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Many of the boys were, unfortunately, too ignorant to feel the force of the quotation; but Mr. Owen ap Jones understood it, turned on his heel,

and walked off.

Soon afterwards he summoned Dominick to his awful desk; and pointing with his ruler, to the following passage in "Harris's Hermes," bade him "read it, and understant it," if he could. Little Dominick read, but could not understand. "Then reat it loud, you plockit.”

Dominick read aloud

"There is nothing appears so clearly an object of the mind, or intellect, only, as the future does: since we can find no place for its existence, any where else not but the same, if we consider, is equally true of the past------."

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Well, co on---what stops the plockit? Can't you reat Enclish now?” ---"Yes, Sir; but I was trying to understand it---I was considering, that this is like what they would have called an Irish bull, if I had said it.

Little Dominick could not explain what he meant, in English that Mr. Owen ap Jones would understand; and to punish him for his impertinent observation, the boy was doomed to learn all that Harris and Lowth have written to explain the nature of shall and will.*

Undismayed at the length of his task, Little Dominick only said---“I hope if I say it all, without missing a word you will not give my mother a bad account of me, and my grammar studies, Sir."

"Say it all first, without missing a word, and then I shall see what I shall say!" replied Mr. Owen ap Jones'

Even the encouragement of this oracular answer, excited the boy's fond hopes so keenly, that he lent his little soul to the task; learned it perfectly said it, at night, without missing one word, to his friend. Edwards; and said it, the next morning, without missing one word to his master.

"And now, Sir," said the boy, looking up, "will you write to my mother? And shall I see her? And shall I go home?"

"Tell me first, whether you unterstant all this that you have learnt so cliply?" said Mr. Owen ap Jones.

That was more than his bond, Our hero's countenance fell, and he acknowledged that he did not understand it perfectly.

"Then I cannot write a coot account of you, and your crammar studies to your mother; my conscience coes against it!" said the conscientious Mr. Owen ap Jones.

No intreaties could move him. Dominick never saw the letter that was written to his mother; but he felt the consequence. She wrote word, this time, punctually by return of the post, that she was sorry she could not send for him home these holidays, as she had heard so bad an account from Mr. Owen ap Jones, &c. and, as she thought it her duty not to interrupt the course of his education; especially his grammar studies.

Little Dominick heaved many a sigh, when he saw the packings up of all his school-fellows; and dropped a few tears, as he looked out of

*The reader, if he be desirous of knowing the full extent of the penance enjoined may consult "Lowth's Grammar, page 52; Edition of 1799 :" and "Harris's Hermes." pages 10, 11 and 12; fourth Edition.

the window, and saw them, one after another, get on their Welsh po. nies, and gallop off towards their homes.

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"Yes, you have," cried Edwards; " and our horses are at the door, to carry us there?"

"To Ireland! Me! The Horses!" said the poor boy, quite bewildered.

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No: the horses cannot carry you to Ireland," said Edwards, laughing good-naturedly; "but you have a home now in England. I asked my father to let me bring you home with me; and he says---" Yes!" like a dear, good Father, and has sent the horses-------Come, let's away."

"But will Mr. Owen ap Jones Iet me go?"

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Yes, he dare not refuse; for my father has a living in his gift, which Mr. Owen ap Jones wants, and which he will not have, if he don't change his tune to you."

Little Dominick could not speak one word; his heart was so full.

No boy could be happier than he was during the holidays; the genial current of his soul," which had been frozen by unkindness, flowed with all its natural freedom and force.

Whatever his reasons might be, Mr. Owen ap Jones, from this time forward, was observed to change his manners towards his Irish pupil. He never more complained, unjustly, of his "preaking Priscian's head;" seldom called him "Irish Plockit ;" and once would have flogged a Welsh boy for taking up this cast expression of the master's, but that the Irish blockhead begged the culprit off.

Little Dominick sprang forward rapidly in his studies: he soon surpassed every boy in the school, his friend Edwards only excepted. In process of time, his guardian removed him to a higher seminary of education. Edwards had a tutor at home. The friends separated. Afterwards they followed different professions, in distant parts of the world; and they neither saw, nor heard any more of each other for many

years.

