH, Baron SAVOURNEEN, and Earl of TUM-tin cases, where lie stored up the mortgages, BLETOWERS, of Tumbletowers, Co. Mayo, and deeds, settlements, and muniments, of the Inof Kilgollagher Lodge, Co. Galway, and of cumbered Nobleman. But, since the reign of Lower Dominick-street, Dublin, happened to be Queen Anne, every such instrument has been pressed for money, and was prevailed on to give exactly registered; and all lenders applied to for the preference to the English market. The sum moneys, have only to diligently thumb over was contemptible-fifty thousand pounds-a this huge dictionary of incumbrances. No one mere fleabite, as his lordship's solicitor hu- lends without being himself entered in the lexicon; morously put it; so, the security being sub- and no one lends without seeing who has lent. stantial, we, or our trustees--for we were then In this fatal ledger, therefore, is focused the Take it that we are now a famished mortgagee; let us give instructions to Doolin and Company, the eminent firm of Bachelor's-walk, and proceed to sell our incumbered estate in the regular way. Our relations are somewhat after this fashion: whole land liability of the country. In England there are painstaking men who have been proonly two counties enjoy this privilege, and vident enough to collect the whole series. the incumbrances, instead of being brought to- Again have more severe and menacing notices gether in a complete tableau, are scattered burst out in newspaper columns, and the general broadcast over the solicitors' offices of the king-public is sternly bidden to take notice that on a particular day, some two or three months off (to give time for its being properly noised abroad), will be set up and sold, the several "denominations" of land, "hereinafter specified," in eighty-five lots, as in the following schedule: dom. These "very Irish" proceedings are sometimes well worthy of imitation. The commissioner gratifying us with a mere formal order for sale, we discover that we have been inviting the Incumbered Nobleman to meet us before the commission, and make any little objections that may occur to him against this rather sudden proceeding: which, indeed, is only reasonable. Accordingly, if he has anything to say, he will "come in" on a particular day and "show cause;" if he has not, he will allow matters to take their course. The Incumbered Nobleman makes no sign; so we obtain " absolute order" for sale. an Denomination. Knockakilty A. R. P. 569 0 0 300 0 0 200 0.6 £ 260 0 0 210 0 0 s. d. 410 6 0 250 6 7 270 00 41 0 0 26 3 0 30 5 0 Drumbunnion The case proceeds vigorously. In a few days we are surprised at seeing advertisements, labelled in one corner, "In the matter of the Estate of the Right Hon. the Earl of Tumbletowers," staring at us from every newspaper, requiring all parties, in severe and stern language, to take notice that such an order has been made. Then follows a protracted intermission, during which, we are informed, that the eminent firm is engaged in "making searches"that is, consulting the Incumbrance Dictionary -drawing out a compact little epitome of "title," which shall show how it came into the possession of the Incumbered Nobleman. We find also that the eminent firm has taken the mail train down to the estate in question (a The space of two months being all but run very disturbed district), and has personally out, and copies of the illustrated topographical waited on the occupying tenants at their resi- memoir having fluttered across the sea to every dences, inquiring from each all particulars as to noteworthy coffee-house and news-room in the the exact nature of their tenancy: a proceeding kingdom, it is presumed that a decent amount naturally received with much mistrust and sus- of notoriety has been obtained. Vulgar agripicion. Some of these poor souls, thinking to culturalists, mean-souled graziers, have been foil the inquisitors whose questions only con measuring critically those Corinthian meads. cealed some sinister design, shut themselves The sacred demesne has been broken up in an artful reticence, and decline furnish- venient "lots" with a horrid profanity to ening any information. The Brothers Cody courage the growth of "a small proprietary." (Teague and Larry) received many compli- The Incumbered Nobleman himself has not yet ments for their skilful baffling of what were called realised it. The old protecting spirits from the "Dublin schamers," whom they sent away Heavenly High Chancery, reference, decree to wise as they came. But, alas for the Brothers account, and other angels of protraction, will Cody! The result only was that the estate was still descend, even at fifty-nine minutes past sold, "discharged" of their lease, and the pur-ten-on the stroke of the eleventh hour-and chasers not having their names in his rental, de- interpose. clined to recognise the tenure of the Brothers Cody. By-and-by all these labours of the eminent firm, result most unexpectedly in a handsome folio volume, elegantly printed, and copiously illustrated with lithographic plans, vividlycoloured drawings, sections, and elevations, together with tabulated columns showing the tenancies, rents, and acreage-in short, such a complete topographical picture in one volume-of his estate as must have astonished the Incumbered Nobleman himself. Considering that some eight thousand estates have been sold, it may be conceived what a valuable library, as illustrating the country, this sort of literature must be; and up into con The fatal morning has at last come round, and we, the famished baffled long-outraged mortgagee feel an Indian pleasure in going down to see this scalping of our enemy. There is a splendid time coming, and no waiting a little longer. So we stride through the great hall of the Incumbered Nobleman's mansion, where my lord and my lady's chairs used to wait during those fashionable parties before the Union, and make straight for the great auction-room. Judicial auctioneer is sitting afar off, aloft in his rostrum, knocking down statute acres, roods, and perches, according to his function, but with a grave and measured