Simon withdrew into a farther room, and Lamela and Raphael quickly searched in the cabinet for the strongbox.  It was unlocked, being so full of money that it could not be closed.  We filled all our pockets; then our hose; and then stuffed the coins in any place in our clothes that would hold them.  After this, we closed the cabinet, and our pretended Inquisitor sealed it down with a great seal of green wax, and said very solemnly to the usurer, “Master Simon, I have sealed your cabinet with the seal of the Holy Office.  Let me find it untouched when I return to-morrow morning to inform you of the decision arrived at in your case.”

The next morning we were a good many leagues from Xeloa.  At breakfast, we counted over the money which we had taken from Simon.  It came to three thousand ducats, of which we each took a fourth part.  Raphael and Lamela then desired to carry out a similar plot against someone in the next town; but Don Alfonso and I would not agree to take any part in the affair, and set out for Toledo.  There, Don Alfonso was reconciled to the Count of Polan, and soon afterwards he and Seraphina were happily married.

I retired to Lirias, a pleasant estate that Don Alfonso gave me, and there I married happily, and grew old among my children.  In the reign of Philip IV., I went to the court, and served under the great minister, Olivarez.  But I have now returned to Lirias, and I do not intend to go to Madrid again.

* * * * *

CHARLES LEVER

Charles O’Malley

The author of “Charles O’Malley,” perhaps the most typical of Irish novelists, was of English descent on his father’s side.  But Charles James Lever himself was Irish by birth, being born at Dublin on August 31, 1806—­Irish in sentiment and distinctly Irish in temperament.  In geniality and extravagance he bore much resemblance to the gay, riotous spirits he has immortalised in his books.  “Of all the men I have ever encountered,” says Trollope, “he was the surest fund of drollery.”  Lever was intended for medicine; but financial difficulties forced him to return to literature.  His first story was “Harry Lorrequer,” published in 1837.  It was followed in 1840 by “Charles O’Malley, the Irish Dragoon,” which established his reputation as one of the first humorists of his day.  The story is the most popular of all Lever’s works, and in many respects the most characteristic.  The narrative is told with great vigour, and the delineation of character is at once subtle and life-like.  Lever died on June 1, 1872.

I.—­O’Malley of O’Malley Castle