Dominick, now no longer Little Dominick, went over to India, as private secretary to one of our commanders in chief. How he got into this situation, or by what gradations he rose in the world, we are not exactly informed; we know only that he was the reputed author of a much admired pamphlet on India affairs; that the dispatches of the General, to whom he was Secretary, were remarkably well written; and that Dominick O'Reilly, Esq. returned to England, after several years' absence, not miraculously rich, but with a fortune equal to his wishes. His wishes were not extravagant: his utmost ambition was, to return to his native country, with a fortune that should enable him to live independently of all the world; especially of some of his relations, who had not used him well. His Mother was no

more!

On his arrival in London, one of the first things he did was to read the Irish Newspapers. To his inexpressible joy, he saw the estate of Fort-Reilly advertised to be sold---the very estate which had formerly belonged to his own family. Away he posted, directly, to an attorneys in Cecil-Street, who was empowered to dispose of the

Land.

When this attorney produced a map of the well-known demesne, and an elevation of that house in which he had spent the happiest hours of his infancy, his heart was so touched, that he was on the point of paying down more for an old ruin, than a good new house would have cost. The attorney acted honestly by his client, and seized this moment to exhibit a plan of the stabling and offices; which, as is sometimes the case in Ireland, were in a style superior to the dwelling-house. Our hero surveyed these with transport. He rapidly planned various improvements in imagination, and planted certain favourite spots in the demesne! During this time, the attorney was giving directions to a clerk about some other bussiness: suddenly the name of Owen ap Jones

struck his ear-He started.

"Let him wait in the front parlour : his money is not forthcoming," said the attorney; "and if he keep Edwards in jail, till he rots”

"Edwards! Good Heaven!-in jail!-What Edwards?" continued our hero.

It was his friend Edwards!

The attorney told him that Mr. Edwards had been involved in great distress, by taking on himself his father's debts, which had been incurred in exploring a mine in Wales; that of all his creditors, none had refused to compound but a Welsh Parson, who had been presented to his living by old Edwards; and that this Mr. Owen ap Jones had thrown young Mr. Edwards into jail for the debt.

"What is the Rascal's demand? He shall be paid off this instant," cried Dominick, throwing down the plan of Fort Reilly; "send for him up, and let me pay him off on the spot."

"Had we not better finish our business first, about the O'Reilly estate, Sir?" said the attorney.

"No, Sir, damn the O'Reilly estate!" cried he, huddling the maps together on the desk; and taking up the bank-notes, which he had began to reckon for the purchase-money-" I beg your pardon Sir; if you knew the facts, you would excuse me.' "Why does not the rascal come up to be paid?".

The attorney, thunderstruck by this Hibernian impetuosity, had not yet found time to take his pen out of his mouth. As he sat transfixed in his arm-chair, O'Reilly ran to the head of the stairs, and called out in a stentorian voice- "Here you Mr. Owen ap Jones; come up and be paid off this instant, or you shall never be paid at all."

Up stairs hobbled the old school-master, as fast the gout and Welsh ale would let him---" Cot pless me, that foice!"---he began.

"Where's bond Sir?" said the attorney.

your

"Safe here, Cot be praised!" said the terrified Owen ap Jones; pulling out of his bosom, first a blue pocket handkerchief, and then a tattered Welsh grammar, which O'Reilly kicked to the farthest end of the room.

"Here is my pond," said he, " in the crammer," which he gathered from the ground; then fumbling over the leaves, he at length unfolded the precious deposit.

O'Reilly saw the bond, seized it, looked at the sum, paid it into the attorney's hands, tore the seal from the bond; then without looking at old Owen ap Jones, whom he dared not trust himself to speak

to, he clapped his hat on his head, and rushed out of the room. He was, however, obliged to come back again, to ask where Edwards was to be found?

“But

"In the King's Bench prison, Sir," said the attorney. am I to understand," cried he, holding up the map of the O'Reilly estate; "am I to understand that you have no farther wish for this bargain?"

"Yes No-I mean, you are to understand that I'm off," replied our hero, without looking back---" I'm off---That's plain English."

Arrived at the King's Bench prison, he hurried to the apartment where Edwards was confined---The bolts flew back; for even the turnkeys seemed to catch our hero's enthusiasm.