utterance. Some one points out that this is the third commissioner-or the 66 novelty of the thing, and the chief commissioner, a Baron of the Exchequer, gently remonstrated. We are not," said he, "about to adopt the phraseology of the auction-room, and say, 'Going, going!' at every fresh bid." The remark of another commissioner brought the thing home to each spectator in a startling manner: The purchaser can have his con veyance executed, sealed, and delivered this very day!" "And," added the third commissioner, a little facetiously, "it will be satisfactory to him to know that a very small box indeed will hold the conveyance!" A small box! They were as yet scarcely familiar with their tools and ma chinery; for the printed form of conveyance barely print. By-and-by, it was expanded into a single skin of parchment, which even included a map. young man whom nobody knew-but who has since got to be rather better known. There is a crowd of solicitor interest, of agricultural, metropolitan, local, and other divergent interest, who are all furnished with the topographical memoir, and contend for lots with a savage competition. It is hard not to admire the professional manner in which judicial auctioneer does his work, for all the world as though he had been bred to it: falling into the correct cadences of suspension, of pathetic entreaty, of remonstrance, and often one last linger ing appeal of suspension, all conveyed without any vulgar iteration. There is something so piquant in this notion of a judge flourishing his hammer and inviting bids, that it is to be re-fills twenty lines, or half a page of duodecimo gretted the function should have since been delegated to meaner hands. Finally, we find that judicial auctioneer, who has all this time been No wonder that this unworthy spirit of abworking briskly through Knocakilty, Drum- breviation should be resented. From Irish bunnion, and other euphonious denominations, Chancery-lane, rose a deep cry of disquiet. The is now "declaring the purchaser" for the last profession had been betrayed, even "sold!” lot, and has left the Incumbered Nobleman with- the legitimate fruits of its spoliation cut off. out a rood. The family castle of Tumbletowers, Now, were remembered with a regretful feeling, an awe-inspiring mass of turrets and battle-reaching almost to affection, the soft protracments, which, with its fittings and decorations, tion, the legal sweetness long drawn out, of the was said to be contracted for at some fifty olden Chancery days. Generous professional thousand pounds, was included in the last lot, minds could now only think of their beneand absolutely did not swell the price one factress with an amiable longing. "Give us shilling. To be sure, the builder's little ac-back, give us back," they shrieked, "the procount had never yet been settled, and it was fessional wild freshness of receivers' accounts, likely that his heirs and assignees walking nearly of answers, of exceptions to masters' reports! last in the procession of incumbrancers, might The bark is still there, such as it is, but come in for a thousand or so of his bill. But it the barristerial waters are gone!" It is on has been remarked that, somehow, a cruel blight record that a solicitor's bill for costs, searches, waits upon these noble but unpaid-for tene- drafting, conveyance, and other charges, was ments, which by the unhappy law of incumbered actually presented under the new system at the sales scarcely swell the price by a few pounds. degrading figure of some eight or ten pounds. The rich demesne lands are purchased at good After this cruel stab, well might the profession figures, and the noble but unpaid-for mansion is cover up its head decently in its gown, and thrown in. sink down, Cæsar-like, at the base of the next convenient statue. An inflexible strictness, reaching almost to the casuistical, marks all the dealings of the judicial auction-room. A sort of code peculiar to itself has gradually grown up. Once the mystic solemnity of "declaring the purchaser" has been gone through, the sale is decreed eternally. Bidders, napping for an instant whispering or inattentive - have, within a second after that final declaration, been known to offer thousands over the price-and have been eternally refused by the incorruptible Medes sitting aloft upon their rostrum. The tradition of that first inaugurative sale still survives. The name of the earliest victim should surely descend with a certain notoriety. He who was thus exposed mercilessly to the fury of the Jacobins was called, surnominally, Balfe -baptismally, James-and the first morsel cast to the hungry executioners was all that and those the lands, tenements, and hereditaments of Southpark, in the County of Roscommon. The day of immolation was Friday, February the twenty-second, eighteen hundred and fifty; the price fetched, equivalent to some three-and. twenty years' purchase. A notable day. Bidding was at first a little languid, owing to the The sacrifice of the Tumbletowers estate being thus complete, we are given to understand that fourteen days of grace will be granted to the purchasers to "bring in" their moneys. Their moneys are "brought in" to the Bank of Ireland, which has often held floating balances of nearly half a million sterling, to the credit of the court, and is reputed to turn some forty thousand a year by the temporary manipulation of those funds. A few purchasers have applied to be released from their bargains, on the ground of mistakes and errors in the rental, discovered afterwards; some still fewer have made default and subjected themselves to the disagreeable process of the court known as "attachment." The money being thus paid down and the land delivered, the distribution among creditors follows next. Then sets in the storm and battle of incumbrancers, hitherto combined against the common enemy, now distracted with an internecine competition. They stand upon the order of their going, or rather coming. He that is first, is paid first; those who fall under the unhappy category of "puisne," or later and latest in time, must stand by and look |