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Edwards, my dear boy! how do you do? Here's a bond debt, justly due to you for my education---O, never mind asking any unnecessary questions; only just make haste out of this undeserved abode ---Our old rascal is paid of---Owen ap Jones, you know--Well, how the man stares---Why, now, will you have the assurance to pretend to forget who I am? and must I spake," continued he, assuming the tone of his childhood; "and must 1spake to you, again, in my old Irish brogue, before you will ricollict your own LITTLE DOMINICK?"

When his friend Edwards was out of prison, and when our hero had leisure to look into business, he returned to the attorney, to see that Mr. Owen ap Jones had been satisfied.

"Sir," said the attorney, "I have paid the plaintiff, in this suit; and he is satisfied: but, I must say," added he, with a contemptuous smile, that you Irish Gentlemen are rather in too great a hurry in doing business: business, Sir, is a thing that must be done slowly, to be well done."

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"I am ready now to do business as slowly as you please; but when my friend was in prison, I thought the quicker I did his business the better---Now, tell me what mistake I have made, and I will rectify it instantly."

"Instantly!---Tis well, Sir, with your promptitude, that you have to deal with what prejudice thinks so very uncommon---an honest attorney---Here are some bank-notes of yours, Sir, amounting to a good round sum--- -You have made a little blunder in this business: you have left me the penalty, instead of the principal of the bond---just twice as much as you should have done.”.

"Just twice as much as was in the bond; but not twice as much as I should have done; nor half so much as I should have done in my opinion;" said O'Reilly; "but whatever I did, it was with my eyes open. I was persuaded you were an honest man; in which, you see, I was not mistaken, and, as a man of business, I knew that you would pay Mr. Owen ap Jones only his due. The remainder of the money I meant, and now mean, should lie in your hand, for my friend Edward's use. I feared he would not have taken it from my hands: I therefore left it in your's. To have taken my friend out of prison, merely to let him go back again to day, for want of money to clear himself with the world, would have been a blunder, indeed! but no an Irish blunder: our Irish blunders, are never blunders of the heart!"

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THE HISTORY OF THE MAN

WITH THE IRON MASK;

OR

An account of the Birth and Education of the unfortunate Prince, who was secluded from Society by Cardinals Richlieu, and Mazarin and afterwards imprisoned by order of Lewis the XIV. Written by the Governor of the Prince, a short time before his death.

Toftill the close of my life, was born September the 5th, 1638, at

HE unfortunate prince whom I have brought up, and taken care

half past eight. His brother, the present sovereign, was born in the morning of the same day, about twelve o'clock. But the' births of these princes presented a striking contrast, for the eldest's was as splen. did and brilliant as the youngest's was melancholy and private.

The king, soon after the queen was safely delivered of the first prince, was informed by the midwife, that her majesty was still in labour. This intelligence alarmed him greatly, and he ordered the chancellor of France, the first almoner, the queen's confessor, and myself to remain in her apartment till she was delivered, as he wished us to be witnesses of the steps which he meant to take, if she gave birth to another dauphin; for it had been foretold by some shepherds, that the queen was pregnant with two sons; they also reported, that they had obtained the knowledge by divine inspiration. This report was soon circulated through Paris, and the people alarmed by it, loudly asserted, that if this prediction should be verified, it would cause the total ruin of the state. The archbishop of Paris was soon informed of these transactions, and after conversing with the shepherds, ordered them to be closely confined in the prison of Lazarus; for the serious effect their prophesy had produced in the minds of the people, had given the king some uneasiness, because it made him reflect on the disturbances he had to fear in this kingdom. He informed the cardinal of his prediction, who in his answer said, that the birth of two dauphins was not impossible, and that if the peasant's prophesy should be realized, the last born must be concealed with the greatest care, as he might, when he grew up, conceive that he had a right to the crown, and cause another league in the kingdom.

During the queen's second labour, which lasted several hours, the king was tormented by his apprehensions, for he felt a strong presentiment, that he should soon be the father of two dauphins. He desired the bishop of Meaux not to leave the queen till she was delivered, and afterwards turning to us all, said, sufficiently loud to be heard by the queen, that if another dauphin should be born, and any of us should divulge the secret, our heads should answer for it: for added he, his VOL. II.

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